Prayer And Non-Violence

In this life, many hope for peace, but not many try to achieve it. According to Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, there are many ways to achieve this, but the best possible course of action would be through nonviolent direct action, which includes but is not limited to: peaceful protest, sit-ins and civil disobedience. In King’s letter, he proclaims his reasoning behind nonviolent direct action, including: the concept that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (par. 4), extremism can be used positively (par. 22), and the fact that “oppressed people will not stay oppressed forever” (par. 24). King uses literary devices including ethos, logos, and pathos to prove and reaffirm that which he is trying to convey.

In the 1960s, many of the colonial nations of Africa were gaining independence. The ANC was encouraged and campaigned for democracy in South Africa. They were mild campaigns at first, but as the government became more hostile, so did ANC protests. In November 1961, a military branch of the party was organized with Mandela as its head. It authorized the limited use of arms and sabotage against the government, which got the government’s attention—and its anger! Mandela went into hiding in 1964, he was captured, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. It was a sad day for black South Africa.

Similar to America, the Freedom Rides in Australia “gained publicity when the students were set upon by angry crowds and placed under police protection”13. The students pressed into the entrance of the Moree swimming pool, at the same time a furious crowd “booed and catcalled”14. The dilemma

As demonstrated in “The Student Voice,” civil rights organizations of the 1950s opted for passive resistance and catered specifically to black Christians. In “The Social Organization of Non-Violence”, King advocates for conviction but also pacifism when faced with oppression, famously stating “there is more power in socially organized masses on the march than there is in guns in the hands of a few desperate men.” Antithetically, Robert Williams, whom King is writing in response to, encourages the black community to take up arms and contends that nonviolent protest, however admirable, is not always an effective form of direct action. Williams essentially argues that the struggle for equality and against oppression inescapably necessitates violent resistance. A philosophy of violent activism, espoused in Williams’ writing, gained prominence in the early 1960s and indicated the progression of a militant black movement alternative to the Civil Rights Movement.

While when discussing the history of the world’s power forces, violence makes for stimulating discussion, other tactics were put to good use, one of these alternatives being non-violence. With the guidance of three worldwide heroes - Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela - with contagious optimism and high spirits, it became apparent just how much of a difference could be made carried out through non-violent terms. Mankind was introduced to another way to resolve major problems just as effectively, if not more, than violence could.

After constantly meeting brutality and threats with nonviolence and love, one begins to feel impatient and stressed. While in jail in Birmingham, Martin Luther King Jr. stated “As in so many of our past experiences, our hopes had been blasted…. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action”(document 2). In

In his correspondence to his fellow clergymen entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King, a promoter of peace and brotherhood, analyzes his act of non-violent resistance to clarify the necessitate of producing creative tension. King begins by elucidating the differences between just and unjust laws. According to King, unjust laws are human laws that are not harmonized with the natural laws of God that cause the degradation of personality and damage the soul. According to this ideology, King states that when injustice occurs there is a correct approach to civil disobedience. First, King expects one to collect information regarding the immoral implication of law with the intent of proving injustice. This requires one to be able to distinguish between the laws of man and the laws of good, the immoral laws and moral laws, the unjust laws and just laws. Next, negotiation is used to establish an understanding of the endured injustice; however, this purpose is not to humiliate or defeat the adversary, but to promote friendship through a form of selfless and spiritual love known as agape. As Martin Luther King Jr. points out, “It is an overflowing love which seeks noting in return. And when you come to love on this level you begin to love men not because they are likeable, not because they do things that attract us, but because God loves them and here we love the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does” (“Non-violence” 2).

Another important stakeholder in this issue is the children themselves. Almost all of the children present in detention centres are asylum seekers whom arrived in Australia by boat, and are classified as ‘unauthorised maritime arrivals’ (Humanrights.gov.au, 2015). These asylum seeker children all held the same responses to some degree. Their responses were all surrounded by the main aspect of ‘Wanting to be free and safe’.

Prayer is an essential to any kind of religious faith. Over the years and years of believing in a higher power,

In (Matthew 6:6 NIV), Jesus explains the merits of praying to the lord God and the reward of inner peace, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret: and your father who sees in secret will reward you.” It is through this conversation with God that Christians pursue peace in their lives. Prayer can either be private or communal, spontaneous prayer is one way that charismatic communities can come closer to God. The act of prayer allows believers to have a personal conversation with God; it alleviates stress attributed to the monotony of everyday life. Besides prayer, meditation is another way of attaining inner peace, it is an ancient practice within the Christian tradition, which has undertaken a recent revival, a global group that reaffirms the concept of praying and meditating for inner peace is Taizé. Not as popular as prayer and meditation, Lectio Divina, generally known as bible studies is a way for Christians to feel connected to God and to finally attain inner peace. The studying of the sacred scriptures on a day to day basis and reflecting on prayers also maintain a continual connection with God. It is vital to maintain equilibrium between prayer and service, whereby an individual fathoms the notion ‘ora et labora’, in order to equally partake in both prayer, and the concept of action whereby ora develops inner peace, which is mirrored through the

This form of interaction continued on for an hour or so, until the police officers came and directed them away from their corners and urging them into the crowd and away from their area. To my surprise, an hour later, the same groups were back

In October of 2013, WOW decided to move their demonstrations from the Kotel's prayer gallery for women to a quieter piece of the wall known as Robinson’s Arch. The group denies allegations

They both portrayed God as a source of hope and motivation during their speeches and interviews, and as a protector for all nonviolent protestants. John Lewis was very attached to the bible since childhood, and he kept this attachment during the years, that in his belief helped him gain the strength necessary to lead nonviolent movements. During the march on Selma in 19--, the leader of the movement John Lewis suggested to Hosea: “we shall knee and pray” (Lewis and Aydin 199) once they were stopped and ordered to disperse by the police. By making everybody kneel and pray once he saw no option other than a violent encounter with the police, he restored the hope and motivation of facing violence that the people might have lost when they were stopped by the police. Because of the use of God and prayers during the movements, nonviolent leaders attracted more and more people, and thanks to the support from the church, their beliefs spread rapidly in the black community.

In the film, Of Gods and Men, monks of a religious group used prayer to make important decisions that would affect their lives forever. There are times when one decision can affect the entirety of your life. Prayer became a unifying force among the monks because they needed prayer to discern what they should do. They knew the threats from the terrorists and they had to decide if they should stay and continue their work or leave and

“While CSW is relieved that Pastor and Mrs Nadarkhani have been freed, we remain deeply concerned for the welfare of Yasser Mossayebzadeh, Saheb Fadaie and Mohammadreza Omidi, who are still being held,” said Thomas in a statement. “The government must be held to account for its harassment of Iran's Christian community, in particular the constant raids on homes and repeated arrests which are without basis.”