I don't know how many of you have read Paul Loeb's book "The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear" but there's an excellent excerpt in there from Walter Wink's book "Jesus and Nonviolence: The Third Way." The name of the excerpt is called
"Jesus & Alinsky" and details some often misunderstood Bible passages in a new light. [more below]
By using Jesus's examples and comparing them to Saul Alinsky's rules for nonviolent protest we are given an excellent guide for protesting the wrongs being committed today in our names as both Americans and Christians. Let me urge you to read this as it provides some great lessons to apply in everyday life when confronting those who would twist goodness into serving other purposes.
I am so glad to have found it online that I had to share it. Click the link above for the full version. Here's a teaser excerpt:
You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (attributed to Jesus in Matthew 5:38-41, Revised Standard Version)
Many who have committed their lives to working for change and justice in the world simply dismiss Jesus' teachings about nonviolence as impractical idealism. And with good reason. "Turn the other cheek" suggests the passive, Christian doormat quality that has made so many Christians cowardly and complicit in the face of injustice. "Resist not evil" seems to break the back of all opposition to evil and counsel submission. "Going the second mile" has become a platitude meaning nothing more than "extend yourself." Rather than fostering structural change, such attitudes encourage collaboration with the oppressor.
Jesus never behaved in such ways. Whatever the source of the misunderstanding, it is neither Jesus nor his teaching, which, when given a fair hearing in its original social context, is arguably one of the most revolutionary political statements ever uttered.
When the court translators working in the hire of King James chose to translate antistenai as "Resist not evil," they were doing something more than rendering Greek into English. They were translating nonviolent resistance into docility. The Greek word means more than simply to "stand against" or "resist." It means to resist violently, to revolt or rebel, to engage in an insurrection. Jesus did not tell his oppressed hearers not to resist evil. His entire ministry is at odds with such a preposterous idea. He is, rather, warning against responding to evil in kind by letting the oppressor set the terms of our opposition.
Framing from Jesus anyone?