Books: Strength to Love

Martin Luther King, Jr. expresses pure genius in this collective volume of sermons. All of these sermons were preached during or after the bus protest in Montgomery, AL, and have drawn a number of illustrations from the Civil Rights movement. King’s courage and zeal to confirm that judgment and hate on any race causes social and spiritual conflict. He declares freedom from the mountaintops of injustice. His words paint the racial picture that humanity should be colorblind.

If one tries to highlight this read, he/she should be prepared to highlight the entire book. The pages glisten of pink and yellow colors of the highlighter. King’s topics include, but are not limited to love, peace, violence, and race.

Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems than it solves, never brings permanent peace (14).

He creates a synthesis of love and justice, which is the nature and character of God. King knew and recognized that social justice would not come overnight, yet he worked as though it is an impending possibility.

But we are gravely mistaken to think that Christianity protects us from the pain and agony of mortal existence. Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear (25).

Occasionally one finds a book that brings change and truth; however, rarely does he find a book that brings a revelation of the heart. This book has the power to stimulate the hardest mind. It has the capacity to challenge the warmth of economic security and participate actively and courageously in social justice movements today. I rate this book a 10/10! There are too many quotes to write down, therefore I advise you to buy a used copy today and start highlighting the entire book.

Books: Jesus and the Nonviolent Revolution

Andre Trocme is best known as the Protestant pastor of the French village of Le Chambon who organized the rescue of Jews during the Nazi occupation.  After the war he became a leading voice for peace and reconciliation.  He proclaims the Kingdom of God and the biblical Jubilee, and shows the ongoing relevance of his ethic of revolutionary nonviolence.  His work inspired the late John Howard Yoder and compares favorably with current authors such as Walter Wink and my favorite Glen Stassen from Fuller Theological Seminary. 

Jesus’ revolution is political by its very nature (43).

Trocme takes the reader back to implications of Jubilee and what God meant when he provide man with Sabbath.  In an age of increasing war and terror, Trocme shows people that there is another way than violence.  He lays out principles that a common person can start in their communities.  Trocme had the courage to face Nazi oppression, therefore, he practiced what he preached.

I like what he says about church and state:

Politics per se are not the church’s business (169).

The church’s business is not to establish peace between the nations, but to bear witness to the love of God, to live in his peace and righteousness (169).

These two quotes could not be more true for Christians today.  God expects only one thing: that we walk in obedience to the gospel, refusing violence in whatever form because of that obedience.  Jesus’ commitment to nonviolence did not grow out of a pantheistic, optimistic, or utopian view of the world.  It came from the evaluation of the terrible power of evil.  The sad thing, the church does not continue to manifest this redemption. 

Overall, I would rate this book a 9/10.  Anyone who is interested in Jesus, Jubilee, Sabbath, or the nonviolence movement should consider this read.  Though this book is written several years ago, it still speaks volume to the garments of terror today.

In times of war, at least, government reveal their true character; the question of governing in the fear of God does not even arise (164). 

I firmly believe that this is truest in the church today.  In times of terror and war, the church reveals their true character and the question of governing in the fear of God is lost.  The church has another task instead of bothering itself with state administration, however, will it ever change?

Books: Gandhi: The Man, His People, and The Empire

 

This monumental biography of Gandhi is written by his grandson, is the first to give a complete and balanced account of Mahatma Gandhi’s remarkable life.  It starts from early childhood and eventually leads to his death.  Written with unprecedented insight and access to family archives, it reveals Gandhi’s development of his beliefs and his political compaigns.  This book is exhausted by nature, yet each page reveals a life of contrasts and contradictions. 

After reading his autobiography, this book takes an different angle about his life as a whole.  It goes into great depth about the evolution of Gandhi’s strategies of nonviolent resistence, and examines relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, an issue that attracted Gandhi’s passionate attention and one that persists around the world today. 

What intrigued me most about this book was his reaction to WWII.  He even wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler:

Dear Friend, Friends have been urging me to write to you for the sake of humanity.  But I have resisted their request, because of the feeling that any letter from me would be an impertinence.  Something tells me that I must not calculate and that I must make my appeal for whatever it may be worth. 

It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state.  Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be?  Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?…Your sincere friend, M.K. Gandhi (422)

He calls him friend?  His willingness to prescribe satyagraha (literally, firmnes for the truth; non-violent struggle) without understanding German realities is intoxicating.  Before he wrote this letter, Gandhi wrote about Hitler and his drive against the Jews:

If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified.  But I do not believe in any war (400).

He has influenced great non-violent leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, a woman in Burma called Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino of the Philippines, Ibrahim Rugova of Kosov, and numerous others, whether famous or not.

The strongest men have been know at times to have become weak (321).

We cannot love one another if we hate Englishmen.  We cannot love the Japanese and hate Englishmen.  We must either let the law of love rule us through and through or not at all.  Love among ourselves based on hatred of others breaks down under the slightest pressure…(287).

If the reader gets past the number of pages, then he or she will get a brief history about a man who changed an entire country.  I rate this read a 9/10.  I would recommend anyone who wants to know more about the man of Gandhi and his life.

Books: unChristian

Apparently Christianity has taken a bash by people on the outside of church.  The sound of every page says Christians are hypocritical, insincere and concerned only with converts, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, and judgemental.  I could not agree more with the outsiders on this one.  Overall, I would rate this read a 2/10.  Even though this book talks a lot of the world, it is disconnected from reality.  These kinds of books do not challenge people do anything.  Most readers will say to themselves, “oh, that is horrible,” and then go back to their comfortable and lazy lives.  I do want to share this quote:

many outsiders actually miss the chance to experience true life in Christ because we cheapen the message of Jesus to church membership or deonominational loyalty. (79)