Love In The Civil Rights Movement

Violent conflict often brings about a mountain moral burden when making decisions and taking action. A fairly popular response to this question is to act through the principle of love in nonviolent action. However, are there other ways to put love into action? When love and nonviolence is typically discussed the image of non-retaliation, self-restraint, and non-action typically comes into mind. We have seen this through history in the form of public disobedience and nonviolent protest. Leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. have demonstrated that love and nonviolence can be a powerful tool. King and his followers refused to retaliate as police officers and white bystanders spat, insulted, beat, arrested, and killed black protestors. Though the American Civil Rights Movement presents many great examples of love in action, it is not the only way to act with love. Love can also be present when taking violent action. In order to explore this issue, ideas from Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh will be crossed referenced with the actions of Rodrigo Mendoza and Father Gabriel from the film The Mission . Thich Nhat Hanh proposes the idea of …show more content…
He argues that, “It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our best to move them in the direction of nonviolence” . Thich stresses that only love can only flourish by understanding the opposition and helping the opposition return that sense of understanding. If there is an opportunity to avoid violence, take that opportunity to make the opposition see the errors of violent action and do so without anger. Viewing the opposition as enemies naturally rouses emotions of hate, anger, and frustration. A person blinded by anger cannot put love into action. Without love, violence becomes