In Loving our Enemies, Forest states that turning the other cheek is actually very manly (and womanly), and that in the way Jesus intended, it can be a sensible way of life. The advice to resort to nonviolence is unusual and is contradictory to social norms. When a person “turns the other cheek”, they are putting themselves in danger again, but they are standing up and refusing to give in. Turning the other cheek allows the person acting out of violence to consider his/her conscience, and recognize that he/she is more than a “brute”. Martin Luther King Jr.’s acts of turning the other cheek is an excellent example of how in times where it is easy to match violence with more violence,“turning the other cheek” can actually make a difference.
