Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
Preview Cassette 219784
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
00.00.00 Boston University holds outside service at Marsh Chapel for Martin Luther King who graduated from B.U. Theology school. Huge crowds outside. Back shots from podium of crowds. Boston University official quotes Martin Luther King. In 1955 one year after he received the PHD degree from Boston University, listen to his words, First it must be emphasized that non violent resistance is not a method for cowards. It does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid, or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly non-violent. This is why Gandhi often said that if cowardess is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight. He made this statement conscious of the fact that there is always another alternative. No individual or group need submit to any wrong nor need they use violence to rite the wrong - there is the way of non-violent resistance. This is ultimately the way of the strong man. It is not a method of stagnant passivity. The phrase passive resistance often gives the false impression that this is a sort of do nothing method, in which the resister quietly and passively accepts evil. But nothing is further from the truth. For while the non-violent resister is passive in the sense he is not physically aggressive towards his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active; constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong.
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
04.43 Boston University official quotes Martin Luther King. A second basic fact that characterizes non-violence is it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding. The non-violent resister must often express his protest through non-cooperation or boycotts. But he realizes these are not ends themselves. They are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community. While the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
02.30 Boston University official quotes Martin Luther King. A third characteristic of this method is that the attack is directed against the forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the non violent resister seeks to defeat not the persons victimized by evil. If he is opposing racial injustice, the non-violent resister has the vision to see that the basic tension is not between races. As I like to say to the people in Montgomery, the tension in this city is not between white people and Negro people. The tension is at bottom between justice and injustice, between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. And if there is a victory, it will be a victory not merely for 50,000 Negroes but a victory for justice and the forces of light. We are out to defeat injustice and not white persons who may be unjust.
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
03.39 Boston University official quotes Martin Luther King. A fourth point that characterizes non violent resistance is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation; to accept blows from the opponent without striking back. Rivers of blood might have to flow before we gain our freedom but it must be our blood. Gandhi said to his countrymen the non violent resister is willing to accept violence if necessary but never to inflict it. He does not seek to dodge jail, if going to jail is necessary then he enters it as a bride-groom enters the bride s chamber. But he also refuses to hate him. At the center of non violence stands the principal of love. The non violent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives. Such agape is disinterested love. It is a love in which the individual seeks not his own good but the good of his neighbor. Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes. It is an entirely neighbor regarding concern for others which discovers the neighbor in every man it meets. Therefore agape makes no distinction between friend and enemy. It is directed towards both. If one loves an individual merely on account of his friendliness, he loves him for the sake of the benefits to be gained from the friendship rather than for the friends own sake. Consequently a way to insure love is disinterested is to have love for the enemy neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return but only hostility and persecution.
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
06.13 Agape is not a weak passive love. It is a love in action. Agape is a love seeking to persevere and create community. It is insistent on community even when one seeks to break it. Agape is willingness to sacrifice in the interest of mutuality. Agape is a willingness to go to any length to restore community. It doesn t stop at the first mile, but it goes the second mile to restore community. It is a willingness to forgive not seven times but seventy times seven to restore community. The cross is the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. The resurrection is a symbol of God s triumph over all the forces that seek to block community. The Holy Spirit is the continuing community creating reality that moves through history. He who works against community is working against the hole of creation.
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
07.21 Boston University official speaks and prays. And I recall the poet who said to morn not the day rather morn the apathetic throng, the coward and weak, who sees the world s great anguish and it s wrong and dare not speak. Lamentations let us test and exam our ways and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in Heaven and our voices. Let us pray. Oh God most holy, who does hold the nations in the hallow of thy hand and thus presides over the destinies of thy people, look with mercy upon thy people in our tears. Our hearts ache with an unspeakable pain. Our spirits cry out within us. Oh God of compassion draw near and comfort us. We confess we who are black and we who are white together we confess that we are all implicated in this deed. For by our words and deeds we have added to the strife of our people and by our silence and fears we have let wickedness go unchallenged. Forgive, oh God, forgive. We pray now for Mrs. King and the children who are lonely but not forsaken because thou does comfort and sustain them
Boston University gives tribute to Martin Luther King
09.26 Boston University officials walk through the crowds of students. People mumbling as they chat and disperse.