Last Saturday our church co-sponsored a Better Together conference by the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Here are my notes:
- We need to expand our definition of violence beyond physical harm.
- Non-violence in a love-centered way to thinking, acting and engaging that leads to personal, cultural, and societal transformation.
- There is a difference between non-violence and non-action. (You can have a non-violent stance but what are you going to do with it?)
- Non-violence requires spiritual discipline. Montgomery Bus boycotts were an example of “disciplined outrage.”
- This is slow work.
- Be committed to both non-violence and to social change.
- Triple evils: Poverty, Racism, and Militarism. Advocate for policies that address the root causes of this.
- Even the oppressors are oppressed by evil.
- Listen to others, but you do not have to internatize what you disagree with.
- Shift your lens from being single issue people.
- Find things we agree on.
- My success is linked to your success.
- Listen without defense mechanisms, and take care of yourself in the process.
- Don’t dehumanize the people you disagree with.
- Transformation has no end goal.
