#nonviolence — Public Fediverse posts

It always has been and that is part of the change that has to happen. #MissKitty has been talking about #non-violence and #human #rights. It is the only sustainable way forward and it is the only thing that makes sense. We don't need leaders. We need #sustainable #systems and #trusted #servants.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lxfl2bizmgq42nqzhmwyo4fj/post/3mvdeo3g4h223

It always has been and that is part of the change that has to happen. #MissKitty has been talking about #non-violence and #human #rights. It is the only sustainable way forward and it is the only thing that makes sense. We don't need leaders. We need #sustainable #systems and #trusted #servants.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lxfl2bizmgq42nqzhmwyo4fj/post/3mvdeo3g4h223

It always has been and that is part of the change that has to happen. #MissKitty has been talking about #non-violence and #human #rights. It is the only sustainable way forward and it is the only thing that makes sense. We don't need leaders. We need #sustainable #systems and #trusted #servants.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lxfl2bizmgq42nqzhmwyo4fj/post/3mvdeo3g4h223

It always has been and that is part of the change that has to happen. #MissKitty has been talking about #non-violence and #human #rights. It is the only sustainable way forward and it is the only thing that makes sense. We don't need leaders. We need #sustainable #systems and #trusted #servants.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lxfl2bizmgq42nqzhmwyo4fj/post/3mvdeo3g4h223

It always has been and that is part of the change that has to happen. #MissKitty has been talking about #non-violence and #human #rights. It is the only sustainable way forward and it is the only thing that makes sense. We don't need leaders. We need #sustainable #systems and #trusted #servants.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lxfl2bizmgq42nqzhmwyo4fj/post/3mvdeo3g4h223

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The Geometry of Breaking or Healing

Those are the two options.

To be part of the destruction of that which is precious,
even the life of the enemy.
Or a conduit for the substance that binds up wounds and the broken-hearted.

Even when flaws cause me to hurt those around me or engage in broken thoughts and so, for a time, join with the razing power,
if I am repentant, make the necessary changes, and return to the healing stream,
then the danger of losing my humanity is minimized.

And, if at the end of my life when I am weighed in the balance, and my contribution to fixing outweighs the breaking, then I will be satisfied to rest easy in the knowledge that in some small way I was an addition to the healing sum.

September 10, 2014

The Archer

In the high sea of clouds,
in willowing wisps of white,
an evil lurks.

The winds of the world bring
the first whisper of change,
an alien thing.

A dragon.

Red as blood, gleaming darkness,
its armor, invincible?

Heavy metal talons, drooling jaws,
acid falling, burning earth below.

It screams through the sky,
wings creaking, flapping furiously,
breathing flame.

Men flee,
like tiny ants scurrying
from desecration
into it.

Only One holds his ground,
a bow and one arrow
in his hand.

The Prince awaits,
as if to allow the dragon to
devour him.

Then with a flash,
he looses his arrow.

It soars through the air.

Blood gushing,
the dart buried deep,
the dragon crashes to the ground.

Landing on the One.

From amongst the dragon’s corpse,
amidst dying coals and wisps of smoke,
a figure crawls,
stands.

It is the Archer,
the One,
Him.

From the collection “Words at 16 (1983)”

It’s in the Blood

In 1539, a fugitive former-priest-turned-Anabaptist, in his seminal work “The Foundation,” penned the following words:

“Christ is our fortress; patience our weapon of defense; the Word of God our sword. …Iron and metal spears and swords we leave to those who, alas, regard human blood and swine’s blood of well-nigh equal value.”

So said Menno Simons, principal leader of the Protestant sect which then became known as the Mennonites.

More than 500 years later, his words still resound with a mighty truth.

At the risk of sounding morbid, it has to do with blood.

While Menno specifically refers to the difference between human blood and that of an animal, his larger point is the “value” we place on the blood of another.

My point is quite simple.

Killing will not end through education, conflict resolution, or disarmament, though all of these are important and can help. Killing will end only when there is a fundamental shift in the mind and heart of those who kill.

For how can you kill someone if you believe that their blood is just as valuable as your own?

Let’s call it – for lack of a better term – bloodism.

The other – their humanity, life, blood – is somehow less than I, and therefore, their humanity, life, blood, is not as valuable as my own. It becomes quite easy then to justify killing the other, ie. spilling his/her blood.

The directors of death throughout history from every nation, tribe and religion have understood and disseminated this concept quite well. A person (and those like him/her) is described as having the wrong beliefs, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong age, the wrong station in life, the wrong land, the wrong possessions, the wrong clothing, the wrong language —- the wrong blood. These others are not as valued as you are, the leaders of the macabre scream, though they couch their speech in terms such as vigilance, freedom, history, security, and truth.

Then the killing begins.

The Nazis did it to the Jews. Israelis do it to the Palestinians. Hutus did it to the Tutsis. Shiite do it to the Sunni. Palestinians do it to the Israelis. Sunni do it to the Shiite. Muslims do it to the Christians. Christians do it to the Muslims. This country does it to that country. That neighborhood does it to this neighborhood. This race does it to that race. That religion does it to this religion.

And any one of a million other combinations.

STOP!

Do not allow your mind and heart to be filled with bloodism.

We are made in the image of God.

ALL of us.

And that divine DNA resides in the very marrow of our bones and flows through our veins.

It’s in the blood.

July 28, 2014

KARMA-FREE TRUMP 💎

Donald Trump does not need to be hated in order to be seen clearly.

There is no need to imagine that #karma will #punish him.

No need to turn him into the #supernatural embodiment of #evil
No need to diagnose his soul.

His vanity, grievance, cruelty, #fear ,appetite, and enormous need for #attention are serious enough.

#Hatred does not improve our #perception.

It distorts it.

It makes the hated person larger, darker, and more #powerful in the #mind than they already are.

It also gives them permanent residence in the #nervous #system.

Trump should be opposed when he lies, harms, corrupts, intimidates, degrades institutions, or participates in or encourages cruelty.

That opposition can be #firm.

It should be relentless.

It can name exactly what is happening.

But hatred is not required.

Nor is #spiritual #fantasy.

No one knows what happens to Donald Trump after #death.

No one knows whether the #universe keeps a #punishment #ledger.

What is known, though, is that actions have consequences here.

People are harmed.

Truth is weakened.

Fear spreads.

#Cowardice becomes #contagious.

But cruelty does not have to set the terms.

#Kindness as strength can be encouraged in the face of cruelty.

#Courage in the face of intimidation.

#Truth in the face of deception.

#Decency in the face of degradation.

Restraint in the face of vengeance.

#Clarity in the face of confusion.

The task is not to hate the man.

The task is to see clearly, speak plainly, protect those being harmed, and refuse to let cruelty decide who we become.

#DonaldTrump #Trump #USPolitics #PoliticalClarity #Cruelty #Kindness #Courage #Truth #Decency #Restraint #Clarity #Nonviolence #NoHatred #MoralClarity #Humanity

RFI
Inde : en grève de la faim, le militant écologiste Sonam Wangchuk évacué de force et hospitalisé
https://mcinformactions.net/spip.php?article231415&lang=fr
#Inde #grevedelaFaim #NonViolence

RFI
Inde : autour de l’écologiste Sonam Wangchuk, une grève de la faim étudiante contre les fraudes aux examens
https://mcinformactions.net/spip.php?article231346&lang=fr
#Inde #grevedelaFaim #NonViolence

La paix du bouddhisme

Pour les bouddhistes, la paix n’est pas un simple état émotionnel agréable, c’est la conséquence directe d’une compréhension juste de la réalité.

Ainsi, le nirvāṇa est un état découlant de l’extinction des trois feux que sont l’avidité, l’aversion et l’illusion. La paix bouddhiste n’est donc pas l’absence temporaire de trouble, mais l’épuisement définitif des causes mêmes de l’agitation intérieure. Tant que ces trois racines brûlent, dit-on, aucune paix n’est stable, seulement des accalmies. La paix n’est donc pas un événement, elle est la conséquence d’un diagnostic lucide, presque clinique, de la souffrance.

Une grande part du conflit humain naît, pour le bouddhisme, de la défense d’un moi que l’on croit substantiel et séparé. Le bouddhisme dissout l’ego dans la vacuité, il n’y a rien de substantiel à défendre, donc rien qui justifie ultimement la peur, la possessivité ou l’hostilité. La paix naît ici d’un dévoilement métaphysique plus que d’une fusion.

Sur le plan éthique et relationnel, l’idéal de paix se manifeste dans les quatre qualités cultivées activement que sont la bienveillance aimante, ce vœu du bien-être de tous les êtres, sans exception ni préférence, la compassion qui est la capacité à ressentir et alléger la souffrance d’autrui, la joie sympathique qui est la capacité de se réjouir du bonheur d’autrui sans envie et l’équanimité, cette stabilité qui n’est ni indifférence ni détachement froid, mais paix devant ce qui échappe à notre contrôle.

Ces quatre qualités, souvent pratiquées par méditation formelle. Elles forment un pont entre paix intérieure et paix relationnelle, car on ne peut pas cultiver l’une sans l’autre.

Comme dans le jaïnisme et l’hindouisme, la non-violence est le socle éthique concret de cette paix. Le premier précepte bouddhiste, s’abstenir de tuer ou de nuire à tout être sensible n’est pas une simple règle morale, mais l’expression extérieure d’un esprit déjà pacifié. On ne nuit plus quand on ne se sent plus séparé ni menacé.

Ainsi, la paix bouddhiste suit un mouvement inverse, à certains égards, de celui du soufisme que nous venons de voir cette semaine. Là où le soufi descend vers la paix par la soumission amoureuse à un Dieu personnel, le bouddhiste y accède par le dévoilement de la vacuité et l’extinction des attachements, soit une paix qui n’a pas besoin d’un Autre transcendant pour se réaliser, mais qui rejoint néanmoins, dans ses fruits éthiques (compassion, non-nuisance, service), une parenté frappante avec l’approche soufie.

Dans un monde où tout le monde parle de paix, est-ce que nous avons la même conception de celle-ci? Est-ce que les écarts expliqueraient en partie les conflits qui perdurent?

Une chanson de Renée Claude interprétée par Isabelle Boulay, Céline Dion, Luce Dufault, Diane Dufresne, Louise Forestier, Laurence Jalbert, Catherine Major, Ariane Moffatt, Marie Denise Pelletier, Ginette Reno et Marie-Élaine Thibert – Tu trouveras la paix

Les paroles sur https://www.musixmatch.com/fr/paroles/Ren%C3%A9e-Claude/Tu-Trouveras-La-Paix-Dans-Ton-coeur

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctwvvoX8BaM

Par Daniel Jean dans Voies (x) de passage

COPYRIGHT – DROIT DE REPRODUCTION – La reproduction de cet article sur un blogue ou un site est autorisé à condition de respecter :   * L’intégralité du texte — Vous ne devez pas modifier, transformer ou adapter ce texte. * Le droit d’auteur — Vous devez citer le nom de la source (avec un hyperlien vers l’article original de préférence). * La finalité sans but lucratif — Vous n’avez pas le droit d’utiliser cette création à des fins commerciales. Si j’ai utilisé vos textes/photos et que vous souhaitez que je les retire, merci de me contacter en commentaire, ce sera fait rapidement.

The Shapeshifter

“Let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No,’ no.” — Matthew 5:37

Last night, before sleep, I found myself thinking about the way I change.

Not always dramatically. Not always visibly. Sometimes it is a small shift in tone, a slight adjustment in posture, a revised sentence, a softened opinion, a joke added too quickly, a silence held too long. Sometimes I do not even know I have shifted until later, when I feel the ache of it.

I have called this being sensitive. I have called it empathy. And I think that is partly true.

There is a gift in being able to read a room. There is a gift in noticing the tremor beneath someone’s words, the disappointment beneath their politeness, the anger beneath their quietness, the plea beneath their criticism. Some people move through the world loudly, unaware of what their presence does to others. I do not usually have that problem. I notice. I absorb. I adjust.

This can be love.

It can be pastoral. It can be merciful. It can be wise. It can help me avoid needless harm. It can help me make room for others. It can help me speak peace into places where bluntness would only bruise.

But there is another side.

Sometimes I do not simply respond to what someone has actually said. I respond to what I believe they might be saying. I answer the accusation I imagine beneath their question. I apologize for the disappointment I think I see in their eyes. I defend myself against a criticism that has not yet fully arrived. I revise myself before I have even been asked to explain myself.

And then I disappear a little.

The shapeshifter survives, but the true self waits somewhere behind the curtain.

This is where the gift becomes a burden. Empathy becomes prediction. Sensitivity becomes self-protection. Peacekeeping becomes evasion. Instead of staying present, I become fluid. Instead of saying, “What did you mean?” I silently assume. Instead of saying, “That hurt,” I swallow it. Instead of responding honestly in the moment, I retreat, rehearse, reinterpret, and let the thing fester.

Then anger comes later.

Not always because the other person was cruel. Sometimes because I abandoned myself too quickly. Sometimes because I changed shape before I knew whether change was required. Sometimes because I mistook someone else’s reaction for a commandment.

There is a difference between being responsive and being ruled.

There is a difference between empathy and erasure.

There is a difference between humility and hiding.

Maybe the work is not to stop being sensitive. I do not want to become hard, oblivious, or careless. I do not want to lose the part of me that can feel the emotional weather in a room. That part of me has helped me pastor, create, love, listen, and make peace.

But perhaps I need to learn a slower form of shapeshifting.

A sacred pause.

Before I adapt, I can ask:

What did they actually say?
What am I imagining they meant?
What am I feeling in my body?
Am I trying to love them, or am I trying to escape discomfort?
Is this a moment for flexibility, or a moment for truthful rootedness?

The goal is not rigidity. Trees bend in the wind, but they do not become wind. Rivers change course, but they still remain water. Christ was deeply responsive to people, but he was not controlled by every expectation placed upon him. He listened, but he also withdrew. He answered, but he also stayed silent. He served, but he did not surrender his center.

Perhaps that is the invitation: not to stop changing, but to stop vanishing.

To remain kind without becoming formless.

To remain open without becoming absorbent of every accusation.

To remain peaceful without pretending I am not hurt.

A Possible Action Response

When I feel myself shifting too quickly, I will try to pause before I change shape. I will breathe, feel my feet, and ask myself: What was actually said? What am I adding? What do I need to ask before I assume?

Then, when possible, I can say:

“I may be reacting to what I think you mean, not what you actually said. Can you help me understand?”

Or:

“I want to respond honestly, but I need a moment so I don’t answer from fear or defensiveness.”

Or:

“That feels like criticism to me, and I want to stay open, but I also want to be clear about what you mean.”

These are not perfect words. They are practice words. They are small anchors. They help me stay present without hiding, defending, exploding, or disappearing.

I do not have to become whatever this moment seems to demand.

I can be loving and still be myself.
I can be sensitive and still be solid.
I can be peaceable without disappearing.

The shapeshifter does not need to be banished. He may have saved me many times. But maybe he does not need to run the whole house anymore.

Maybe he can become a servant of love rather than a servant of fear.

Maybe he can learn to change shape slowly, honestly, prayerfully.

Maybe he can finally rest.

Prayer

God of truth and tenderness,

Help me honor the gift of sensitivity without becoming captive to it.

Teach me to listen deeply without imagining more than has been spoken. Teach me to care for others without abandoning myself. Teach me to receive correction without collapsing, and to feel hurt without hiding it until it turns into anger.

Give me the grace of the sacred pause.

When I feel myself shifting too quickly, help me breathe. Help me return to my body, my heart, my center, and to you. Let my yes be yes. Let my no be no. Let my silence be honest, not evasive. Let my words be gentle, but true.

May the shapeshifter in me become healed and holy. May he no longer serve fear, shame, or resentment. May he become a servant of wisdom, compassion, and peace.

Keep me open.

Keep me rooted.

Keep me from disappearing.

Amen.

A Day for the World to Say Sorry

From Australia’s National Sorry Day Toward an International Day of Truth, Repentance, and Repair

A PeaceGrooves Reflection

There are words so overused that they risk becoming weightless. Sorry is one of them. We say it when we bump into someone in a hallway, when we answer an email too late, when we make an insignificant mistake. Yet there are times when sorry is not small at all. There are wounds so deep, so deliberately inflicted, and so long denied that the speaking of sorrow becomes an act of public truth.

Australia’s National Sorry Day, observed each year on May 26, is such a day. It remembers the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcibly removed from their families, communities, languages, and cultures under government policies now associated with the Stolen Generations. The date marks the anniversary of the 1997 tabling of the Bringing Them Home report, the landmark national inquiry that gathered testimony from survivors and documented the devastation caused by these removals. The report called not only for recognition of what had happened, but for apology, healing, reparations, family reunion, access to records, and measures ensuring such violations would never recur.

National Sorry Day did not begin as a sentimental holiday….

Read the full essay at PeaceGrooves.

The Maranatha Empire

There is a prayer so holy that it should burn the tongue of every empire that tries to speak it.

Maranatha.

Come, Lord.

It is the cry of the small church under pressure. The cry of the persecuted and the patient. The cry of those who have no armies to summon, no throne to defend, no voting bloc sufficient to save them, no market share large enough to secure their future. It is the cry of those who wait because they know they are not God.

But in every age, there are those who take this prayer of waiting and turn it into a banner of possession.

They say, “Come, Lord,” but what they mean is, “Give us control.”

They say, “Thy kingdom come,” but what they mean is, “Let our faction rule.”

They say, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” but what they build are prisons, borders, propaganda machines, religious celebrity platforms, and monuments to their own fear.

This is the Maranatha Empire.

It is not one nation only, though nations may become its servants. It is not one denomination only, though denominations may become its chapels. It is not merely Rome, nor Geneva, nor Washington, nor Moscow, nor any other city that has mistaken power for providence. The Maranatha Empire is the recurring temptation of the religious heart: to stop waiting for Christ and begin replacing him.

It begins quietly.

It begins with concern.

The world is dangerous. The children are vulnerable. The church is shrinking. The enemies are multiplying. The culture is changing. The old certainties are crumbling. The people are afraid.

Fear, when baptized, often calls itself faithfulness.

So the frightened church begins to reach for tools Jesus refused.

A throne.

A sword.

A spectacle.

A scapegoat.

A strongman.

A law that can accomplish what love has not yet persuaded.

A state that can enforce what the Spirit has not yet formed.

A leader who promises to defend Christ, as though Christ ever asked Peter to keep swinging after Gethsemane.

This is how the prayer becomes an empire.

The early church cried, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it knew that Caesar was not Lord. The Maranatha Empire cries, “Come, Lord Jesus,” because it wants Caesar to become useful.

The early church broke bread in homes. The Maranatha Empire builds platforms and calls them altars.

The early church welcomed the stranger. The Maranatha Empire sees the stranger as a threat.

The early church died rather than kill. The Maranatha Empire kills and calls the dead collateral damage in the defense of righteousness.

The early church believed the Lamb had conquered. The Maranatha Empire keeps looking for a beast strong enough to protect the Lamb.

And there is the blasphemy.

Not that empire rejects Christ outright. That would be too honest. The Maranatha Empire does something more dangerous. It uses Christ as decoration for a power that is fundamentally afraid of the cross.

It sings of the Lamb while trusting the dragon.

It preaches resurrection while organizing itself around survival.

It displays the cross while despising weakness.

It quotes Jesus while ignoring the people Jesus told us to notice: the poor, the imprisoned, the hungry, the foreigner, the enemy, the child, the wounded man beside the road.

The Maranatha Empire is not built by atheists. It is built by believers who have lost patience with the way of Jesus.

For the way of Jesus is slow.

It is seed, yeast, salt, light.

It is foot-washing.

It is forgiveness seventy times seven.

It is refusing the shortcut of domination even when domination appears efficient.

It is telling Peter to put away the sword when everything in Peter’s body screams that this is the moment for holy violence.

It is standing before Pilate and saying, “My kingdom is not from this world,” not because the kingdom has nothing to do with the world, but because it does not come by the world’s methods.

The Maranatha Empire cannot tolerate this.

It cannot tolerate a Messiah who will not seize power.

It cannot tolerate a church that would rather be faithful than influential.

It cannot tolerate a people whose politics begin at the basin and towel.

It cannot tolerate enemy-love, because enemy-love ruins the machinery. Empire requires enemies. It needs them. It feeds on them. Without enemies, the crowd might look too closely at the throne.

So, the Maranatha Empire manufactures urgency.

There is no time to love.

No time to listen.

No time to discern.

No time for reconciliation.

No time for peacemaking.

No time to ask whether the means resemble the Christ we claim to serve.

The hour is late, they say. The danger is great. The stakes are too high. We must act now. We must take control now. We must win now.

And somewhere beneath all that urgency is a terrible confession:

They do not actually believe the Lord is coming.

Or, if he is coming, they do not trust him to arrive in the right way.

So they build him an empire to inherit.

But Christ does not inherit empires.

He judges them.

He walks in alleyways, not palaces. He asks whether the churches have kept their first love. He warns those who are rich and comfortable and self-satisfied that they may be poor, blind, and naked. He stands at the door and knocks, not because he has been defeated by secularism, but because religious people have locked him outside while holding meetings in his name.

The Maranatha Empire is always shocked when Jesus is found outside the gate.

Outside the camp.

Outside respectability.

Outside the approved narrative.

Outside the walls with the crucified, the excluded, the unclean, the inconvenient, and the condemned.

The empire expected him in the capital.

But he is with the refugees.

The empire expected him in the cathedral of victory.

But he is with the mother of the disappeared.

The empire expected him on the reviewing stand.

But he is washing feet in the basement.

The empire expected him to bless the troops.

But he is asking why his followers are still carrying swords.

This is why Maranatha must remain a dangerous prayer.

It must never be allowed to become a slogan for conquest. It must never be printed on the banners of those who are unwilling to be converted by the One they summon. To pray “Come, Lord” is not to invite divine endorsement of our projects. It is to invite judgment upon them.

Come, Lord, and judge our churches.

Come, Lord, and judge our flags.

Come, Lord, and judge our markets.

Come, Lord, and judge our weapons.

Come, Lord, and judge our sermons.

Come, Lord, and judge our secret hatreds.

Come, Lord, and judge the ways we have used your name to avoid your way.

This is the prayer empire cannot honestly pray.

Because if the Lord comes, the first thing to fall may not be our enemies.

It may be our idols.

The algorithm.

The nation.

The party.

The brand.

The gun.

The strongman.

The myth of innocence.

The lie that we can harm others for a righteous cause and remain untouched by the harm.

The Maranatha Empire teaches us to fear the collapse of Christian influence.

Jesus teaches us to fear gaining the world and losing our soul.

The Maranatha Empire asks, “How do we take back the culture?”

Jesus asks, “Can you drink the cup that I drink?”

The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the winners.”

Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek.”

The Maranatha Empire says, “Blessed are the forceful, for they shall secure the future.”

Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

And perhaps this is the word for us now:

The church does not need to become more powerful.

The church needs to become more faithful.

Not passive. Not silent. Not withdrawn into pious irrelevance. But faithful in the particular, cruciform, stubborn way of Jesus. Faithful enough to resist evil without becoming its mirror. Faithful enough to tell the truth without hatred. Faithful enough to protect the vulnerable without worshiping violence. Faithful enough to build communities of economic sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, courage, and joy. Faithful enough to be a people who can live without controlling the outcome.

That is the hard part.

Empire is attractive because it promises control.

Jesus offers communion.

Empire promises security.

Jesus offers peace.

Empire promises victory over enemies.

Jesus offers reconciliation that may begin with our repentance.

Empire promises to make us great.

Jesus invites us to become small enough to enter the kingdom.

So, let the Maranatha Empire fall.

Let it fall first in us.

Let it fall in every place where we have confused anxiety with zeal. Let it fall where we have preferred dominance to witness. Let it fall where we have wanted laws to do what discipleship would not. Let it fall where we have used the suffering of others as fuel for our own righteousness. Let it fall where we have asked Jesus to come only after we have arranged the throne to our liking.

And when it falls, may something older and more beautiful remain.

A table.

A basin.

A towel.

A loaf.

A cup.

A people gathered without illusion, without empire, without the need to be impressive, whispering the ancient prayer not as conquerors but as witnesses:

Maranatha.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Come not to crown our domination, but to free us from it.

Come not to baptize our fear, but to cast it out.

Come not to make our empire holy, but to teach us again that your kingdom comes like a seed, like yeast, like mercy, like a Lamb who was slain and yet lives.

And until you come, make us faithful.

Not imperial.

Not triumphant.

Not afraid.

Faithful.

#assassinationattempt #nonviolence Attention all center, left of center, and far left friends: if you advocate, plan, or engage in political violence of any kind, I will block you and cut you out of my life.

Underground – RIP MLK 4/4

A Holy Saturday Illustration

Il viaggio Dhutanga: 108 giorni e 2.300 miglia - Da Fort Worth, TX fino alla Virginia, diffondendo pace, compassione e nonviolenza in tutti gli Stati Uniti.

Guidato da Bhikkhu Pannakara del Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center.

#Dhutanga #PeaceWalk #Compassion #Nonviolence

Who Will Be Romero Today?

On this day we remember Archbishop Óscar Romero, murdered on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass. The church remembers him not simply as a tragic victim, but as a martyr whose blood was joined to the blood of the people he refused to abandon. Vatican sources still name him what so many already knew him to be in life: a “voice of the voiceless,” assassinated at the altar because he would not stop speaking for the poor.

Romero was killed soon after one of the most fearless sermons of the twentieth century. Addressing soldiers and police, he said that they were killing their own campesino brothers and sisters, and that God’s law stood above the commands of violent men: “Thou shalt not kill.” He declared that no soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God, and he ended with that thunderous plea: “In the name of God… cease the repression!”

That is why Romero remains dangerous. He did not speak in abstractions. He did not bless power from a safe distance. He did not soothe the conscience of empire. He named the sin directly. He named the victims directly. He named the moral responsibility of those ordered to carry out injustice. And for that, he was silenced by a bullet at the altar. Yet even in death he was not silenced, because martyrdom is a form of speech the powers of this world do not know how to answer.

Ten years later, in 1990, his name was still summoning people into the streets. The flyer for the Washington march commemorating Romero’s assassination called for an end to U.S. war in Central America, a march from the Capitol to the White House, and even nonviolent civil disobedience after the rally. It named the demands plainly: end U.S. aid to El Salvador, withdraw U.S. advisers, stop repressing the people, end the war against Nicaragua, lift the trade embargo, normalize relations. That call was real, and it was public. It survives in archival collections even now.

And I remember that day not as a line in a history book but as something lived in the body. Ten years after Romero’s assassination, I was arrested outside the White House after I and other activists built a miniature Central American village there. We were trying, in our small and vulnerable way, to make visible what policy papers and patriotic speeches tried to hide: villages, families, campesinos, the poor, the disappeared, the threatened, the dead. We were insisting that Central America was not a chessboard for Washington, but a place of human beings made in the image of God.

Read the rest of the essay at PeaceGrooves.

In times of conflict, Friends have long reminded the world that force may silence - but love transforms.
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I tider av konflikt har Vänner länge påmint världen om att våld kan tysta – men kärlek förvandlar.
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I tider med konflikt har Venner lenge minnet verden om at makt kan tie – men kjærlighet forandrer.
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I tider med konflikt har Venner længe mindet verden om, at magt kan tvinge til tavshed – men kærlighed forandrer.

#Quakers #Peace #LoveInAction #Nonviolence #Kvakare #Fred
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London's #MetPol #MetropolitanPolice continues its heroic crackdown on the new ‘crime’ of supporting #intifada against #Israel’s war crimes and #genocide. In England, nonviolent opposition to illegality is now "#hateCrime".

#PeterTatchell was arrested today for carrying an 'illegal' #GlobaliseTheIntafada banner. The brave cops are keeping London safe from a 74yo man promoting #nonviolence and opposing the illegal occupation of the #WestBank and #Gaza.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jan/31/peter-tatchell-arrested-palestine-protest-london-globalise-the-intifada-placard

#ukpol #Palestine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgElSdugUxI

https://piped.video/watch?v=zgElSdugUxI

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=zgElSdugUxI

#uspol #politics #ICE #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #Nonviolence #NonviolentProtest #NonviolentCivilResistance #NonviolentCivilDisobedience #AlienEnemiesAct #MAGA #Project2025 #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #HomelandSecurity #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #TheMajorityReport #TheMajorityReportWithSamSeder #AntiIceProtest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJdHDEB44_s

https://piped.video/watch?v=GJdHDEB44_s

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=GJdHDEB44_s

#uspol #politics #ICE #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #Nonviolence #NonviolentProtest #NonviolentCivilResistance #NonviolentCivilDisobedience #AlienEnemiesAct #MAGA #Project2025 #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #HomelandSecurity #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration #TheMajorityReport #TheMajorityReportWithSamSeder #AntiIceProtest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7MgLMzsnmE

https://piped.video/watch?v=N7MgLMzsnmE

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=N7MgLMzsnmE

#uspol #politics #ICE #DueProcess #HabeasCorpus #TheLateShowWithStephenColbert #StephenColbert #Nonviolence #MariaJStephan #NonviolentProtest #NonviolentCivilResistance #NonviolentCivilDisobedience #AlienEnemiesAct #MAGA #Project2025 #ImmigrationAndCustomsEnforcement #DHS #DepartmentOfHomelandSecurity #HomelandSecurity #TrumpAdministration #TrumpAdministration2025 #SecondTrumpAdministration

How an #AssassinationAttempt Affirmed #MLK’s Faith in #Nonviolence

https://www.history.com/articles/martin-luther-king-1958-assassination-attempt

Radical Compassion Doesn’t Mean Forgiving the Irredeemable

https://theinterfaithintrepidart.com/2025/11/29/radical-compassion-doesnt-mean-forgiving-the-irredeemable/

Greater Boston can we please have inflatables at No Kings this Saturday
🙏🐸🐮🦈🦄

I need to see those pics in my feed 💖

#NoKings #Boston #Inflatables #Joy #Democracy #NoFascists #Nonviolent #Protest #Nonviolence #GreaterBoston

https://www.wweek.com/news/2025/10/14/a-portland-costume-shop-is-seeing-a-boost-in-business-from-ice-protesters-dressing-as-inflatable-animals/

Power to the Peaceful 🕊️ #resist #peacefulprotests #nonviolence

Signs are done for tomorrow's #NoKings march. Now to pack the safety bag.
Be safe out there everyone - and lets get to that magic 3.5%
#NonViolence #FreedomOfSpeech #ICE #PublicMedia #NPR #PBS #OrangeClown #3.5%

The Green Party calls for honest dialogue and urgent investment in community safety, restorative justice, and support for victims. We demand that all political leaders reject inflammatory rhetoric and work together to build a society where diversity is celebrated and where community concerns are addressed through constructive, non-violent means, not through fear or division.

3/3 #NonViolence #CommunityJustice #GreenPartyNI

#israel #palestine : #westbank / #opt / #nonviolence / #rightlivelihoodaward / #youth / #ngo / #yas / #occupation / #nonviolentresistance / #civicaction / #justice / #peace

»The Youth Against Settlements (YAS) group was awarded the prize for its "steadfast non-violent resistance to Israel's illegal occupation, promoting Palestinian civic action through peaceful means."«
https://www.dw.com/en/palestinian-organization-wins-alternative-nobel-prize/a-70393483?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

I need to follow more interesting people. Any recommendations?

I'm interested in #Tech, #monopolies, #UKPolitics, #socialism, #Sociology, #SocialJustice, #restorativejustive, #pacifism, #geopolitics, #HumanRights, #migrantRights, #Palestine, #economics, #MMT, #Philosophy, #Realism, #leftism, #nonviolence, #psychology, #management, #systemsdesign, #unions, #WorkerRights, #solidarity, #intersectionality, #history, #heterodox views, anti-#techhype etc. and probably a fair few other things.

🙏

From some reading I was doing today:

"Very often, [women] . . . were ridiculed or accused when they spoke of God being present. I sense a similar difficulty in the most important religious movement of our time, the movement for peace, justice, and integrity of creation. . . . God without weapons is a laughingstock."

The Silent Cry, Dorothee Sölle, pg 76

#nonviolence #peace #justice #Earth #NonviolentGod #NonviolenceInReligion
#DorotheeSolle #quotes #religion

👀A teaser for you all: the table of contents for the 1st issue of the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence, due out very soon (matter of days now) 👇 #newjournal for #peerreviewed study of #pacifism & #nonviolence