Powerful words spoken by my hero, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in St. Augustine, Florida in 1964…
Speaker: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Partial transcript: “It’s difficult advice and in some quarters it isn’t too popular to say it…Let us recognize that violence is not the answer. I must say to you tonight that violence is impractical…We have another method that is much more powerful and much more effective than the weapon of violence…Hate isn’t our weapon either…I am not talking now about a weak love. It would be nonsense to urge oppressed people to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense–I’m not talking about that. Too many people confuse the meaning of love when they go to criticizing the love ethic…I am talking about a love that is so strong that it becomes a demanding love. I’m talking about a love that is so strong that it organizes itself into a mass movement and says somehow ‘I am my brother’s keeper, and he is so wrong that I am willing to suffer and die if necessary to get him right and to see that he’s on the wrong road’.”
Dr. Future and Will Grigg discuss libertarianism and the Golden Rule…
[Part5 of a 5-part series]
Show:Future Quake
Full Podcast: Show 295 1-6-2012 Future Quake – Seventh Annual Future Quake “Predictions” Show Date: 1/6/12
Hosts: Dr. Future & Tom Bionic Guest: Will Grigg Notes: Libertarian thinking starts with the understanding that all human beings are problematic and troublesome when entrusted with power, and that no human being is virtuous enough to exercise power over another; So no human being has the right to commit aggressive violence against another–that’s the Golden Rule; The fundamental tenant of libertarian thought is the Golden Rule–we’re all equal before the law; Really the only law is the non-aggression principle… and on that will hang the Constitution and all laws worthy of our respect–they’re all commentaries on or applications of the non-aggression axiom (or the Golden Rule); Virtue cannot be obtained through compulsion; It’s possible to use coercion defensively in order to protect yourself against the vicious, and there arguably is a role for coercion in terms of punishing conspicuous acts of viciousness, but you can’t make somebody righteous through coercion; The way that statism works is that it cocoons us in myriad laws and then leaves us completely at the mercy of the grace of the supposedly divine entity called the state; Libertarianism starts from the proposition that the state–being composed of flawed human beings–cannot make us virtuous through coercion
Will Grigg from Pro Libertate blog discusses the Golden Rule and Dietrich Bonhoeffer…
[Part2 of a 5-part series]
Show:Future Quake
Full Podcast: Show 295 1-6-2012 Future Quake – Seventh Annual Future Quake “Predictions” Show Date: 1/6/12
Hosts: Dr. Future & Tom Bionic Guest: Will Grigg Notes: Another thing that is very, very disturbing is the sense that there is a severability clause somewhere in the Sermon on the Mount…; Your “neighbor” is whoever God happens to put in your path–that’s the answer that was given in the parable; Jesus chose as an example a Samaritan (an infidel–a nonbeliever) to illustrate the godly principle that your “neighbor” is whoever God happens to put in your path; That’s something which has been repudiated by that same cohort of a church that embraces torture… because obviously you cannot torture your neighbor… if you’re bound by the Golden Rule, you cannot inflict torture on somebody, because obviously you would not want torture to be inflicted upon yourself; Another illustration of where we might be going is the situation in Germany as described in Eric Metaxas’ book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy“; “Positive Christianity”–the state-focused, cultural Christianity of Germany in the early 20th Century; As early as 1933, Bonhoeffer knew that he was eventually going to be killed by this regime that he saw rising, which eventually killed him in 1945
Tony Campolo discusses the change in the Christian church after 300 years of nonviolent resistance/pacifism, as it first began to embrace war under the EmperorConstantine.
Show:Across the Pond Full Podcast: Campolo – Repeat: Peace Movements Part II (3/26/10) Host: Tony Campolo Notes: For the first 300 years of its existence… Christians were non-belligerents (they were not in the army); Those who became Christians often left the army if they were already in the army; For the first 300 years, the Christian church preached nonviolent resistance/pacifism; Why the change?; Up until the time of the Emperor Constantine, the church had been a persecuted minority; Constantine wanted to unify the Roman Empire… one of the ways of unifying the empire was to create a common, universal religion–he chose Christianity; “In this sign, conquer”; He became a “Christian” and ordered that Christianity become the “official religion” of the empire; The Christians were thrilled… no longer were they a persecuted minority; Overnight, they had been designated as “the moral majority”; But that recognition and legitimation came at a price… if you are going to get the support of the empire, then you’re going to have to support the empire in return, which the church readily did; In supporting the empire, they had to in fact support the empire’s militarism… and that’s when it all changed; It changed under Constantine, it changed at the Council of Nicaea… from then on, the church now supported war, and it remained only for Augustine to legitimate this with just war theory; There is no historian that will argue… for the first 300 years the church was pacifist, and it supported nonviolent resistance; If you go to the ancient writings, every one of them pronounces judgment against war and says Christians cannot participate in the army; There is nothing that polluted and ruined the church more than the Constantinian Compromise
Show:Future Quake
Full Podcast: Rev. Wurmbrand’s Appeal For Christian Love For Terrorists Today Date: 11/1/10
Hosts: Dr. Future & Tom Bionic Guest: Todd Nettleton Notes: The last line that Reverand Wurmbrand gives us in his book is “start by changing yourself“; You become more peaceful, you become more loving, and pretty soon, if all of us do that, we’ll start to have a world that is more peaceful and more loving; It’s a charge that you can’t walk away from and you can’t pass it off to somebody else… it’s on you to take the truth that you have and to start making it more a part of your life; You have to first believe that the Holy Spirit has the power in each of us to make this change one-on-one in people… it’s not necessarily a ballot box or any other power structures that are the key to win the battle, but it’s the Holy Spirit one-on-one in each one of us; You also have to acknowledge that these battles are spiritual battles, and not physical battles; When it says in the Bible that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers in these dark places… if we’re going to have a struggle or anything regarding hatred, it should be addressed to the principalities and powers of darkness who stand condemned, rather than the human pawns that are in this physical sphere that are just a mere shadow of the spiritual battle that is truly going on; We have access to the power to change ourselves… not literally us changing ourselves, but allowing God to change us; When you see a terrorist and you see that God loves them and that God can change them, that changes your whole mindset of how you’re going to address them and interact with them, not as somebody to fear and hate, but as somebody who Jesus died for that needs to hear the message of the gospel… that’s a completely different mindset; Christians should get together and pray for these people, that God would illuminate their minds to what they’re doing, to fill them with the love of Jesus Christ, and somehow make a way that they could know about Jesus
Chris Pinto discusses the true beliefs of the founding fathers with Dr. Future and Tom Bionic on the Future Quake Show…
[Part 19 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1.]
Show:Future Quake
Full Podcast: The “True” Faith Of The Founding Fathers, And The Roots And Premises Of “Patriotic” Christianity Date: 3/22/10
Hosts: Dr. Future & Tom Bionic Guest: Chris Pinto Topics: The sacrifice of the saints that have come before us; They endured what they did not for the cause of their own liberty, but for the cause of the gospel; Jesus says “if any man would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me“; The cross is given to a condemned man… it’s the acknowledgment that we are dead to this world; Paul says “I am crucified unto the world, and the world is crucified unto me“–that is the example that millions of saints in centuries past have given us; The documentary “A Lamp in the Dark“; We can see things getting darker and darker in this country; We can see the New World Order/Kingdom of Antichrist emerging day by day on the world scene–prophecy tells us it’s going to happen; Ultimately the only real salvation is eternal in the Lord Jesus Christ; There’s coming a day when all else is behind us and it’s time to suffer for our Lord, and nothing is going to change that; We need to get our hearts ready and be encouraged by the testimony of the saints
Chris Pinto discusses the true beliefs of the founding fathers with Dr. Future and Tom Bionic on the Future Quake Show…
[Part 17 of an ongoing series. Click here for Part 1.]
Show:Future Quake
Full Podcast: The “True” Faith Of The Founding Fathers, And The Roots And Premises Of “Patriotic” Christianity Date: 3/22/10
Hosts: Dr. Future & Tom Bionic Guest: Chris Pinto Topics: The documentary “A Lamp in the Dark“; The reformers and the early church preceeding the reformers–what they endured at the hands of corrupt government and papal authority; These men who were being burned at the stake and buried alive, etc., weren’t crying out about their human rights; Jesus in Gethsemane… He tells Peter to put away his sword; What is the cup that God has given to us as saints?… “in the world you ye shall have tribulation“, “ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake“, “if you are persecuted for righteousness sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad“, “if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed“; When the apostles were beaten for preaching the gospel, they lifted their hands to heaven and thanked God that they had been accounted worthy to suffer shame for the Lord’s sake; The life of the apostle Paul is instructive… there are times that he makes reference to his rights as a Roman citizen; Paul says it best… we should pray so that inasmuch as it is possible, we can dwell peaceably with other men during our time here upon the earth; When you say that the American Revolution was some kind of “Christian” revolution, and you start trying to turn the founding fathers into Christians, then they become the “apostles”–they become the example… now their doctrine is the doctrine that you need to follow, not “turn the other cheek”; In the quotes from the founding fathers, they might mention Jesus by name, but they don’t ever mention his teachings, like “turn the other cheek”, “do good to them that hate you”, and “love your enemies”
Derek Gilbert from A View From the Bunker discusses how giving in to anger and hatred causes us to fight the wrong enemy… and lose the fight.
Show:A View From The Bunker
Full Podcast: VFTB Live: William Ramsey — Aleister Crowley and 9/11 Date: 9/10/10 Host: Derek Gilbert Topics: We can’t let the enemy–the powers and principalities that Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus about–drive us and provoke us into hating those with whom we disagree; By allowing ourselves to be drawn into that kind of anger, we’ve already lost; We’re fighting against the wrong enemy… we’re not wrestling against flesh and blood; By believing another person is the enemy, we have already lost the fight; Christians are simply running in a different race… or we should be
In the audio clip below, James Corbett introduces an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, in which King declares that “right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant“.
Although not included in the audio clip itself, I found the following excerpt from his speech to be equally compelling:
“Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time–the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts.”
“Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr. (Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech – Dec. 10, 1964)
Show:The Corbett Report
Full Podcast: Episode #108 – Peace Prizes for Warmongers
Date: 11/15/09
Host: James Corbett Biography:Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech: Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech Date: December 10, 1964 Location: Oslo, Norway Excerpt: “I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
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