The six points of emphasis are: (1) that nonviolent resistance is not cowardly but is a form of resistance; (2) that advocates of nonviolence do not want to humiliate those they oppose; (3) that the battle is against forces of evil not individuals; (4) that nonviolence requires the willingness to suffer; (5) that love is central to nonviolence; and, finally, (6) that the universe is on the side of justice.
…Through his study of Gandhi, King says he learned that Niebuhr’s position involved a serious distortion because:
“true pacifism is not unrealistic submission to evil power. It is rather a courageous confrontation of evil by the power of love, in the faith that it is better to be the recipient of violence than the inflicter of it, since the latter only multiplies the existence of violence and bitterness in the universe, while the former may develop a sense of shame in the opponent, and thereby bring about a transformation and change of heart.”
King is quite well aware that such a commitment entails a massive metaphysical proposal. The willingness to accept suffering without retaliation must be based on the conviction that the universe is on the side of justice.
Stanely Hauwerwas, How Martin Luther King Jr Became Non-violent
According to Yoder, because King understood nonviolence to be the bearing of Jesus’s cross, King was able to choose the path of vulnerable faithfulness with full awareness that such a path would be costly. King operated with the conviction that the victory had been won, but also with the realization that the mopping up might take longer than had been expected.
…
[A]s King well knew, nonviolence is not an “ideal” but must be embedded in the habits of a people across time that make possible the long and patient work of transformation necessary for the reconciliation of enemies.
Stanley Hauwerwas, The Dilemma of Martin Luther King Jr
(HT @Laryn)
