REFLECTION
Remembering
Martin Luther King on the national holiday that remembers
his life, Paul Kendrick of VOTF Maine shared the following:
Excerpt
- "You may well ask: 'Why direct action? Why sit-ins,
marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?'
You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed,
this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent
direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster
such a tension that a community, which has constantly
refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue.
It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer
be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part
of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather
shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of
the word 'tension.'
I
have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is
a type of constructive, nonviolent tension, which is
necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it
was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that
individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and
half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis
and objective appraisal, we must see the need for nonviolent
gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that
will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice
and racism to the majestic heights of understanding
and brotherhood." Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from
a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
Maintaining
A Watch On Episcopal Accountability in the Catholic
Church
"The
panel warned last March that 'there must be consequences'
for bishops who led the years of cover-up." New York
Times Editorial, December 16, 2004
"Until
the cover up, too, is explored and acted upon, the bishops
- in every effort to right past wrongs, including the
way they track their corrective procedures - will be
working under a cloud." Arizona Daily Star Editorial,
December 15, 2004
"The
church leadership has demonstrated by its behavior over
several decades that it cannot be trusted to put the
interests of parishioners ahead of pedophile priests,
which is why the state has been placed in this custodial
relationship to begin with. The church's current attempt
to neutralize the state's authority by rendering the
audit useless is consistent with the arrogance displayed
throughout the years of abuse and deceit." Nashua
Telegraph, January 15, 2005
"...no
bishop or other hierarch who, knowing of the sexual
abuse of minors by any priest, has failed to remove
the priest from any exposure to minors or to take any
other effective step to protect the people of God, or
who has concealed the risk of abuse presented by such
priests from the people to whom such priest was assigned
to minister, should be permitted to hold any position
of ecclesiastical leadership in the Church." VOTF Episcopal
Accountability Resolution, September 18, 2004
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