Archbishop Lori's pastoral on MLK and nonviolence is timely, engaging

https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/archbishop-loris-pastoral-mlk-and-nonviolence-timely-engaging
MGB:_Remember that non-violence is a form of resistance, primarily against the government and the established elites in society which has access to government force. We resist non-violently because it is the only tool we have to show our humanity and the inhumanity of the power structure, both public and private. It is usually adjunct to law suits and it depends on some residual level of decency in the remainder of society, for example the coverage of the reaction by law enforcement showing how extreme they are to a sympathetic public who will shame higher levels of government into action.

It cannot be the same old thing, or the press won’t cover it. The problem with Black Lives Matter is that there is nothing striking about urban protest, which invites more radical forces to engage in property damage to get the attention of the media.

Sometimes reactionary elements try to use the tools of non-violent protest as a form of mockery, as in Charolottseville. Instead, the press, quite rightly, compared those idiots to Nuremberg rallies and the whole event backfired on their President, who has not really been able to recover from the event.

We may need to use mass protest again to force action at the end of the Mueller probe, although that situation probably needs an election to resolve.

The Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have not tried to use purely non-violent protest. They don’t trust the IDF not to kill them in cold blood or maybe that is the only way to get the cameras rolling. Still, in the second Intifada, when the northern Israeli Arabs did join in, it shocked the national enough to create a peace movement, although so far a long term strategy has not seemed to have been tried. If there is anywhere that needs to use the work of King, Ghandi and Thoreau, it is Israel.

Of course, the other are where non-violent resistance may be worth a try is the Church. The status quo cannot stand but no one has begun a movement to make the Church’s Asexual Mafia sit down so that we may form a healthier sexual ethic. That includes Archbishop Lori. From who gets ordained to when they can have sex in relation to when Mass is said, there is much to protest. It just awaits a leader and a spark.