Protesting
"There, right down in the mess, they are able to radiate God because they possess Him." -Evelyn Underhill
For the real saint is neither a special creation nor a spiritual freak. He is just a human being in whom has been fulfilled the great aspiration of St. Augustine – “My life shall be a real life, being wholly full of Thee.” And as that real life, the interior union with God grows, so too does the saints’ self-identification with humanity grow. They do not stand aside wrapped in delightful prayers and feeling pure and agreeable to God. They go right down into the mess; and there, right down in the mess, they are able to radiate God because they possess Him. - Evelyn Underhill
Is there something worthy and achievable being demanded
Recently, I listened to a podcast - “What's a win?” - Dan Senor is interviewing Tal Becker. Senor is an American political adviser and columnist. Becker is an Israeli lawyer and an international law expert. Their discussion is primarily focused on a question about how Israel can define the end of the war, a win. Becker shares some criticism of Israel's approach while offering a very interesting and broad perspective. However, in one part of the conversation, they touch on the topic I'm looking at today.
Dan Senor was speaking about what he sees in the Pro-Palestinian protests, “ There's very little about the creation of a Palestinian state in the rhetoric. You’d be hard to find any rhetoric around that. There's very little about building up the moderate forces for pursuit of Palestinian self-determination, of a Palestinian state that will live side-by-side with a Jewish state. There's nothing about developing the Palestinian national movement as one that could live side-by-side with Israel. It’s delegitimizing Israel. It's all about delegitimizing Israel. It's all about genocide, apartheid. It's all about an end to the colonialist state. Is that effectively an expression or manifestation of what you're describing here as Hamas’s strategy? To make the whole debate not about what could be with regard to Palestinian self-determination for the pursuit of Palestinian self-determination, and make it solely and singularly about delegitimizing Israel in the eyes of everyone not just those in the Muslim world.”
I can recall in the early protests some that were simply pro-Hamas, especially the one on October 8 in New York City. But also some where there were signs calling for a two-state solution. Those calls seemed to have disappeared from the streets and what predominates are slogans such as “from the river to the sea” or “globalized the Intifada” or “free Palestine.” Some have claimed that those chants are meant in a nonviolent way while Jewish students on the universities and others hear them as being about the destruction of the state of Israel, the end of the Jewish homeland. That perception gets reinforced as we hear the chants being used more recently during the murder of the two young people in DC and the flamethrower attack in Boulder. The closest the pro Palestinian demonstrations come to the effective use of demonstrations is in the more specific demands wanting the university to disinvest from Israel. The earlier civil rights demonstrations would demand broad outcomes, such as voting rights or more employment opportunities along with more specific goals, such as serving African-Americans at a lunch counter. Their focus was not on the delegitimizing the states of Mississippi and Alabama. The states were successfully doing that to themselves by their behavior.
Then the soul, stripped of all the garments and disguises which ministered to its secrete self love, sees itself in its shappiness and emptiness, its mere human second rateness. Clad only in that self knowledge it stands alone before the Holy, to offer the one thing that matters; the oblation of a free heart, cleansed of delusions, images and attachments, truly poor, truly chaste, truly obedient, and therefore ready for the invasion of love. Evelyn Underhill
Violence, nonviolence, and peaceful
On Saturday in the late afternoon Mike Baker of the New York Times reported from Seattle on “No Kings”- “The Seattle Police Department said that ‘tens of thousands’ of demonstrators had shown up for the No Kings protest and that the crowd spanned more than 1.5 miles of roadway during a march through the city. As the event continued, the department noted that there was “not a single report of property damage.” Here is a local station’s report. They also say that all the demonstrations in the city have been peaceful so far. They also noted, “that Antifa has shown up at the Cal Anderson Park “No Kings” rally, while KIRO Newsradio saw light Antifa presence at the University of Washington rally.”
Commitment to non-violence
The “No Kings” protest was organized by the 50501 movement. It was a large number of peaceful protests across the US. The nonviolence was built into the event. The group’s values included this commitment, “We are dedicated to promoting nonviolence in all aspects of our interactions, fostering a culture of respect, understanding, and peaceful conflict resolution.” The values statement is aspirational. On another webpage the group says, “50501 is a peaceful movement. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated.” A firmer commitment. Still, the statements lack the more concrete approach of the 1960’s civil rights movement. This is from a 1963 brochure of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), “All groups affiliated with national CORE agree to follow the nonviolent procedure in all action which they sponsor…Members will meet the anger of any individual or group in the spirit of goodwill and creative reconciliation: he will submit to assault and will not retaliate in kind either by act or word.” It’s more focused on practice, the behavior of those demonstrating. (A PDF of the brochure is available in “We were committed to the way of peace.”).
Of course there was some violence connected to No Kings but that appeared limited. Newsweek, “While many of the events reportedly remained largely peaceful, several cities saw violent altercations, including a vehicular assault in Virginia and a shooting in Utah.” Those examples appear to be attacks on the No Kings group. In Los Angeles, “Los Angeles police issued a dispersal order on Saturday afternoon for "No Kings" protesters after the crowd allegedly started throwing objects near the downtown federal building. While the demonstration was largely peaceful throughout the day, Los Angeles Police Department officers said on a post to X, ‘people in the crowd are throwing rocks, bricks, bottles and other objects’ when the march passed by the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building.”
Public leaders to negotiate with
One of the factors in keeping earlier movements nonviolent was that they had public leaders. Knowing who those leaders were gave government and institutional leaders someone to negotiate with. It increased the sense of responsibility and accountability.
After the March on Washington in August of 1963 President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson met with a delegation of civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), A. Philip Randolph (union leader and March organizer), Roy Wilkins (NAACP), Walter Reuther (United Auto Workers) Whitney Young. (the Urban League), John Lewis (the southern nonviolent coordinating committee (SNCC), Floyd McKissick (CORE) and Eugene Carson Blake (church leader). They discussed the need for civil rights legislation and what provisions they wanted included.
In contrast the 50501 Movement does not identify its leadership. This has become common in recent years as they say they are a grassroots, decentralized movement. It does identify “partner organizations” and offer a “group directory” most of the partner groups listed also offer no information as to who the leaders are. Statements included: “The Political Revolution” is a group of volunteers that grew out of the Bernie Sanders campaign. And “Build The Resistance is not an organization. It is, first and foremost, a call to action. …This site is being built by concerned everyday people.” An exception was Voices of Florida that listed its board with pictures. The 50501 directory lists large number of groups along with contact information but no names are offered. A Seattle news station (KOMO) reported that a full-page ad in The New York Times to "mobilize" for the protests was paid for by Walmart heiress, Christy Walton,
Violence
Two days before No Kings, we saw a very different picture in Seattle as a peaceful anti ICE demonstration ended and protesters dressed in black with masks on confronted the police starting a fire and were throwing objects at the officers. Here’s a report discussing the shift from peaceful to violent. There was some violence last night after No Kings also by people masked and dressed in black. An attempt was made to start a fire at the federal building. And in Tukwila, a Seattle suburb, a group and attempted to barricade a Department of Homeland Security building and threw water bottles at police officers.
Combine that with what we've seen in recent days in Los Angeles and there appears to be several different forms of demonstrations taking place. I'd suggest that the language “mostly peaceful” is a distortion of what it's actually happening. Let me try a different way of describing things. In Los Angeles, we saw large anti ICE demonstrations with a mix of demonstrators who appeared to want to keep things peaceful and a number who clearly were committed to violence as they attacked the police and started fires. And yesterday we saw what appeared to be a break off group assaulting. police near the federal building. In Seattle, we saw an entirely peaceful demonstration during the day and then violence breaking out at night.
Clearly, we have some people who are committed to violence. It's reasonable to assume there are others who get caught up in the emotion of the moment. There are some demonstrations where the critical mass for peace is so strong that those inclined toward violence are restrained. And there are other situations where that critical mass is inadequate or those inclined toward violence, simply override it, and you have these confrontations with law-enforcement, looting and property damage.
A June 12 NBC report on the violence in Los Angeles, “a far-left online ecosystem that has proliferated in recent years, experts say. Some of the groups behind the accounts express contempt for peaceful resistance and glorify acts of violence — and even murders, like those of the United Healthcare CEO and two Israeli Embassy staffers. The leftist networks tend to be different from right-wing groups in that they are typically decentralized with no leadership structures. But they can be highly adept at using social media, and some have been working hard to amplify and celebrate the acts of violent protesters in Los Angeles.”
What is the nonviolent response when some segments of a group turned to violence? In the moment, you end up faced with two possible actions. First, you can try to talk with those engage in violence, asking them to stop it. Most of us have seen videos of those attempts. Sometimes they seem successful and other times they are ignored. Secondly, you can refuse to allow yourself to be used to provide cover for the violence. Large numbers of peaceful people in a crowd or wandering in the street, making it difficult for the police to manage the violence. When the violence begins, you can leave, you simply refuse to provide cover for violence, to participate in it or rationalize it.
And what about the groups organizing the violence? You can encourage all groups to publicly identify their leadership. And if you have information about who is organizing violence, you can turn that over to the police.
One’s first duty is adoration, and one’s second duty is awe and only one’s third duty is service
I’d invite you to reflect on a bit of wisdom from Evelyn Underhill
“One’s first duty is adoration, and one’s second duty is awe and only one’s third duty is service. And that for those three things and nothing else, addressed to God and no one else, you and I and all other countless human creatures evolved upon the surface of this planet were created. We observe then that two of the three things for which our souls were made are matters of attitude, of relation: adoration and awe. Unless these two are right, the last of the triad, service, won’t be right. Unless the whole of your...life is a movement of praise and adoration, unless it is instinct with awe, the work which the life produces won’t be much good.”
This abides,
Brother Robert, OA
On Trinity Sunday. Also the Feast of Evelyn Underhill, Mystic & Writer, 1941