3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

available to the Negro in his struggle for fradom :' 3 ~ King brought to the theory of
nonviolence a concern with love and compassion, a benevolent worldview, and a theological
background solidly grounded in Christian beliefs . To him, Jesus Christ exemplified love in
its highest form, , which transcended human difference and lent redemption to
nonviolent activism . Rustin approached nonviolence from a moral but distinctly unreligious
background; for him, nonviolence was a matter of right and wrong . King, by comparison,
saw nonviolent direct action as an ultimate expression of faith in humanity, ofcharity
towards all, of spiritual nonviolence--in short, of Christian love . As King explained, "Christ
furnished the spirit and motivation, while Gandhi provided the method." 32
Nonviolence, for King, worked on several basic premises . First, it connoted courage,
not cowardice . It was active resistance to evil, not passive non-resistance . Second, it was
redemptive, looking toward the creation of what King called "the beloved community;' and
what Gandhi had referred to as s~vc~y~, the ideal society . Nonviolence sought to win over
the opponent through reconciliation . Third, it attacked an unjust system itself rather than
3~King, Stride Toward Freedom, 85 .
sz~ . For more on King's understanding of nonviolence, see Lewis V. Baldwin,~
Make the Wounded Whole : The Cultural Leggy of Martin Luther Kina [~ (Minneapolis :
Fortress Press, 1992), 61-62 . David Garrow has pointed out that King's published works
were heavily edited and partially ghostwritten, and has warned against scholars' "naive
ovenneliance" on these texts . According to him, the "King" portrayed in many scholarly
works is a "spiritual stick-figure" compared to "the actual man," and he has implored
scholars to use only King's unedited, unpublished writings as primary sources . Garrow's
scholarship is valuable (he has written the most comprehensive and insightful biography of
King to date in Bearingthe Cross) , though I see little reason to treat King's edited, published
works as anything other than King's own testimony . Certainly King's personality and the
heart of his philosophy are expressed in his published books and essays, as well as in his
extemporaneous writings . For a full explanation of this controversy, see Lewis V. Baldwin,
There is a Balm in Gilead (Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 1991), 11-14 .
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