Bishop Marc Andrus writes of recent events in Tunisia, the legacy of Martin Luther King, and the kind of love that launches movements:
The Tunisian protests were galvanized by the action of one young man, Mohamed Bouazizi, who immolated himself to bring attention to the despair of many like him, who suffer from joblessness, despite high levels of education. Such an act can have great power, and can apparently move people into a “strong ties” sort of behavior, beyond the expected bounds of what friends might do for one another.
It would be a terrible mistake, though, to see the chain of events in Tunisia as posing a recommendation for similar self-sacrifice on the part of others. Moahmed Bouazizi’s death is a tragedy and a loss–his death a result of despair. If you think the underlying arc of this article is to compare such a death with that of Jesus, you’re mistaken. I do not think that my great Pioneer of Faith, Jesus, sought death to protest the Romans. Rather, it seems that Jesus set himself on a course that he well knew might have dire consequences.
It is really this, the magnetic quality of a life dedicated to love, that is I think the genuine power to create “strong ties” over a large population. We can look at the life of Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha, whose path today has over 300 million followers. The Buddha lived a life of supreme dedication to the relief of suffering in the world, over a period of 40 years, finally dying at the age of 80. Closer to our own time, the great attraction that Mother Teresa’s life has had is unrelated to any single act of self-sacrifice.
This weekend many of us in the United States remember with gratitude the life and witness of Martin Luther King, Jr. His life, modeled on the life of Jesus, exemplifies the principles I’m searching out in this article. Yes, he died a martyr’s death, a death he knew might be the consequence of the path he chose. But for me, it is the walking of his path that inspires and motivates me to try and do similarly. Again and again I go back to Dr. King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” and remember his principles for considering a non-violent protest action, the second of which is “purify your motives.” A life lived by such standards has the power to attract and transform many, perhaps, as in Jesus’ case, a world.