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The Way of Christ is Not Violent
Townhall.com ^ | June 7, 2020 | Jerry Newcombe

Posted on 06/07/2020 6:27:01 AM PDT by Kaslin

America needs Jesus. No greater reminder of that fact can be seen than the recent protests in the streets of the nation.

The anger against what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis last week is justified. The violence and looting that came in the wake of protests is not.

A white officer kneeled on the neck of a black man in his custody until he was dead---while being recorded on video by numerous bystanders. But protests turned violent and destructive, and now they are taking place in major cities all over the nation.

In an editorial in The Wall Street Journal (6/1/20), Robert Woodson opines, “Riots Invite Crime, Not Justice.” He adds, “Blacks end up suffering more when hostility to police makes it impossible to maintain urban order.”

Long-term positive change can be effected through peaceful means. I think, for instance, of the peaceful African-American lady who, with God’s help, led the peaceful wade-ins at Fort Lauderdale beaches in the early 1960s.

She was the late Eula Johnson, and I interviewed her in her home in 1991---30 years after the event. I was delighted to learn that she was a regular viewer of the televised Christian services of the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, for whom I worked.

Here’s what happened. Fort Lauderdale is known for its lush beaches and relaxed lifestyle. Before 1962, however, blacks were not allowed on the beaches.

They were allowed one little strip of beach, in Dania (five miles south of Fort Lauderdale), to which they had to be ferried. But they couldn’t go to the more popular beaches in the area.

One Sunday on the 4th of July, after they attended church, Eula Johnson and Dr. Von Mizell (a local physician—just the second African-American doctor in Fort Lauderdale) concluded that it was time that their community have access to those beaches too.

She told me, “We decided …to celebrate a little more independence than what we were enjoying. People were talking about independence---I felt like we had no independence. We would do our best to try to obtain some independence that we would have a right to celebrate the 4th of July.”

So she, the doctor, and a couple of others walked to the beach. Word of their bold march preceded them. Eula said, “And we could hear them broadcasting over the radio, ‘Negroes are lounging at the municipal beach in Fort Lauderdale.’ When we looked up, we saw [opposing] crowds. The ambulances were out there. Policemen were out there. The fire department was out there.”

Despite the sea of angry white faces, thankfully, no violence took place. Eula, then president of the NAACP-Broward, continued going to the beach with other blacks. And so the city of Fort Lauderdale sued her for fear of losing valuable tourist dollars. And in deciding the case, U.S. District Judge Ted Cabot not only ruled in Eula’s favor, but with a single decision, he struck down all of Fort Lauderdale’s Jim Crow laws.

What was the source of Eula’s strength? She said, “God was with me. I take my strength from the Spirit of God. God is big enough to handle it.”

While Fort Lauderdale sued her in the 1960s, later, it gave her a key to the city.

Today, one of the beachfront state parks in Fort Lauderdale where Eula was not allowed to be is now named the “Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park.”

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who did more than any single person to peacefully work toward making America become more color-blind, once said that America’s problem is not with its creed---that all men are created equal. It’s that we have not been living up to that creed.

His niece, Evangelist Alveda King, told me in an interview that we could solve much of the racial conflict in this country if we would just accept what the Bible teaches: “You go to Acts 17:26, ‘Of one blood God created all people to live together on the earth.’ Now, if we are separate races, we cannot possibly be brothers and sisters. So, we have to see ourselves as one race, one human race, created by God, and we’re supposed to live together in this world as brothers and sisters. So, that’s a fundamental truth that America has not yet embraced.”

Her Uncle Martin preached: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

MLK also declared, “Nonviolence is not a symbol of weakness or cowardice, but as Jesus demonstrated, nonviolent resistance transforms weakness into strength and breeds courage in the face of danger.”

Positive, long-lasting change comes from doing the right thing by God’s help---not from stealing television sets from Target while claiming to “demand justice” for George Floyd. God is the key to true healing in America.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: georgefloyd; gfloydriots; trumpadministration

1 posted on 06/07/2020 6:27:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

yet almost every prophet and disciple and Jesus met a violent death.


2 posted on 06/07/2020 6:36:52 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Kaslin

...unless you are a moneychanger...


3 posted on 06/07/2020 6:39:55 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: PeterPrinciple

And yet by Christ’s death and ressurection the gates of Heaven are opened for us to enter if we choose to follow Him.


4 posted on 06/07/2020 6:45:55 AM PDT by frogjerk (We are conservatives. Not libertarians, not "fiscal conservatives", not moderates)
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To: Kaslin

Jer 28:7 But listen now to the solemn words I speak to you in the presence of all these people.
Jer 28:8 The ancient prophets who preceded you and me spoke against many nations, always warning of war, disaster, and disease.
Jer 28:9 So a prophet who predicts peace must show he is right. Only when his predictions come true can we know that he is really from the LORD.”


I know this article is not “official” prophecy but in a way the article is a prophecy.

Our eyes and hears go to the word peace. We like it. The first verse most will remember is “peace on earth and good will toward men.”

But there is much move in that verse. Read it slowly and let ones lips move:

Luk 2:14 “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

Peace has a lot of different meanings. Most want peace on earth, not peace with God.

Thanks for making me think this morning.


5 posted on 06/07/2020 6:53:11 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Kaslin

The left-wing protesters, by and large, don’t believe in Christ. They are nihlists living in the relativist temporal order with no guide except for the next outrage to be whipped up by the media. Hypocrites, of the highest order, they feed on the ignorance of history of their gullible masses, who worship celebrity and fame, who follow them blindly into a pit.


6 posted on 06/07/2020 6:53:56 AM PDT by frogjerk (We are conservatives. Not libertarians, not "fiscal conservatives", not moderates)
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To: frogjerk

And yet by Christ’s death and ressurection the gates of Heaven are opened for us to enter if we choose to follow Him.


Was the violent death necessary? Wouldn’t a quiet peaceful life and death have worked?

Your thoughts?


7 posted on 06/07/2020 6:56:15 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Kaslin
I get ever so slightly impatient with self-appointed theologians telling me what Christ is like. Thanks for playing but I'll take the Word directly from the Source:

Matthew 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
Matthew 11:12 "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."

You get the picture.
This whole notion of an effete Jesus who would never offend anybody and wouldn't kill a fly is not the Son of Man we find in the Bible. I'm not going to condemn someone who chooses to look up to Martin Luther King; it's a free country. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

8 posted on 06/07/2020 7:03:28 AM PDT by stormhill
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To: frogjerk

The left-wing protesters, by and large, don’t believe in Christ. They are nihlists living in the relativist temporal order with no guide except for the next outrage


The art of negotiation is to create a win/win. To have a win/win:

1) one needs to clearly know the goals of both parties,

2) Look for a way to create that win/win

3) If can’t create a win/win then?

Most of us haven’t done step one. It is not only their goals but our goals. Our founding fathers had very clear goals

regarding step one. none of us like a fight and will try to create a false win/win.

What is the answer to step 3? God has an answer, Trump has an answer and you and I have one.


9 posted on 06/07/2020 7:07:47 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: stormhill

I don’t think there are many Christians in Antifa


10 posted on 06/07/2020 7:46:25 AM PDT by rintintin (qu)
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To: rintintin

Or burning churches.


11 posted on 06/07/2020 7:56:03 AM PDT by Crim (Palin / West '16)
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To: frogjerk

I agree and let me add this. Those of us who study prophecy from a dispensational perspective can see how these people will be on the receiving end of the tribulations to come. For the most part they have chosen a hardened enmity against God. God will certainly oblige.


12 posted on 06/07/2020 8:08:44 AM PDT by EliRoom8
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To: frogjerk

They actually likely have rejected Christ.


13 posted on 06/07/2020 8:14:28 AM PDT by caww
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