[Vision2020] Mandela vs. Gandhi and King: How Does He Compare?

[Nicholas Gier]

Happy MLK Day Visionaries,

I've been so busy proofing my book MS. that I almost forgot to post this
year's MLK column.  Murf at the DNews usually e-mails me about their
editorial decisions, so I will surprised to see this piece in the paper
this morning.

Congrats to MLK Breakfast winners, and thanks to Tom we have a well
documented record of the event.

The long version is attached.

Nick

*Mandela vs. Gandhi and King: How Does He Compare?*

By Nick Gier

Those who say that Nelson Mandela should not stand next to Mahamta Gandhi
and Martin Luther King, Jr. would point to the fact that Mandela eventually
chose violence over non-violence. Recognizing the truth of the African
proverb—“attacks of the wild beast cannot be averted with only bare hands”—
Mandela reluctantly came to the realization that the African National
Congress needed a military wing.

Contrary to wide-spread opinion, Gandhi did not believe that the principle
of non-violence was absolute.  In fact, he stated quite clearly that if
given a choice between cowardice and responding with violence, one should
definitely choose the latter.

Gandhi’s acts of civil disobedience were clearly acts of courage not
cowardice.  Indeed, by immediately pleading guilty and joyfully accepting
imprisonment, Gandhi was able to achieve moral and spiritual victories over
the British time and time again.

Gandhi recommended that Germany’s Jews should have openly protested, just
as he and his disciples had done in India. He should have realized that the
Nazis were not like the British, and that this was not a situation where
active non-violent resistance was going to work.

Mandela’s enemy was more determined and ruthless than the British with whom
Gandhi negotiated.  Large numbers of white South Africans supported Hitler
and his policies regarding inferior races. Knowing his enemy well, Mandela
refused to be a coward and he was determined to stop the South African
government’s oppression of his people.

Gandhi’s moral failings came from his insistence that the only way he could
prove his vow of chastity was to sleep with naked women of his choosing.
When his disciples objected, he told them that he would sleep with
thousands of women if his vow of chastity required it. King was, on many
occasions, unfaithful to his wife, but unlike Gandhi, King confessed his
sins and sought repentance.

We still condemn Richard Nixon for his arrogance and abuse of power.  We
should do the same for Gandhi’s refusal to see how manipulative he was in
his notorious celibacy tests.

            The first years of Mandela’s 13-year marriage to Evelyn Mase
were harmonious and he doted on his four children.  Increasingly, however,
he spent more and more time with members of the African National Congress,
and his marriage was strained beyond repair. Mandela was a charismatic
figure who drew people to him, including many women willing to make love to
him.

Mandel’s 28 years in prison were a transformative period for him, and his
final years were ones that have assured him a place alongside Gandhi and
King. His political accomplishments were mixed.  He was unable to make good
on the many promises he made for millions of poor and illiterate South
Africans.

            Mandela’s charismatic leadership, however, brought South Africa
together in ways that arguably exceeded Gandhi in India and King in
America.  At the 1995 World Cup Rugby match—the first time that the South
African team had played internationally in years—President Mandela appeared
wearing a Springbok jersey. The capacity crowd, mostly white South
Africans, repeatedly chanted “Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!”

In 1996 Mandela initiated one of his greatest civil rights, and I would
argue, spiritual achievements.  He appointed Bishop Desmond Tutu to chair
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one of the most successful
experiments in overcoming national wounds ever attempted.

As a student of Christian theology, I can say with confidence that this
commission—led by black and white religious leaders, attorneys, and civil
rights leaders—embodied Jesus’ ethics compassion and forgiveness more than
any other religious institution in human history.

I agree with Marcus Eliason of the Associated Press that Mandela, and I
would add Tutu, were “masters of forgiveness,” and as such they have earned
their place among the saints.

            Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of
Idaho for 31 years.
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