<div dir="ltr">Happy MLK Day Visionaries,<div><br></div><div>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.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Congrats to MLK Breakfast winners, and thanks to Tom we have a well documented record of the event.</div><div><br></div><div>The long version is attached.</div><div><br></div><div>Nick</div><div><br></div>
<div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">Mandela vs. Gandhi and King: How Does He Compare?</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">By Nick
Gier</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif;color:black">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> 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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> 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!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">In 1996
Mandela initiated one of his greatest civil rights, and I would argue,
spiritual achievements. He</span><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> appointed Bishop Desmond Tutu to
chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, one of the most successful
experiments in overcoming national wounds ever attempted. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif">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.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Georgia,serif"> Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the
University of Idaho for 31 years. </span></p></div></div>