Nonviolent Action: Answering Critics with a Heritage Rooted in Colonial America
Submitted by elsa on Sat, 2006-02-25 19:13.Excepts from two books on the history of colonial non-violent struggle follow these introductory paragraphs:
Nonviolent Action – and especially one of its forms, nonviolent civil disobediance – is commonly viewed with apprehension. Participants encounter people who question their fundamental respect for law and order and their loyalty to country. However, America’s first patriots, in the years between 1765 and 1775, used nonviolent actions and nonviolent civil disobedience in their struggle for colonial rights and later for independence.
At critical moments since then, nonviolent action has assisted our complex governmental system to fulfill its promise. For instance, with the help of nonviolent action, the rights of democracy have been extended to African Americans, women, the disabled, employees, and other groups. Nonviolent action continues to help Americans enter the public dialogue when media do not give adequate or proportionate information about citizen concerns.
War and the Catholic Parish
Submitted by elsa on Thu, 2004-10-07 18:46.The material below was written by a friend and fellow parishioner to assist pastors and others in Church leadership to address difficult questions of conscience in times of war or impending war. I believe that these reflections are very helpful resources for pastoral leadership, and I commend them to you whole heartedly.
Deacon Clarke E. Cochran
St. John Neumann Parish
Director of Deacon Formation
Diocese of Lubbock in Texas
War and the Catholic Parish.doc | War and the Catholic Parish.pdf
If you are having trouble opening these documents try 'right clicking' on the name and download them to your desktop and then open them.
See end of the document for granted copyright permissions for Catholic Organizations, Clergy and their assigns.
Resistance, Politics, and the American Struggle for Independence, 1765-1775
Submitted by elsa on Wed, 2006-04-26 21:49.Resistance, Politics, and the American Struggle for Independence, 1765-1775,
Walter H. Conser, Jr., Ronald M. McCarthy, David J. Toscano, and Gene Sharp, eds., Lynne Rienner: Boulder, CO, 1986, 565 pp. (out of print).
I beseech you to implore every Friend in Boston by every thing dear and sacred to Men of Sense and Virtue to avoid Blood and Tumult. They will have time enough to dye. Let them give the other Provinces opportunity to think and resolve. Rash Spirits that would by their Impetuosity involve us in insurmountable difficulties will be left to perish by themselves despised by their Enemies, and almost detested by their Friends. Nothing can ruin us but our violence. Reason teaches this. I have indubitable Intelligence, dreadful, as to the Designs against us; consolotary, if we are but prudent.
Samuel Adams to James Warren, 21 May 1774
Submitted by elsa on Sat, 2006-02-25 19:39.I beseech you to implore every Friend in Boston by every thing dear and sacred to Men of Sense and Virtue to avoid Blood and Tumult. They will have time enough to dye. Let them give the other Provinces opportunity to think and resolve. Rash Spirits that would by their Impetuosity involve us in insurmountable difficulties will be left to perish by themselves despised by their Enemies, and almost detested by their Friends. Nothing can ruin us but our violence. Reason teaches this. I have indubitable Intelligence, dreadful, as to the Designs against us; consolotary, if we are but prudent.
