Sweet Revenge & Bitter Sounds of Calvary Love: West & Smiley on Obama & Osama

Posted May 11 2011 by Jarrod McKenna with 255 Comments

    “You and I are legatees of Martin Luther King, and really we need to say quite explicitly, as Christians, we are going to be viewed as anti-American, anti-patriotic. Martin Luther King was called the same thing. Dorothy Day was called the same thing. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was called the same thing…”

    -Dr. Cornel West

    I am so thankful for the poetic words and witness of brother Cornel West.

    If you have yet to hear Cornel West and Tavis Smiley’s conversation on Obama’s response to the assassination of Bin Laden it is a must.

    Thanks to my mate Wes Howard Brook who rang today and asked if I had listened yet.

    Below are some great quotes from the conversation which you must listen to! Underneath the quotes is a link to the interview itself:

    “Justice does not come out of the barrel of a gun.”

    “I am just not convinced that through killing and more murder that you can stop the killing and more murder.”

    “I don’t believe in moral regeneration through violence, or the ethical revitalization through the celebration of violence.”

    “You and I take seriously the legacy of Martin Luther King…it means then that we must be dissenting voices in the middle of a moment of such self celebration and self congratulation, to say quite explicitly that justice does not come out the barrel of a gun.”

    “So when the President says ‘justice was done’, no, no, no, no. It was retaliation and revenge. Now, there is a sweetness in revenge because people are hurt. People are wounded. But we must be spiritually mature enough to know that justice cuts much deeper than that. And that’s what Martin Luther King Jr. has been trying to tell us.”

    “There is not justice on this side of the Jordan in this sense; that you are never going to get back what you lost.”

    “War is the enemy of the poor.”

    Click here to listen to the full interview. . .Enjoy!!

    —-
    Jarrod McKenna is the National Advisor for Youth, Faith and Activism for World Vision Australia. He is a peace award winning founder of EPYC and co-founder of the Peace Tree Intentional Community in Perth. You can follow him on Twitter here.


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      About the Author

      Jarrod McKenna

      Jarrod McKennaJarrod McKenna is amazed by grace. A peace award winning nonviolence trainer and activist, Jarrod is now World Vision Australia’s National Advisor on Youth, Faith & Activism. Jarrod with his amazing wife and son Teresa and Tyson, are three of 17 people living at First Home Project; an innovative community welcoming, housing and empowering refugees. Follow him on twitter here.View all posts by Jarrod McKenna →

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