Revolution

Gandhi stuck like a thorn in the side of the British because the standard means of control had no effect against his unorthodox protests. When policemen tried to stop demonstrators by hitting them with clubs, the protestors lined up in orderly rows to receive the blows. Indians soon flooded the nation’s prisons beyond capacity, which was exactly their intent. When authorities hauled Gandhi himself into court and threatened him with prison, he calmly asked for the maximum sentence… (From Soul Survivor, by Philip Yancey)

I’m finding this reading about Gandhi to be very challenging. It reveals again the stark contrasts between the teachings and example of Christ, and the church in the west. Gandhi was not a Christian; he rejected Christianity, in large part because of the miserable failure of Christians to match up to the teachings of the New Testament. But his whole mode of operation could accurately be described as Christlike, not only because he admired Christ’s teachings, but because he put them into practice in his commitment to nonviolence and his humility.

We have a troubling habit of making “turn the other cheek” and “give away all that you have” into metaphorical statements, while making the Proverbs 31 woman and the Ten Commandments literal. Here is someone who — like others I’ve read about in this book — actually does, literally, what Jesus recommends. His impact was extraordinary.