November 2021 Touchstones Ministry Theme: Nonviolence
November 1: “Nonviolence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
November 2: “At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
November 3: “If I am greedy, envious, violent, merely having an ideal of nonviolence, of non-greed, is of little value. The understanding of what you are, whatever it is—ugly or beautiful, wicked or mischievous—… is the beginning of virtue.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
November 4: “Nonviolence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak…. Nonviolence is hard work.” ~ César Chávez
November 5: “The word ‘jihad’ has nowhere been used in the Qur’an to mean war…. It is used …to mean ‘struggle.’ The action most consistently called for in the Qur’an is …patience.” ~ Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
November 6: “If we divide reality into two camps—the violent and the nonviolent—and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace.” Thích Nhất Hạnh
November 7: “I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
November 8: “Nonviolence aims at doing no harm to living beings. Compassion aims at doing good to all beings.” ~ Amit Ray
November 9: “There is no such thing as defeat in nonviolence.” ~ César Chávez
November 10: “It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our best to help them move in a direction of nonviolence.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh
November 11: “The nonviolent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He … refuses to shoot his opponent, …he refuses to hate him.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
November 12: “Peace is a deeper reality than violence.” ~ Stanley Hauerwas
November 13: “Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and intolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans and pious programs…. There can be no peace on earth without …inner change….” ~ Thomas Merton
November 14: “The nonviolence practiced by Gandhi and King …must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.” ~ Barack Obama
November 15: “When I feel angry, I want to say something mean, or yell, or hit. But feeling like I want to is not the same as doing it. Feeling can’t hurt anyone or get me into trouble, but doing can.” ~ Cornelia Spelman
November 16: “Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.” ~ Coretta Scott King
November 17: “I consider nonviolence to be compassion in action…. It is to act without violence, motivated by compassion, recognizing the rights of others.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV
November 18: “His headstone said / FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST / But death is a slave’s freedom. / We seek the freedom of free men / And the construction of a world / Where Martin Luther King could have lived and / preached nonviolence.” ~ Nikki Giovanni
November 19: “Love and Nonviolence cannot heal the wounds which corruption and injustice have caused.” ~ Ashutosh Naliapara
November 20: “Human Rights …calls for performance of duties such as practicing nonviolence, solving conflicts with …dialogue, respect for the other individual or …nation, respect for human rights….” ~ Henrietta Newton Martin
November 21: “As long as …war is always an …option, we will not …imagine any alternative.” ~ Stanley Hauerwas
November 22: “Nonviolence means dialogue…. Dialogue means compromise; respecting each other’s rights…. There is no 100% winner, no 100% loser—not that way, but half-and-half. That is the …only way.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV
November 23: “But the hard facts were that fifty years of nonviolence had brought the African people nothing but more and more repressive legislation, and fewer and fewer rights.” ~ Nelson Mandela
November 24: “…Jesus did not advocate nonviolence merely as a technique for outwitting the enemy, but as a just means… open [to] the possibility of the enemy’s becoming just as well.” ~ Walter Wink
November 25: “The most visible form of Jesus’s not-of-this-world kingdom is the radical, head-turning love of one’s enemies….” ~ Preston Sprinkle
November 26: “I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened…. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.” ~ Albert Einstein
November 27: “The first principal of nonviolent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
November 28: “When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. …The only thing they don’t know how to handle is nonviolence and humor.” ~ John Lennon
November 29: “The ultimate potent weapon—Non Violence!!!” ~ Mukesh Kwatra
November 30: “Nonviolence became a cultural ideal …for a civilization that …suffered from chronic and terminal violence. …Hindu sages dreamed of nonviolence.” ~ Wendy Doniger
November 31: “Nonviolence is a good policy when conditions permit.” ~ Nelson Mandela