Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Be the peace you wish to see in the world.”
Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Elie Wiesel: “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
By Elie Wiesel
True, we are often too weak to stop injustices;
but the least we can do is protest against them.
True, we are too poor to eliminate hunger;
but in feeding one child, we protest against hunger.
By Rabbi David Saperstein
“In the Jewish tradition, the separation between prayer and action is slight. We’re mindful of the admonition in Isaiah where God says, ‘I don’t want your fast and your sacrifice. I want you to deal your bread to the hungry, tear apart the chains of the oppressed.’
And Leviticus 19 tells us that to be holy in the way God is holy means to set aside a corner of our fields for the poor and homeless, to pay the laborer a timely and fair wage, and to remove stumbling blocks. These are religious activities just as much as prayer is. They are all woven together.
After participating in the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of this century’s great religious figures and a close colleague of Martin Luther King, said, ‘It felt like my feet were praying.’ Prayer is not just the communication we have with God; it is also the work we do to make God’s values real to the world. I think God listens to both kinds of prayer with equal joy.”
Rabbi David Saperstein is an American rabbi, lawyer, and Jewish community leader.
By Martin Luther King, Jr.
“O God, we thank you for the fact that you have inspired men and women in all nations and in all cultures. We call you different names: some call you Allah; some call you Elohim; some call you Jehovah; some call you Brahma; some call you the Unmoved Mover. But we know that these are all names for one and the same God. Continue reading
From A Theology of Liberation, Gustavo Gutiérrez
“If there is no friendship with them [the poor] and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.”
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, OP is a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest, regarded as one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology.
Using Greek terms “protagonist” and “antagonist,” Forum Theatre seeks to show a person (the protagonist) who is trying to deal with an oppression and failing because of the resistance of one or more obstacles (the antagonists). This exercise is to explore what are the barriers keeping people oppressed in their places.
Ask one person to embody an oppression (they can choose anything). Other participants are asked to make a physical barrier by naming what keeps the person oppressed. When they name a barrier they stand in front of the person, blocking them. After several have formed a wall blocking the person who is oppressed, the remaining participants are asked to break down the barrier. Invite them to suggest solutions to break down the barriers of oppression.
From Qur’an 4:135 (Islamic sacred text)
“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for God can best protect both. Follow not your personal inclination, lest you not be just, and if you distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that you do.”
Do this only if whole group feels comfortable touching and holding hands. Maybe ask people to close their eyes and put their thumbs up or down if they are comfortable. If even one person is not, do not do this activity.
Choose an issue such as poverty, education, immigration, or anything you/the group/society are currently facing. Ask the group to stand in a circle and join right hands with a person across the circle from them. As the pair join hands, invite each of the people (or both as a pair) to name a cause that contributes to the issue you’ve selected. Go around the circle until all participants have had a turn to speak. Continue reading
Originally in Quechua
Wake up! Children of the Incas, shout!
Turn your eyes this way with your head held high;
so we can be heard around the world.
The new day is beginning, The sun greets you, as a mother looking upon her children gathered below him.
Her sparkling light shines upon you as it had in the good times of our glorious Kingdom of Tawantinsuyu.
Upon you workers who have suffered too long!
Here it is! Our victorious day has arrived.
Obtained by the blood of our brave fighters,
who sacrificed their lives and were hung by their necks,
because they fought their exploiters in the past.
It is necessary to bring back the consciousness of our ancestors.
By James Berry
Some people shoot up tall.
Some hardly leave the ground at all.
Yet-people equal. Equal.
One voice is a sweet mango.
Another is a nonsugar tomato.
Yet-people equal. Equal.
Some people rush to the front.
Others hang back, feeling they can’t.
Yet-people equal. Equal.
Hammer some people, you meet a wall.
Blow hard on others, they fall.
Yet-people equal. Equal.
One person will aim at a star.
For another, a hilltop is too far.
Yet-people equal. Equal.
Some people get on with their show.
Others never get on the go.
Yet-People equal. Equal.
James Berry was a Jamaican author of several books of poetry and children’s literature.