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THANK YOU, AND PLEASE
As a Christian, I write to express both gratitude and anticipation to the Jain community. My gratitude stems from the contribution of Jaina practice and theology to Christian practice and theology, particularly the theology of Martin Luther King Jr., and the impact of that theology on the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Someone has cynically said that gratitude is the anticipation of favors yet to come, and in addition to expressing gratitude, I write in a spirit of anticipation. Jainism is a rich faith, and it is my hope that its trinity of values, ahimsa, aparigraha, and anekantvada will provide an important corrective to American Christianity's absolutism, tolerance of violence, and subservience to consumerism.
The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s was as successful as it was, largely because it was a non-violent movement. This fact is particularly startling, since it had little to draw on by way of non-violent example in its larger cultural context. Rather, wars tended to accompany social change in the United States. The nation, and with it democracy, were born in violent revolution, and war accompanied the abolition of slavery a little less than a century later. Yet, while violent acts attended the activism of the 1960s, the movement itself was radically non-violent, and this was largely due to the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr.
King was a brilliant scholar, and he certainly knew that non-violence was not without precedence amongst Christians. The Society of Friends (Quakers) had long advocated pacifism, and, indeed, one can read several of the teachings of Jesus as non-violent manifestos. Yet, King found another, more recent model for his non-violent strategy in Mahatma Gandhi. He traveled to India a decade after Gandhi's death in order to "observe firsthand Gandhi's legacy," Gandhi's practice of aparigraha deeply impressed King, and after his visit to India, he spoke frequently of his wish to reduce his own consumption. Indeed, his desire to live by the principle of aparigraha led to some marital tension since he resisted his wife's desire for a larger home and he drove a "run-down old car." 2 However, King's statement "Christ furnished the spirit and Gandhi provided the technique" suggests that ahimsa was the most important concept that King learned from Gandhi. Indeed, non-violent resistance became the backbone of his strategy.
Just as King found inspiration for the Civil Rights movement in Gandhi's beliefs and practices, Gandhi also learned from others, among them the Jain community. Pratibha Jain tells us that Gandhi's secretary reported that Jainism influenced his life and policies. A more compelling proof of Jainism's influence on Gandhi, however, is the fact that his life so thoroughly demonstrated Jaina values. Gandhi's ashram movement provides compelling evidence of his adoption of the idea of aparigraha, and his answer when asked to prosecute those who had assaulted him on his arrival in Durban is a poignant example of anekantvada. He did not blame them, he said, because they believed that he "had made exaggerated statements in India
14th Biennial JAINA Convention 2007
Jain Education International
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For Private & Personal Use Only
Tim Helton tim@timhelton.com 805-231-6986
Tim Helton has a Bachelor of Arts in Ministerial Studies from L.I.F.E. Pacific and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Claremont School of Theology. He is currently a Ph.D. student at Drew University in New Jersey where he is studying the Anthropology of Religion. He traveled to India for the first annual International Summer School for Jaina Studies, where he developed a love for Jain people and their rich religious tradition. Tim is also deeply interested in interfaith dialog as a vehicle for religious self-critical thought.
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