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Religion, Practice and Science of Non-Violence
will of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, we cordially adopt the non-resistance principle, being confident that it provides for all possible consequences, and expressing the will of God, must ultimately triumph over every evil force. We advocate no revolutionary doctrines. The spirit of revolutionary doctrine is the spirit of retaliation, violence and murder, and neither fears God nor regard man. We would be filled with the spirit of Christ. Following the fundamental rule of not resisting evil by evil, we cannot engage in plots, riots, disturbances, or violence. We shall submit to every ordinance and every requirement of government except such as are contrary to the commands of the Gospel, and in no case resist the operation of law, except by meekly submitting to the penalty of disobedience. But while we shall adhere to the doctrine of non-resistance and shall passively endure all attacks directed against us, we intend on our part, in a moral and spiritual sense, increasingly to assail iniquity in high places and in low places, in civil, political, legal and ecclesiastical institutions, and to strive to hasten the time when the kingdoms of the world will have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Garrison's lifelong work within the pacifist tradition is well known now. His editorship of the Liberator and the Non-Resistant was intimately connected with his crusade to abolish slavery without resort to violence.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation: Another prominent group of Christians which strictly follow the teaching of Christ was formed in 1914. This was called the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Its convictions are:1
1. Love, as revealed and interpreted in the life and death of Jesus Christ, involves more than we have yet seen, that it is the only power by which evil can be overcome, and the only sufficient basis of human society;
2. In order to establish a world-order based on Love, it is incumbent upon those who believe in this principle to accept it fully, borth for themselves and in their relationship to others, and to take the risks involved in doing so in a world which does not as yet accept it;
1Brittain, Vera, The Rebel Passion.
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