Jan 1st, 2007
The story of Le Chambon really penetrated my consciousness, perhaps the following can explain why. I was born and spent the first part of my childhood in an intentional Christian community in the state of Georgia called Koinonia. The people there valued nonviolence, equality, and simplicity, trying to identify with the poor in the way Jesus demonstrated.
The community was founded in the 1940's in an attempt to demonstate how blacks and whites could live together in equality during an extremely racially tense and prejudiced time in the southern United States. With its radical ideas on racial equality and communal living, the community was constantly assaulted with bombs, death threats, and boycotts from the surrounding population - yet it consistently responded with nonviolence. Because I grew up with the concept of nonviolence and activism, but since then have not encountered many other people or organizations with these values, I found it quite exciting to come across the story of André Trocmé, with his energetic love and persistent exclusion of violence from his action plan. While many of the other Christian leaders around Europe during WWII, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Pierre Toureille, gave up their commitment to nonviolence for what they saw as stronger kinds of resistance to Hitler, André Trocmé did not waver in his determination to live and work in what he saw as Jesus' way. ...I want to practice these values in my own life, trying always to be proactive, work towards peace, be compassionate, and follow God's lead.
The villagers of quiet little Le Chambon-sur-Lignon marched dedicatedly and peacefully towards a better world, showing compassion to the persecuted and aid to the oppressed. And they prevailed.
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