Bible Lesson of the day #1 - Turn your other cheek

Turning your cheek when smote (smited???) is a widely held, but somewhat misunderstood (and in the case of Freepers and Fundies, ignored) tenet. Martin Luther King Jr. understood it fully, and made it the centerpiece of his strategy.

You see, in ancient Israel, to use your left hand to do anything was extremely bad form, and brought dishonor upon yourself and family. You used your right hand to eat, dispense cash - pretty much everything. This is one of the reasons why Muslims make such effort to wash their feet and hands before prayers - out of respect since during prayers hands are used to show submission before Allah. But I digress...

So when struck on the right cheek with the right hand, you turn your left cheek, which essentially means "hit me again with your left hand," the attacker has to think. In his mind he has a choice, hit the guy again with your left hand, and bring dishonor on yourself and family - or reconsider the situation.

Now move forward to the 20th century. You have an oppressed people (African Americans) excersizing their rights of speech in the South. By doing so they are excersizing a legal right - but one which defacto racism forbids. So the reaction of the cops is to spray them down, beat them up, try to kill them, etc. But the cameras are there - and the establishment has to think - doing this bring dishonor upon themselves, which it did.

Martin Luther King Jr. understood this, and took a prime tenet of Jesus and worked it into a viable peaceful resistance strategy. Not because he liked it, but because he knew it would work.

I was not aware of the history of that teaching. Thank you:)