Martin Luther King, Jr. had this to say about violence in his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:
It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding: it seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.
-- MLK 1964 nobel peace prize acceptance speech.
Monday on The Glenn Beck TV Program, Glenn was joined by faith leaders and several eyewitnesses to the Dallas shooting in which five police officers were killed. The group discussed what needs to be said and how we need to respond in order to move past the violence and reach a place of mutual respect and understanding.
Pastor Charles Flowers from Faith Outreach described the plans he had in place --- prior to the shooting in Dallas --- to address the shootings in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.
"When things like that happen, the community itself is gripped by fear and a whole bunch of other emotions. And if it lands where other verdicts have landed, in terms of a no-bill, that becomes the spark that starts things roaring all over the country," Flowers said. "Our desire was to get out in front of that and begin speaking to elements within our own community, even to prepare them for no-bills coming out of Baton Rouge and Minnesota."
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Pastor Flowers also addressed the storm that's been building in the nation.
"If I were going to destabilize the country -- if I was going to destroy the nation -- I would do what I have seen systemically done in America the last five or ten years," Flowers said. "I'd stoke racism through media and the movies, I'd raise the angst and the hatred in the heart of people. I'd pepper it with these types of things that are happening around the country with shootings. And then, just let an emotional people destroy themselves. But if that's the case, then we have to not play into the hand of that."
Glenn readily agreed, but also voiced concern about achieving that lofty goal.
"Boy, I have to tell you there aren't a lot of people who don't want to. I mean there's a lot of people that just want revenge -- on both sides, both sides," Glenn said.
While our challenges may seem insurmountable, Pastor Flowers offered a light of hope.
"If you've been feeding on emotion, you're going to respond emotionally." Flowers said. "But not everybody. There is a remnant, a core of people who understand where we're going. If the course is not altered, this is not bad for a segment of people, it's all of us."
That statement rang true to Glenn.
"That's why you all are here. You know if we don't change this, we're done," Glenn said.
Loutina Turner, an eyewitness to the Dallas shooting, outlined a way to move forward.
"This has caused my city to grieve and if we would just embrace forgiveness, like you were speaking of earlier, a lot of this would not happen. We would prevent a lot of this and we would recognize it when we see it," Turner said.
Watch the full program on TheBlaze.
Featured Image: Screenshot from The Glenn Beck Program