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Now She Walks Free: Guest Post by Tim Carson

18 Jan

Bbc_aungsansuukyi

 

By Tim Carson, M.Div, D.Min, guest writer

Nelson Mandela spends decades in his Robin Island captivity, all the while his non-violent but persistent presence grows into a towering figure of moral strength and hope for those overcoming apartheid in South Africa. Martin Luther King, Jr., writes his letter from a Birmingham jail and the world listens in new ways, tuned to the frequency of one willing to suffer for the vision of a new united America. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes letters from the Nazi prison where he is held for resisting the Reich and his words land with a potent power upon the ears of generations to come who strive for justice. The family of Ann Frank is sheltered by heroic neighbors who place themselves at great risk. Anne’s diary, posthumously, serves as a testament to humanity, self-sacrifice, courage and resilience. The apostle Paul dictates a letter to the faithful from prison and his words hold an unmistakable gravitas, the weight of one who has suffered for his God, his purpose, his convictions.

There is a special moral witness that manifests itself when the innocent demonstrate courage, grace and constancy in the face of tyranny, oppression and inhumanity. So very often their voices ring with a deeper clarity, one unrealized by those who have not experienced the same, or sacrificed as much.

And now, in this moment, Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, known simply as “The Lady,” emerges from her confinement, the captivity of a repressive regime. For 15 of the last 21 years the military dictatorship kept her under lock and key. They mistakenly thought that if they kept her out of sight people would forget, lose her in the shadows. But no. With each passing year her stature grew and her influence multiplied. What is a dictator to do? Kill her? No, that would create an instant martyr, an unacceptable outcome, another Ghandi, another Jesus.

And now she walks free, a gentle soul with flowers in her hair. She speaks quietly and directly about democracy, oppression, reconciliation and freedom. She has a spiritual, a peace-making presence of active non-violent resistance. And she sports a winsome humor, a freedom, and a sense that no one can take anything else from her. Is that how courage is forged, when fear is overcome in the furnace of loss or suffering?

What can they do to this 65 year old woman now? Take her life? That has been tried before, throughout history it has. And it is the surest way to release the power of a life into the world, out where it can never again be put behind bars again. Oppressors know that; that’s why they fear the righteous. Evil always grimaces in the light of goodness.

Tim Carson is the Senior Minister of Broadway Christian Church, Columbia, Missouri. You may respond to him at timothylcarson@yahoo.com

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