wfn.org | Church uses King's principles to teach peace, leadership

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 17, 1999  News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.  10-31-71B{144}
 
By Michael Wacht*

LARGO, Fla. (UMNS) -- In October 1996, racial tension in St. Petersburg
erupted into violence after an African-American motorist was shot by a white
police officer. 

Overnight, rioters set 29 fires, and nearly a dozen people were
hospitalized.

Today, through the efforts of the Kingian Nonviolence Training Program at
Anona United Methodist Church, kids from diverse backgrounds throughout St.
Petersburg are learning to live together peacefully and make real changes in
their own lives and community, according to Kim Townsel, a member of the
church and leader of the program. Anona is located in Largo, a middle-class
suburb of St. Petersburg.

"After the 1996 riots ... I started asking, 'As a church and as someone who
works in the community, what can we do to heal and partner with people --
not just go to St. Pete, tell the people what they need, drop it off and run
back to Largo?' " Townsel said.

The answer, he said, was to teach the children the tools used by the late
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to achieve peace and nonviolent social change.
The church's "Kingian" nonviolence training seeks to not only stop violence,
but create justice, reconciliation and a lasting peace, Townsel said.

Townsel learned about Kingian nonviolence at an introductory course he
attended in Tampa in 1995. In 1997, he became a certified nonviolence
trainer through the Florida Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Nonviolence
in Miami. The 280-hour course "was probably the most intensive training I
ever had," he said.

Working with volunteers from the African-American Leadership Council in
Greenwood, Fla., Urban YoungLife in Tampa, Florida A&M University and a
variety of social services agencies, Townsel is now teaching children how to
apply King's teachings to their lives.

In groups of 30, the kids participating in the training meet at the church,
then ride a bus to a retreat location. From Friday afternoon to Saturday
night they spend time in intensive sessions learning Christian values, how
to look beyond a person's race and culture, and how to communicate and
peacefully  work through difficulties with others. Intermixed with the
training are breaks for activities, music and devotions.

The two-day retreat culminates with presentations by the students about what
they learned. Townsel says they include all types of media, from visual
arts, readings and  radio-style public service announcements to poetry, rap
and singing.

The training is based on the six principles and Six Steps of Nonviolence by
which King lived. The principles include embracing nonviolence as a way of
life; attacking the forces of evil, not the persons doing the evil;
accepting suffering without retaliation; avoiding internal and external
violence; and acknowledging the universality of justice. The steps include
gathering information about opponents, educating oneself, making a personal
commitment, negotiating, taking direct action and reconciling with others.

Today, the program has gone beyond the church's immediate neighborhood,
reaching people from as far away as Tallahassee. 

"I thought it would be just a backyard activity in Largo," Townsel said.
"Word spread very quickly, and I knew we had to open it up to other areas.
We were originally seeking to train 80 kids. Now we're up to 285..."

Townsel said the program strives to reach children while they still have a
chance to choose their future and teach them a new way of thinking. 

"Violence permeates our society in many ways..." he said. "This [training]
talks about turning the other cheek and showing a strong side, about saying,
'I choose to love you.' " 

For more information on King's principles of nonviolence, contact the Martin
Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, at (404)
526-8900.

# # #

*Wacht is the assistant editor of the Florida Conference's edition of the
United Methodist Review. This story first appeared in that publication.

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