By Frank Wessling
Citizens of democratic countries such as ours generally practice nonviolent action for the common good. We vote in elections. We freely join political parties and other voluntary organizations like sports leagues and garden clubs. We more or less help decide what they do and how they speak in public forums. And we freely drop out of such groups or move and shift our alliances as life circumstance and attitudes change.
This kind of activity is the bedrock of a healthy society and the healthy expression of something important in human life: we are social beings, designed for relationships. Even hermits show this. They separate from ordinary human connections in order to focus on the ultimate connection, the relationship with God.
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