Jim Crosby is the coordinator of Nonviolent Austin, one of our Nonviolent Cities Projects. 

Six decades ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. consistently urged U.S. citizens to be part of a moral revolution. He saw colonized peoples worldwide rebelling against their oppression. He saw the Civil Rights movement in this country as part of the same seismic shift. The assassinations of the 1960s, including those of Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Dr. King, and Robert F. Kennedy, were part of the resistance to that moral revolution. In the 55 years since the murder of MLK, we have seen a revolution all right, but in the opposite direction from the one King had in mind.

I'm talking about the successful co-opting of the Christian tradition and message to make it serve the purposes of the political right in this country. From Jesus' message of compassion, inclusion, and love of even enemies, we have moved to hardened hearts, exclusion, and hatred—often in the name of Jesus.

Yesterday morning I was on the steps of the Capitol in support of a group holding a press conference. Organized by Equality Texas, we were responding to the rough treatment of supporters of trans rights at the Capitol on Tuesday, including the arrest of one of us. The speakers contextualized Tuesday's events as part of the larger attempt by the legislature to pass laws barring inclusion in the democratic process to large numbers of Texans, including especially the poor and people of color. The successful revolution of the right has taken the form of radical gerrymandering, packing the judicial system, limiting access to the polls, opposing efforts to expand healthcare, housing, and public education—pitting U.S. citizens against each other more lamentably perhaps than even during the height of the Vietnam War.

Last night I found myself, at the invitation of a friend with a museum membership, at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. The presentation was about the work of the Army Futures Command. The moderator was Karl Rove, former special advisor, then Chief of Staff during George W. Bush's time in the White House. His two interviewees on the stage were Brigadier General Stephenie Ahjern of the Army Futures Command, and Lt. Commander Mark Ozdarski (U.S. Navy Ret.).

A bit of background: I owe a debt of gratitude to the Army Futures Command. In July, 2018, I was driving on a Thursday when I heard on the radio that Austin had been chosen as the headquarters of the new Army Futures Command, a marriage between the U.S. Army, the University of Texas system, and the technology companies of Central Texas. My first thought was "That's weird. We've long said 'Keep Austin weird,' but I don't think that's what we had in mind." In particular, I've long been convinced of the argument that our national budget needs to be much more directed toward the basic needs of our citizens, and much less focused on military dominance. The coming of the Army Futures Command was a key immediate impetus behind my starting Nonviolent Austin in the fall of 2018.

So I went last night with my question ready:

"I had anticipated quoting MLK's 'Beyond Vietnam' speech regarding the U.S. being ‘the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.’ Yesterday morning, though, I was reminded of something attributed to Albert Einstein: 'More and more I come to value charity and love of others above everything else . . . all our lauded technological progress—our very civilization—is like an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.'

"Like J. Robert Oppenheimer, Einstein came to question the uses to which our technological advances were put. Do you worry that, as with the current broader debate about A.I., technology might be wagging the dog in dangerous ways?"

I didn't ask. The fellow to my right on the back row, an employee of one of the largest, most historic computer companies, asked the first question. His, along with several following questions from the audience, was essentially asking how the tech companies could help make sure that, in Gen. Ahern's words, "our soldiers are never in a fair fight"—in other words that, through technological dominance we keep our fighters safe.

I was revising my question. In response to another of Gen. Ahern's statements, "Taking out cities is not how we fight," I wanted to ask, "If our enemies take out cities, what's to keep us from doing likewise, as we did by the end of WWII?" Surely she would respond that the greater precision enabled by our technological advances would make that unnecessary.

I raised my hand along with several others. One more question, said Karl Rove. Another's query was chosen.

How to connect my morning experience at the Capitol with the evening just a few blocks north at the Bullock? Trans rights with military dominance? Are they connected at all? Are we really "all in this together"? And does "all" really mean all? U.S. citizens? Undocumented workers? Kids in transition? All ethnicities, races, national origins? Haitians? Ukrainians? Russians?

Endangered species?

MLK's moral revolution is ongoing. Groups like Equality Texas and the modern Poor People's Campaign are part of it.

As a theologian and aspiring follower of Jesus, I see it in terms of reversing centuries of Constantinian influence and the just war theory, focusing as did Gandhi and King on the nonviolence of the Sermon on the Mount, and looking on each other with the eyes of love. May it be so.