Thursday, May 19, 2011

Oscar Romero and America's Fight for Civil Rights 8-7


Oscar Romero spoke often about the need for all of us to fight injustice. He believed that God was with those who suffered and stood by and supported those who took a stand for what was right. Romero gave his life for those suffering in El Salvador, but his words about justice ring true in America's own struggle with civil rights.

The 8th graders of the Arrupe Division have learned about Romero and his steadfast faith in religion class and now they are connecting his words to the American Civil Rights Movement in social studies class. By examining these case studies we can all deepen our commitment to fighting injustices thereby drawing us closer to God.

14 comments:

  1. "Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. This quote really relates to our topic. Our topic is on the Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. The Ku Klux Klan kill these men for expressing their views on civil rights. The quote says that you should treat everone as a brother and don't kill people because they're your brothers. It's saying that killing people is against the law of God and that you should obey your conscience and what's right rather than brutally murder. This quote gives us the view of human behavior in this time, how people believed it was ok to kill these people for they didn't support their views. It gives us an idea of just how awful the Ku Klux Klan was in murdering these men and burying them underground. They completely disobey the law of God.

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  2. "Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders."

    This quote relates to the murder of Medgar Evers for a few reasons. one reason is because the murder of Medgar Evers is about a man who killed the civil rights activist Medgar Evers. This mans name was Byron Beckwith and he killed Medgar Evers for standing up for the African Americans in the country. So when Beckwith killed Medgar evers he went against the law of god which is 'thou shalt not kill.' Also he completed sinful orders by killing this man. He Didnt fallow his conscience he he just killed a man for no reason. Also this quote says that we are all brothers, so when Beckwith killed this man he not only killed a person but his brother. I feel this quote shows how wrong it was in America during this time because they murderd African-Americans because of their color. That is how this quote relates to the murder of Medgar Evers.

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  3. "We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants;that God demands of us."

    in my opinion this quote best describes the Black Panthers of Oakland's mission. Although many of the divisions of the Black Panthers fell away from their mission and turned to violence this division stayed true to their mission. They fought for African American's rights, and they promoted self reliance and self respect for the persecuted African Americans. I'm sure that this nonviolent movement to improve society would have been something that God wanted. I believe that during that time someone had to Stand up and the Black Panthers did just that. Although not all divisions of the Black Panthers did remain nonviolent the divission in Oakland kept true to its stance of nonviolent protest. I would say that groups like these are the ones that God would want. Like Oscar Romeo in El Salvador, they never promoted violence. The members of the that division of the Black Panther knew that society was full of injustice and sin but they also knew that creating more injustices and sin would not solve the problems facing society. When I read Oscar Romeo's quote I believe that this is the kind of reform he was talking about.

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  4. "Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders." This quote was really related to the murder of the 4 innocent black girls in the 16th Church Bombing in Birmingham. What this bombing was is that the Klu Klux Klan planned to bomb the Church beause it was a place where Civil Rights leaders would have meetings. Basically, it was a place for the Civil Right's movement. the Klu Klux Klan placed the bomb underneath the staircase to the basement learning area in the church. All of a sudden, on a Sunday, an explosion happend and killed the 4 young black girls. This went against the law of God, which is , 'Thou shalt not kill'. Also, the Klu Klux Klan was basically killing their own brothers because they all were part of one country, and just because it was a black church does not mean you have a right to kill anyone. Also, the Klue Klux Klan did not follo their conscience because they killed four innocent young black girls for no reason at all. Killing them because they are black and it was a black church is no excuse. Lastly, when it says we are all brothers, it showed how bad America was back then because people were just killing other people because of their color. As you see, that is why this quote relates to the 16th Church Bombing in Birmingham

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  5. "We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."

    I think that this quote relates to my topic for many reasons. The topic that I'm covering is the Greensboro Four and sit-ins. This is about a group of four black college students that are refused service at a restaurant. Instead of being violent, they decided to stay seating until closing time. Word spread and many people across the country began to follow them. This quote from Oscar Romero relates to my topic because these people who participated in sit-ins saw a problem in society and went out to fix it. They were doing their best to improve society and do justice to God.

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  6. Teddy Sidiropoulos said...

    "We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."

    This quote relates to the Scottsboro Boys case because 9 boys who were wrongly convicted of rape, were sent to prison and a couple of them were killed. This quote is saying that God demands us to always do the right thing in society and to be a just society, and the actions performed by the men who accused the 9 innocent black kids of rape were being unjust and totally wrong. Also, the people who put the kids in jail without a fair trial were being horrible people as well. That is why this quote by Oscar Romero relates to the Scottsboro Boys case.

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  7. CHRIS HANSEN
    "We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants; that God demands of us."

    This relates to the Greensboro Four because they stood up in a time when the world needed them to. They did somethin no one else would do to stand up for injustice. They did not quit until justice was served. They were strong in a time when God needed them to be strong.

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  8. "We suffer with those who have disappeared, those who have had to flee their homes, and those who have been tortured."

    This quote has a direct correlation with the Freedom Summer Project. One thousand white college aged volunteers went out to help others by helping to give them a voice through setting up so called "Freedom Schools" where students were taught about their government and Civics, among other topics, and by providing voter registration to those who could not or did not previously get it. Because of their actions and the hatred of others, three of the volunteers were murdered within ten days, while hundreds of others were killed and persecuted for three months. Archbishop Romero talked about sharing in the suffering of those whose lives have been taken from them, which was clearly evident in the minds of the volunteers who survived, for the most part, unharmed.

    -Jonathan Shea

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  9. “We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants ; that God demands of us.”

    I think this quote is a very good way of looking at the Sit-in movement. The thing people need to understand is that no matter how many times they were hit or arrested, or yelled at, most of the people who participated in the sit-ins remained non-violent. This relates to the quote because if they were to show violence it wouldn’t be an effort that God blesses. It is amazing that these people stayed so peaceful after all the hate they received and they gave “every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin.” This means that they were giving an effort that God approves because they didn’t use injustice and sin in an attempt to achieve justice, they remained peaceful and kind.

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  10. i chose the quote," brothers, you came from your own people. you are killing your own brothers. any human order to kill must be the subordinate to teh law of God. no one has to obey an immoral law. it is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders."v i chose this because i think that it relates to the 16th street church bombing in bringham. i think this because the members of the clan thought that bombging this church was the right thing to do. killing your brothers is NOT what you should be doing. you should be loving and caring. they did pay for their crime and they no longer will follow immoral law and they are not suppirior to God.

    -Andrew Cook

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  11. Sean McCarty
    "We suffer with those who have disappeared, those who have had flee their homes, and those wjo have been tortured"
    This quote relates with my topic because the little girls that were killed in my bombing were a big trajety. many people, especially their faimiles, felt extreme sorrow and mourn for the losses. many people suffered because of this trajic event. many peopel ecould not even get over these losses and how much segregation causes these things.

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  12. I chose the quote "Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed you consciences rather than sinful orders." This quote is very related to my topic. My topic is on three men who were murdered, so already this has to do with killing your brothers. The people who killed the three men weren't ordered to kill, so they chose to do this. So, they weren't following like the comand of someone. The people that killed the men were not obeying God's law saying "Thou shalt not kill." Even if they chose to or they were told to, they still chose to kill by concience.

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  13. "We know that every effort to improve society, above all when society is so full of injustice and sin, is an effort that God blesses; that God wants;that God demands of us."
    This relates to my topic in several ways. THis is for the black panthers because they knew that there were racial injustices in society and they strovwe to fix them. They wanted to fix these sins and injustices for the poeple who were being mistreated. THis is why thuis quote trealtes to the black panthers

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  14. Jonathan Nunes

    "Brothers, you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill'. No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders."

    This quoterelates to my topic because it talks about how killing is wrong. The Black Panthors were started and remained running because of killings of Blacks who were in their town/area. They also protested and had gatherings about the killings that police officers did. Overall, this quote strongly relates back to the Black Panthors and could be used at one of their rallys.

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