xt7crj48sr97 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7crj48sr97/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1968 This letter is from 2006ms071, the Thomas Merton collection. archival material 2006ms071 English   Thomas Merton correspondence Midsummer letter from Thomas Merton, 1968 text Midsummer letter from Thomas Merton, 1968 1968 1968 2023 true xt7crj48sr97 section xt7crj48sr97 MIDSUMMER LETTER 1968 Trappist, Ky.
40073

Dear Friends,

For various reasons I was quite busy during May and June, and so for
July and part of August I am hoping to cut down all contacts, correspon-
dence, etc., to a minimum. I wish I could cut out all but the most essen-
tial letters and contacts, but that is not quite possible, and common
decency demands that I at least politely refuse invitations (which come
in increasing numbers) to go out and speak, attend conferences, write
prefaces, give blurbs, examine unpublished manuscripts, and so on.

It seems to me I have already expressed too many Opinions about
everything and I wish I could really be silent on controversial events.
Yet I doubt if I can honestly refrain from giving some reaction when
I am asked. Several magazines asked me to write something concerning
the assassination of Robert Kennedy. I refused because I am a bit sus-
picious of what seems to me to be a growing ritual cycle: murder, public
acts of contrition, deploring violence, gestures of appeasement, then
everything goes on unchanged and presently there is another assassina-
tion. The cycle continues. The sickness seems to be so deep that ritual
eXpressions of sorrow, horror, astonishment, etc., have just become part
of a general routine. At such a time perhaps silence is more decent.
Certainly the sense of shock is real. PeOple are indeed horrified by
the fact that nothing is safe, and that the least safe are the people,
the values, that we admire, love and rely on the most. In a word we
are beginning to sense in our society a tendency to harm and to destroy
the very things we claim to need and to admire. The Kennedys (for all
that they had enemies and critics) did offer something of an image of
what Americans like and approve of: what they identify with. The fact
that this is precisely what is most menaced, and menaced from inside
2E3 society, not outside it, is what is significant. It is not enough
to say that the assassins of both Kennedys were in some sense "unamerican."
They emerged from a society which made their crime easy. In the case of
Dr. King, evidence seems to suggest that there was indeed a conSpiracy
and that the assassin was after money that had been explicitly offered
to anyone who would get Dr. King out of the way. In any event, this is
my comment: the problem of violence in our society is now critical, and
it is not just a problem of a few psychopaths or rebels. The violence
that threatens us to the point of possible self-destruction is endemic
in the whole of society, and more especially in the establishment itself,
the military, the police, the established forces of "order"——they are all
infected with a mania for overkill, rooted in fear. The future promises
an era of force, su5picion, terrorism with more or less futile acts of
protest, violently repressed. Unless we get some really intelligent and
creative leadership, our future as a democracy is not bright.

Then of course many ask me about my good friends, Fathers Dan and
Phil Berrigan. To many, their acts of protest have seemed incomprehen—
sible, wild, extreme. Well, I think they were intentionally "extreme,"
though they remained in essence non-violent. They were intentionally
provocative. Both Dan and Phil believe that as Christians they must

 

 protest against a futile and immoral war to the point where they are
jailed for protest—-or else stop the war. This goes pretty far, I

admit. It shocks, and is intended to shock. Perhaps the point will
never get across to some people, it may be too shocking. All I'd like

to say is this: I noticed very little, if any, shock at all when a
Catholic bishOp had the droll effrontery to Speak of the Vietnam war

as an act of Christian love. CHRISTIAN lOVE! It seems to me that

this fantastic concept of what the New Testament is all about ought to
have shocked a lot more peOple than it did. No, it was acceptedpas a

bit strange, perhaps, but "normal." Well, because it has become:"norma1"
to regard war--any war demanded by the military--as Christian duty, ChriSr
tian love, Christian virtue, that a few like the Berrigans, in their de-
speration, try to show by extreme protest that it is not normal at all.

My own position is somewhere in between. It just seems to me that
the Selective Service Law, which allows the military to demand the lives
of young Americans for a dubious adventure in Asia, should not be on the
books at all. It should be abolished, by the normal political means.

In this I am not "far—out" at all, and I would note that there are many
conservatives who share my Opinion. In the atomic era (no matter what

one may think of the bomb, it's there and it "deters”), we have absolutely
no ground for saying that we need the draft for defense. The draft is
being used for aggression, not for defense. It is being used to inter-
fere in the affairs of other nations that we do not even understand.

I apologize for insisting on these points. If I do so, it is mainly
win order to let you know where I stand myself, since a lot of peeple are
wondering. Sooner or later I hope I can make things clear enough so that
I will not have to continue "clarifying." I am against war, against vio-
lence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences,
for non—violent but nevertheless radical change. Change is needed, and
violence will not really change anything: at most it will only transfer
power from one set of bull-headed authorities to another.

If I say these things, it is not because I am more interested in
politics than in the Gospel. I am not. But today more than ever the
GOSpel commitment has political implications, because you cannot claim
to be ”for Christ" and espouse a political cause that implies callous
indifference to the needs of millions of human beings and even cooperates
in their destruction.

But the problems of man can never be solved by political means alone.
Over and over again the Church has said that forgetfulness of God and of
prayer are at the root of our trouble. This has been reduced to a cliche.
But it is nevertheless true. And I realize more and more that in my own
vocation what matters is not comment, not statements of opinion, not judg-
ments, but prayer. Let us pray for one another and try in everything to
do what God asks of us. My best regards to all of you.

In Christ,

4

.1 /,
9 L311. “74‘ n. .3.

ThomaS‘Merton