Gandhi

My first day of leave in a long while. I spent the afternoon at home watching "Gandhi". The film never fails to move me. I cried and cried. And cried.

Early on in the movie, there is this scene in which Gandhi and his British clergyman friend Charlie Andrews are walking down a street in South Africa when they notice three big-sized white South African youths ahead of them. The trio roll up their sleeves and hurl racist remarks. Charlie nervously contemplates taking an alternative route to avoid confrontation. But Gandhi walks on, and says:

Gandhi: "Doesn't the New Testament say...that if your enemy strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the left?"

Charlie: "Well...urm...oh, I think the phrase was used metaphorically... I don't think it was..."

Gandhi: "I'm not so sure... I have thought about it a great deal... And I suspect it meant that you must show courage, be willing to a blow, several blows, to show you will not strike back nor will you be turned aside... And when you do that, it calls on something in human nature...something that makes his hatred for you decrease and his respect increase... I think Christ grasped that, and I have seen it work."