Jesus tells listeners, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not respond violently to one who is violent… You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”
Ben Salmon took to heart Jesus’ life witness on nonviolence, loving our enemy, and praying for those who persecute us (1889-1932). Salmon was born into a Catholic family and raised during a time of labor struggles. He became active in union organizing and was greatly disturbed by the bosses, their cruelty, and their violence shown especially to miners in his home state of Colorado. That inhumanity was at its worst in the Ludlow massacre in 1914. Mine owner John D. Rockefeller hired guards to fire upon striking mine families and to set fire to their tents. 11 children and 2 women, whose charred remains were found the next day, were among those murdered. Salmon wrote of the massacre in a letter he wrote to President Woodrow Wilson three years later. Salmon’s letter detailed his conscientious opposition to the empire’s bosses conscripting him and other workers into The Great War. Salmon wanted nothing to do with the cruelty and violence these bosses were organizing in Germany, “Show me any German cruelty that can outdo in horror the massacre of the women and children in the tent colony at Ludlow!” Salmon’s conscientious objection status and nonviolence was not recognized by the state since Salmon was a Catholic and not a member of what the state deemed a historic ‘peace’ church, for example Quakers or Mennonites. The state’s very unconscientious oppressor status and violence was, however, recognized by Salmon. He loved his enemies and prayed for his persecutors and had no intention of participating in their military. In January of 1918, the U.S. Military arrested Salmon, tried him in a military court martial, and sentenced him to death. His sentence was later reduced to 25 years in prison and he was incarcerated in Fort Leavenworth, KS and treated abusively. During his time in prison, Salmon refused cooperation of any kind with Militarism, “working in a military prison was aiding the killing machine.” Salmon eventually went on a hunger strike explaining, “my motive was not suicide, that if I died, they would be committing murder, for I was unjustly imprisoned, had done nothing wrong, should not be held, and if held and starved they would be responsible for my death. I explained my reasons for opposition to war… and called attention to the practicability of the Conscientious Objector stand in the light of the World War’s eventualities.” Militarists transferred Ben Salmon to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the Insane because he refused to kill people. In October of 1920, the medical staff of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the Insane provided a letter to the military which stated: “We have come to the conclusion that Ben Salmon is not at the present time suffering from any acute mental disorder, such as would make it necessary, or even advisable, to retain him longer in this Hospital for care and treatment.” Two months later, Ben Salmon was permanently released by the military. Receiving death threats should he or his family return to Colorado, Salmon with his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Chicago, near his sister, where he continued his activist life. Ben and Elizabeth had four children, Charles, Margaret, Geraldine, and John. Ben Salmon died young, 12 years later, February 15, 1932 at the age of 43. He died as a result of the abusive treatment inflicted upon him during his years of confinement. Never in all that time did Ben Salmon hate his brothers who persecuted him. Always, he loved them and prayed for them.
“My Dear Mr. Wilson,… There are many ways to avoid war… (it) is merely a question of desire and determination… why concern ourselves about German injustice while unmindful of the disorder of our own house? In America, millions of impoverished citizens vainly send forth their mute appeal for justice. Their supplications are answered with greater tyranny, renewed iniquities, and a further disregard of their rights and their liberties… Conscience, my infallible guide, impels me to tell you that prison, or death, or both, are infinitely preferable to joining any branch of the army, and contributing, either directly or indirectly, to the death of my fellow workingmen.” Signed BEN J. SALMON
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, peace fills our lives.
Question: How are we nurturing this generation’s Ben Salmons?
February 19, 2023 Gospel Matthew 5:38-48 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time