A young man should ask himself not if it is his duty to go to the heathen, but if he may dare stay at home. The command is so plain: “Go.”
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the moral obligation to help others rather than remaining comfortably at home.
Lottie Moon's quote challenges the young man to reconsider the notion of duty, suggesting that the real question lies not in whether he is obliged to reach out to those in need, but whether he has the courage to remain in a safe and comfortable position while opportunity for action exists. The command to 'Go' serves as a powerful reminder that true responsibility often calls us out of our comfort zones and into the service of others.
In practice
In a speech about social responsibility, one might use this quote to inspire action among young volunteers.
Once I came out in sports, I basically told myself, 'I'm coming out, officially. I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and tell myself that I was being true to me. I wanted to help the younger me, when I was a kid, give them somebody for them to look up to.
It's of very little importance to me that I was born gay. It doesn't make me a better athlete, it doesn't make me a stronger person, it doesn't really do anything to enhance my life. It's just something I was born with, the same as green eyes.
I had to walk away from America, and say goodbye to the biggest part of my career, because I knew otherwise my demons would get the better of me.
As someone who wasn't heavily supported or resourced as a young person when I was going through the hardest times of my life, I'm used to operating outside of systems. The trans movement has always been that way.
Non-violent resistance implies the very opposite of weakness. Defiance combined with non-retaliatory acceptance of repression from one's opponents is active, not passive. It requires strength, and there is nothing automatic or intuitive about the resoluteness required for using non-violent methods in political struggle and the quest for Truth.
We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.
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