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Good morning. Yesterday, tens of thousands of people marched through Moscow, carrying pictures of Boris Nemtsov accompanied by the words ‘I am not afraid’. In a recent newspaper interview, Nemtsov had said that his mother was afraid that he would be killed, but asked if he shared the same fear he responded, ‘If I were afraid I wouldn't have led an opposition party’. His brutal murder has drawn worldwide outrage, and widespread speculation on why and who killed him. As investigations continue this week, it is also the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the three marches which led to the US Voting Rights Act, portrayed in the Oscar nominated movie Selma. At the time, many African Americans had been disenfranchised by discriminationacross a number of states. Then Baptist deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson died after being shot by a state trooper during a peaceful march in Marion, Alabama. To defuse and refocus the anger, a 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery was called. The first march of six hundred people was attacked with tear gas and clubs at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and then the Revd James Reeb was murdered by a group of white men. Partly in response to the violence President Lyndon Johnson pressed forward with plans for a new federal voting rights law, saying in a televised address to Congress, ‘Their cause must be our cause too…..really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome’. For the leaders of democratic change throughout the world, the question is how do you keep going in the face of political complexity, often threats, and sometimes a climate of violence which either directly targets you or gives permission for you to become a target. It seems to me that it is a combination of love and hope that casts out fear. I see this so powerfully in the leaders of the Civil Rights movement such as Martin Luther King, who drew inspiration and courage from the non-violent and self-giving love of Jesus and the hope that death is not the end of the story. The struggle for justice needs political realism but also the conviction of a better world, which for King was focused in the Bible’s portrayal of the Kingdom of God. Fear can paralyse the person who knows what the right thing is to do, and at the same time be the motivation for violence and oppression in those who oppose change. However, if love and hope shape my worldview and my actions then I too in small and significant choices might be able to say ‘I am not afraid’. First broadcast March 2 2015