MLK Addendum
Letter from a Birmingham Jail Redux
Dr. Martin Luther King - 1963.
His letter below was like many of Paul’s epistles, written from jail, inside a Birmingham jail during a turbulent time when peace-makers were few and peace-breakers many. It was written on not just any weekend, but on Easter weekend.
Here's a brief excerpt:
“But as I continued to think about the matter, I gradually gained a bit of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. Was not Jesus an extremist in love? --"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice? --"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? --"I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist? --"Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God." Was not John Bunyan an extremist? --"I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience." Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? --"This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? --"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?”
He mentions:
Saul/Paul of Tarsus
Socrates
Reinhold Niebuhr
St. Augustine
Martin Buber
John Bunyan
St Thomas Aquinas
Martin Luther
Jesus...
The letter is rich in spiritual and religious imagery, citing great thinkers and sources from the Old and New Testament.
How many students in the mainstream secular-progressive schools would even understand this letter? They’ve never heard of the references and the biblical framework is foreign to them.
How many of the sources he cites would be deemed old white men unworthy of study on today's 'woke' college campuses?
Are Dr. King's writings and legacy even taught today amidst the racial grifters peddling 'CRT' with its belittling of character and elevation of pigmentation as the only dispositive value?
This letter harkens back to a time where knowledge of the Old and New Testament was commonplace - but may as well be Latin for all its relevance in today's education landscape. In an era that prizes victimhood over virtue, it serves us a reminder: maybe reinstating timeless truths is what will help our society reach Dr King’s vision best – not revising history or rewriting religious stories.
Dr. King's refusal to accept the churches' complacency of modern conventions reflects an all-too familiar angst that Jews and Christians share today - feeling weighed down by conventional norms, which often subvert traditional values that have helped shape our society for centuries. Values like supporting nuclear families, viewing gender as nonnegotiable, and protecting children from social engineering or intrusive medical treatments are at risk in this fast moving world where maintaining status quo is valued over security.
"There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.
Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust.
I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. For more than two centuries our fore-parents labored here without wages; they made cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal injustice and shameful humiliation --and yet out of a bottomless vitality our people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands."
The entire letter is linked below. It's worth a read, especially with your children if you have them...and especially if they attend a government indoctrination public school.
