A Letter from Dr. King. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was assassinated in

Transcription

1 A Letter from Dr. King Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. In those tragically short 39 years, this man s impact on the nation was far reaching and profoundly important. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and from Theological Seminary in After receiving his doctorate in theology from Boston University in 1955, Dr. King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He led a 382 day bus boycott in Montgomery that led to the 1956 Supreme Court decision declaring the Alabama law requiring racial segregation on buses unconstitutional. In 1957, Dr. King was elected president of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference. During this time he developed a philosophy of nonviolent protest that characterized his actions throughout his life. In 1963, King launched a campaign against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, that met fierce opposition from police as well as from white moderates who saw him as dangerous, who called him a troublemaker. While in Birmingham, leading the campaign against segregation in that city, King was arrested and jailed for eight days. On April 16, 1963 he penned a long letter to white clergymen to explain his actions and to answer those who urged him to call off the demonstrations, those who were criticizing his activities as unwise and untimely. We are all familiar with the beautiful, inspirational I Have a Dream speech, as we should be. I invite you also to become familiar with this long letter, written there in his narrow Birmingham jail cell almost 50 years ago. It is a letter whose contents are so appropriate and can remind us and teach us much, wherever or whoever we are today.

2 Especially today, at a time when President Obama has appealed for the country to come together, to heal from the wounds of sadness that we all feel about the shooting last week in Tucson, Arizona. The Letter from Birmingham Jail gives us gentle but firm instruction about how we can respond to that kind of evil. In a speech that is filled with Biblical grounding and resembles our Declaration of Independence, Dr. King answers the criticism of those who argue against outsiders coming in by saying that he is in Birmingham because injustice is here. What does that mean Injustice is here? He said it almost as if injustice were a person. Well, it isn t of course. But it is a presence of mind, a real force to contend with. For the people living in Birmingham in 1963, injustice meant that African Americans could not be served in most restaurants; it meant that African Americans could only get certain jobs and they weren t the good jobs; it meant they could live in certain areas, and not in others; injustice meant that in taking a long trip, African Americans either had to sleep in their cars or find a hotel that had a sign saying colored. It meant that African American children could not go to the same places Fun Parks, zoos, and Swimming Pools that white children could go to. It meant they could not sit with white children at the movie theater only in the balcony. Injustice even meant they could not drink from the same drinking fountains nor go to the same schools the white children attended. Injustice meant all that and much more in 1963 Birmingham. And it meant the same thing here. On this subject of injustice, Dr. King goes on to say that he is aware of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. He writes I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice

3 everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. He goes on to defend demonstrations and peaceful acts of civil disobedience of unjust laws in an effort to bring about change to those laws. He writes that one of the great disappointments he feels is toward those whom he terms moderates, those people who seem to be more devoted to order than to justice, those who may agree in principle but continue to urge that he wait for a more convenient season. In fact, Dr. King writes, Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. And then there is this: Dr. King admonishes those of his time, in words that are relevant for us today, when he writes: We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people. Later in the letter Dr. King addresses the criticism of his Christian brothers who accuse him of extremism. He explains how he has tried to walk a line between those of his own race whom he described as do nothings, the complacent few who just wanted to leave things as they were, and, on the other side, the force of bitterness and hatred, those who would advocate a violent overthrow of the status quo for African Americans such as the black nationalist. He writes that he was initially disappointed at being labeled extremist, but then gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. He writes, Was not Jesus an extremist for love: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Dr. King writes of

4 others whose actions might be considered extreme : others in the Bible, as well as Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson. So, he concluded, the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? There s more, much more, in this eloquent Letter from Birmingham Jail of But in just the few minutes we have spent reflecting on this letter, and in the time we are spending today in observance of Martin Luther King Day, it becomes clear why it is good, and right, and important that we celebrate the life of this most amazing man whose legacy continues to touch us, to nudge us, to lift us up and to encourage us, all of us, Black and White, people of all colors, to be better, to do better toward one another. Today, as we celebrate and honor Dr. King s birthday, it is good to remember what he wrote: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. That means if someone around us, whether in the classroom or on the playground, or at the office or at the factory, wherever, is being bullied, is being mistreated, we all share in that action. We all are Americans, we all are fellow humans walking through life together. What affects one of us directly affects all of us indirectly. We are all strengthened, and we are all diminished, by what happens to those around us. If we witness one of our co workers or one of our playmates being treated unfairly, or bullied, and we do nothing, then the wrong action we have witnessed may one day happen to us, and there may be no one left to speak out. If your rights are not safe, neither are mine. And besides, if I know an injustice is occurring and let it

5 stand and say nothing, then I share the responsibility if the world I once knew becomes an uglier, more cruel place to live. It is good that today we remember that Dr. King said in his letter: We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people. That means that simply not doing bad things is not enough. If we are silent in the face of injustice, our silence may make others think we support of those bad things; our silence makes evil possible, as history has shown us time and time again. This is perhaps the central lesson we can learn from the Holocaust, when good people remained silent. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who won the Nobel Prize for his novel, Night, said that The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. And another Holocaust scholar, Yehuda Bauer, wrote, and I m paraphrasing, he would add three more commandments to the ten in the scriptures. The first of those would be, Thou shalt not be a perpetrator (someone who commits those terrible acts); the next would be, Thou shalt not be a victim ; and the final commandment, he said, would be, And thou shalt never, but never, be a bystander. That s exactly what Dr. King means when he talks about that appalling silence of good people. And finally, it is good to remember what Dr. King wrote about choices: The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? I know he hoped that we would be extremists for love. And we give him the highest honor on this day set aside to celebrate his birth and his life, when we speak out against injustice, against hate, and when we stand and speak and act towards each other with love.