 Although in our Ferguson, Missouri and
Staten Island, New York current issues
of broken down ethnic relations, both
have revived the relational issues
between Black and White. One can see the
decades following Dr. King's monumental
efforts to replace prejudice with
character has had a profound effect.
With Dr. King's "Non-violent
confrontation" that had its strength in
acknowledging injustice for what it is,
but restraining the self-urge to
confront it with anger and rage leading
to violence and hatred, was more
positively strengthened by self-control,
focused debate based on Truth, and
centered in the Christian ethics of
loving "all of God's children." But Dr.
King had his detractors from some whom
most in that day we would have expected
as being his supporters. While sitting
in jail after he was unjustly arrested
Dr. King quarried his detractors.
"I have heard numerous southern
religious leaders admonish their
worshipers to comply with a
desegregation decision because it is the
law, but I have longed to hear white
ministers declare: "Follow this decree
because integration is morally right and
because the Negro is your brother." In
the midst of blatant injustices
inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched
white churchmen stand on the sideline
and mouth pious irrelevancies and
sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst
of a mighty struggle to rid our nation
of racial and economic injustice, I have
heard many ministers say: "Those are
social issues, with which the gospel has
no real concern." "And I have watched
many churches commit themselves to a
completely other worldly religion which
makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction
between body and soul, between the
sacred and the secular." (Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail," 1963)
Even though Dr. King encountered
pressures and opposition from many
sources, the opposition painfully came
from fellow preachers and pastors. They
were complaining that he was moving too
fast in trying to gain equality, justice
and integration. From his perspective,
the country had moved too slowly.
From his jail cell in the city of
Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. King wrote: "We
know through painful experience that
freedom is never voluntarily given by
the oppressor; it must be demanded by
the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to
engage in a direct-action campaign that
was 'well timed' in the view of those
who have not suffered unduly from the
disease of segregation. For years now I
have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in
the ear of every Negro with piercing
familiarity. This 'wait' has almost
always meant 'never.' We must come to
see, with one of our distinguished
jurists, that 'justice too long delayed
is justice denied.'" (Martin Luther King
Jr., April 16, 1963, "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail")
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Later, when Dr. King stood in front of the
Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on that
day, his mind may have gone back to the
leaders of the church who had pierced his
efforts with criticism and cries to "wait."
Continuing his speech, he said, "There are
those who are asking the devotees of civil
rights, 'When will you be satisfied?' We can
never be satisfied as long as the Negro is
the victim of the unspeakable horrors of
police brutality. We can never be satisfied
as long as our bodies, heavy with the
fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in
the motels of the highways and the hotels of
the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long
as the negro's basic mobility is from a
smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never
be satisfied as long as our children are
stripped of their self-hood and robbed of
their dignity by signs stating: 'For Whites
Only.' We cannot be satisfied as long as a
Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro
in New York believes he has nothing for
which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied,
and we will not be satisfied until 'justice
rolls down like waters, and righteousness
like a mighty stream.'" (This quote from the
Bible: Amos 5:24, American Standard Version)
In his letter from Birmingham he stated, "I
have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all
the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp
autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with
their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive
outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over
I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who
is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor
Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where
were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and
hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary
Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of
complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?" (Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," 1963)
In a real sense, in today's society, some of the more vocal
self-proclaimed replacements for this great Civil Rights Movement
leader have inserted themselves into the fray claiming themselves to
be not just Dr. King's "rights" progeny, but the representatives of
the church. Armed with the title, "Reverend" they have taken to the
streets of our cities calling out what they consider the injustices
of "race" when in reality it is their quest to stand in the
headlines of media content making for themselves a nest lined with
currency swinging the strong arm of intimidation securing for
themselves a foundation of gold as they rest on the backs of
families who are hurting. If the church is to be indicted for
remaining silent during the great Civil Rights Movement during the
time of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then perhaps the church of
today needs to be called out for remaining silent when
pseudo-reverends stand in the midst of burning buildings calling for
more violence and hatred in exactly the opposite way from the
methods called for by Dr. King who urged people to look at the
person's "content of character" rather than the "color of a person's
skin." Those who represent truth and justice, both in and out of the
church, should stand against those who are race-baiting simply to
create violence. They place a blight on the memory of Dr. King and
his work.
As we listen to or read the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the
celebration of his birth, we should remember that his words reflect
not just his time, but our time as well.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends. History will have to record that the
greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the
strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the
good people." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
[By JIM KILLEBREW]
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