MLK Day, 2008

Last year I really desire to do something on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in order to participate in what it is all about. After looking online for some events, I found an annual celebration that takes place at Highland Christian Center, which is just about 25 minutes from our home. Last year I took Matthew, and this year our whole family was able to come. There were speakers, musicians, artists, and opportunities for involvement offered by organizations. One that I signed up for was an organization that works against housing discrimination. I am looking forward to hearing back from them to see if I can be involved in a justice issue like that.

Before we left for the celebration on Monday morning I sat at the computer with Matthew and showed him some pictures and speeches of Dr. King. It was interesting to try to describe Dr. King in a way that a 3 year-old would grasp. I said thing like,

"You know how mommy and daddy love you and Jack the same? Dr. King wanted everyone to love each other the same."

"Dr. King was very brave because he knew that God was with him."

Words just can't sum it up at this point. Next year he may be at a point when I can actually talk to him about ethnicity and racism to some extent.

That said, I was reading Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. If you have not read it, you can click here and check out the whole thing: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/letter.html. It is well worth it.

Here are some highlights that really pierced my heart in reading this letter from Dr. King.

"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, 'I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action'; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another mans freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro the wait for a 'more convenient season.' Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating that absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. "

This struck me because I feel that I tend to be the white moderate. If not, then I am certainly most in danger of falling into this category. Am I more attached to order than to justice?

The following section hits me hard because it is about the church. It is really worth the read:

"Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
"There was a time when the church was very powerful -- in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being 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 a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators.' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were 'a colony of heaven,' called to obey Gad rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be 'astronomically intimidated.' By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.
"Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender 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 silent -- and often even vocal -- sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

May all of our churches choose to be agents of change and justice instead of being the "archdefender of the status quo." I remember my dad commenting a while ago (in regards to politics) that the group in power will always strive to maintain the status quo. The status quo is never good for minority and oppressed groups. Change is always needed.

I think it is appropriate for all of us to be thankful to Dr. King. He sacrificed his life. And I don't just mean that he died for his cause. I mean that he sacrificed his life. For years and years and years he was poured out for needy and oppressed people. His assassination was not an abberation from the rest of his life. It fit perfectly with his daily death to himself in favor of those who longed for justice.

It should remind all of us of our Lord.

I hope this post is not so long that people don't read it. But, if you're reading this line, hopefully that means that you read the whole post.