Today would have been Martin Luther King Jr’s 83rd birthday, and on Monday much of our nation will commemorate his legacy.
In response to a published statement made by eight fellow clergymen on April 16, 1963, King penned his much-read open Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I remember studying this letter in high school. It intrigued me so much that I wrote to the Birmingham Public Library to obtain a copy of the letter that had been written by the eight clergymen. Somewhere in my files, I still have the original letter I received in reply. In King’s letter from the jail, he speaks greatly of his disappointment with the church and its failure to speak out against the injustice faced by the black community.
”In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love . . . But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.”
Sadly, many of the issues that precipitated the civil rights movement of the 1960s still remain today. Racism, segregation, poverty, limited opportunities, etc. Though not as obvious as a color bar next to a door, the tensions have gone underground and continue to divide our society. They are challenges faced not only by the African American, but also by Somalis, Hispanics, Asians, and Arabs.
In Galatians 3:28, Paul tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Two thousand years later, we still struggle to live the truth of these words. Yet two thousand years later, the church in Christ Jesus remains the greatest hope for true peace and unity in our community.
Stephen