Martin Luther King Jr, obviously well known for his civil rights activism here in the US, but perhaps decreasingly known for his pastoral role as a Christian minister. An article published online by PBS in 2006 said this, "The role of pastor may be one of the most overlooked sides of Martin Luther King Jr. but it was one of the most important aspects of who he was." His Christian faith is what was at the core of everything else he did, preaching biblical love as Christ has for us, rather than violence, to inspire social change.
I was recently introduced to a sermon MLK did several versions of, where he drafted an imaginary letter in the style of one of Paul's letters in the New Testament, addressed to American Christians. The entire sermon is very good and thought provoking, and even today, over 60 years later, still feels very relevant to us in our current day here in America. I'd like to share just a couple sections that struck me the most personally:
"I am impelled to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in the midst of an unchristian world. This is what I had to do. This is what every Christian has to do. But I understand that there are many Christians in America who give their ultimate allegiance to man-made systems and customs. They are afraid to be different. Their great concern is to be accepted socially. They live by some such principle as this: “Everybody is doing it, so it must be all right.” Morality is merely group consensus. In your modern sociological lingo, the mores are accepted as the right ways. You have unconsciously come to believe that right is discovered by taking a sort of Gallup Poll of the majority opinion, and how many are giving their ultimate allegiance to this way.
But American Christians, I must say to you, as I said to the Roman Christians years ago, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Or as I said to the Philippian Christians, “Ye are a colony of heaven.” This means that although you live in the colony of time your ultimate allegiance is to the empire of eternity. You have a dual citizenry. You live both in time and eternity, both in heaven and earth. Therefore, your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to the nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God's will, it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory, evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God."
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