In the issues facing us today we need to remember
the faith driven strength, eloquence and moral authority of Dr. King. He challenged entrenched power appealing to
the justice demanded according to natural law the only code grounded in objective
truth, inscribed deep in the soul of every being and through whose prism a
person should instinctively (indeed the only way they can) know what rights are
self evident.
In the tradition of Augustine, Gandhi,
and Aquinas--Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham
Jail gave us a clear teaching on
the difference between just and unjust laws saying, “We can never forget
that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the
Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was
"illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure
that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and
comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a
Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith
are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these
anti-religious laws.”
Today and tomorrow as we honor this great apostle of
freedom and advocate for justice let us not forget he believed, in fact insisted on, the involvement of both the secular and sacred communities in the public square and proclaimed a philosophy of natural law
available to all willing to employ reason to find the truth.
This video captures his philosophy of non-violence. A
group of young people acting in the spirit of Dr. King, it is fitting they be
celebrated as we commemorate his birthday.
I leave you with passages from his seminal letter as
we pay tribute to him on his birthday!
Excerpts: Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin
Luther King, Jr.
April 16, 1963
“…One may well ask, "How can you advocate
breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer is found in the fact
that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust
laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at
all…
…In the midst of a mighty
struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so
many ministers say, "Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing
to do with," and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a
completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between
bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.
“There was a time when the church
was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced
when they were 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 the thermostat that transformed the mores of
society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got
disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of
the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the
conviction that they were "a colony of heaven" and had to obey God
rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too
God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." They brought an
end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.
“Things are different now. The
contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain
sound. It is so often the arch supporter 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 often vocal sanction of things as they are. But the
judgment of God is upon the church as never before.
“If the church of today does not
recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic
ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social
club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I meet young people every day
whose disappointment with the church has risen to outright disgust. I hope the
church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.
“But even if the church does not
come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear
about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are
presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and
all over the nation, because the goal of
America is freedom. Abused and
scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.
“Before the Pilgrims landed at
Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages
of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here.
For more than two centuries our fore parents labored here without wages; they made
cotton king; and they built the homes of their masters in the midst of brutal
injustice and shameful humiliation -- and yet out of a bottomless vitality our
people continue to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of
slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will
win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will
of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”
