Martin Luther King, Jr., quotes from Testament of Hope:
God is on the side of truth and justice. Good Friday may occupy the throne for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumph of Easter. Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but that same Christ arose and split history into AD and BC so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by His Name.
It is still true that the Church is the most segregated major institution in America. As a minister of the Gospel, I am ashamed to have to affirm that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, when we stand and sing, “In Christ there is no East or West,” is the most segregated hour of America and the Sunday School the most segregated school of the week.
We have come to the day when a piece of freedom is not enough for us as human beings nor for the nation of which we are part. We have been given pieces, but unlike bread, a slice of which does diminish hunger, a piece of liberty no longer suffices…Freedom is one thing—you have it all or you are not free.
Jesus Christ wrote no books; owned no property to endow him with influence. He had no friends in the courts of the powerful. But he changed the course of mankind with only the poor and the despised.
Non cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother’s keeper. To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.
Martin Luther King, Jr., quotes as attributed in Taylor Branch, At Canaan’s Edge:
If you say that I am not good enough to live next door to you…b/c of the color of my skin or my ethnic origins, then you are saying in substance that I do not deserve to exist. And this is what we see when we see that [form of] racism still hovering over our nation.
Violence may murder the liar, but it doesn’t murder the lie. It doesn’t establish truth…Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn’t murder hate. It may increase hate.
What I am trying to get you to see this morning is that man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego and his piety may feed his pride. So, without love, benevolence becomes egotism and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.
In summary, nothing will be done ‘til people of good will put their hearts and souls in motion.
The American people are infected with racism—that is the peril. Paradoxically, they are also infected with democratic ideals—that is the hope.
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