King’s legacy more than words, oration

The Rev. Delmar White, pastor, Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church, 847 Ohio:

I have had the privilege of reading the biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., titled “The Days Of Martin Luther King Jr.” One is stricken immediately by the faith of a family that lived during a very ugly time in the life of our country. Segregation was at its height, and blacks were subjected to a reality that now seems unreal. But from his early days in Atlanta to his formative years at Morehouse College, King was being shaped into a man of deep, abiding faith.

He was being stretched in ways that would come to serve him as he would be trusted into the leadership position of the civil rights movement. Dr. King often said that it was his deep abiding love for God and humanity that caused him to be able to love people who were mean and vile toward not only black people but anyone who didn’t agree with their view.

Dr. King gave his final and prophetic speech in preparation for his march with the striking sanitation workers of Memphis. When you watch and listen to this speech, you can see and hear that Dr. King’s faith was more than words and oration. But rather it was a faith that was tried in the fire. They bombed his home while his young family slept inside. Bricks were thrown at him and his fellow marchers. He steadily told those who were ready to strike back that the proper course of action was to maintain the non-violent position that the whole civil rights movement was based on and not to give in to the taunts and tactics of their oppressors.

In a few days, we will witness together as a nation the fulfillment of not only Dr. King’s faith but the faith of a nation when we watch the inauguration of Barack Obama as the United State’s 44th president. Thank you, Dr. King, for showing us what faith under fire looks like.

— Send e-mail to Delmar White at del3403ff@aol.com.

Leader’s qualities comparable to Jesus

The Rev. Josh Longbottom, associate pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.:

Dr. King was the most Jesus-like figure in American history. I don’t think he could walk on water or turn it into wine, but then again, I don’t think that Jesus did, either.

What really matters is that they had the same mission.

Both of them broke the law for the sake of justice. Both of them led people through public displays of vulnerability. Both of them set the bar high for humanity and then called people to jump over it.

They never said, “It’s my right to defend myself.”

Once upon a time, Dr. King wrote in an essay that all people have the right of self-defense. In some cases it would even demonstrate the courage and competence of the people who defend themselves, he said, but ultimately he chose to use pure non-violence because it has within it the ability to inspire and change hearts.

Add these similarities together, and you will understand why I am awestruck, that in this country, we speak the language of “changing hearts and minds” and then use none of the tools that we have learned from the prophets that came before us.

How about on this Dr. King Day, we weep for the state of the peace movement around the globe? How about this year we also remember that he was not just a leader, but that he was revealing to us the way that God would have us live on this planet?

And hopefully, this year we will remember that it is our job, for the sake of our children, to pick up the banner of peace again.

— Send e-mail to Josh Longbottom at joshlongbottom@sunflower.com.