Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was a prominent black American civil rights leader. In his address at Montgomery, Alabama, December 31, 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr., declared:
<If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people-a black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization."> 1929MK001
In 1958, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., answered a reader’s question in an advice column for Ebony Magazine:
<Question: My problem is different from the ones most people have. I am a boy, but I feel about boys the way I ought to feel about girls. I don’t want my parents to know about me. What can I do? Is there any place where I can go for help?
Answer: Your problem is not at all an uncommon one. However, it does require careful attention.
The type of feeling that you have toward boys is probably not an innate tendency, but something that has been culturally acquired.
Your reasons for adopting this habit have now been consciously suppressed or unconsciously repressed.
Therefore, it is necessary to deal with this problem by getting back to some of the experiences and circumstances that led to the habit. In order to do this I would suggest that you see a good psychiatrist who can assist you in bringing to the forefront of conscience all of those experiences and circumstances that led to the habit.
You are already on the right road toward a solution, since you honestly recognize the problem and have a desire to solve it.> 1929MK101
On April 16, 1963, written from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama, Martin Luther King, Jr. stated:
<I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every Southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
We have some eighty-five affiliate organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights....
I am in Birmingham because injustice exists here. Just as the prophets of the 8th century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far afield, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown.
Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid....
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights....
One may well ask, "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?"
The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust.
I agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all"...
A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law of the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law....
Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice…
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.
For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest....
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate...who is more devoted to "order" than justice....
I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community.
One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation, and of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have consciously become insensitive to the problem of the masses.
The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement.
Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred of the black nationalist.
For there is the more excellent way of love and non-violent protest.
I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle....
I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies-a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare....
Let me take note of my other major disappointment.
Though there are some notable exceptions, I have also been disappointed with the white church and its leadership. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church.
I say this as a minister of the Gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen....
In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice I have heard many ministers say, "Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern," and I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which makes a strange, unbiblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular....
I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom....Yes, they have gone to jail with us.
Some have been kicked out of their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers.
But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour....
One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.> 1929MK002
On August 28, 1963, on the occasion of the Civil Rights March on Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., declared:
<Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood....
In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence....
New militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone....
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood....
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character....
I have a dream...where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together....
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims' pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring....
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"> 1929MK003
In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on December 11, 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., admonished:
<Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.> 1929MK004
In The Trumpet of Conscience, Martin Luther King, Jr., explains:
<The limitation of riots...is that they cannot win...and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.> 1929MK005
Echoing the saying of Booker T. Washington “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem,” Martin Luther King, Jr. remarked:
<If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.> 1929MK006
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated:
<Religion endows us with the conviction that we are not alone in this vast, uncertain universe.> 1929MK007
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated:
<The chief purpose for the Christian Church is the salvation of individuals.> 1929MK008
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated in his last sermon, given in Atlanta, February 1968:
<If I can help somebody as I pass along.
If I can cheer somebody with a well [sung] song, If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain.
If I can do my duty as a Christian ought.
If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought. If I can spread the message as the master taught, Then my living will not be in vain.> 1929MK009
On May 29, 1966, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, at the invitation of Rev. Sandy F. Ray. In his talk, titled “Guidelines for a Constructive Church,” Rev. King stated:
<To the distinguished and esteemed pastor of this great church, Dr. Ray, to all of the members and friends of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Brooklyn, my Christian brothers and sisters, I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here this afternoon for this marvelous occasion.
And I want to commend to you under the able leadership of Dr. Ray for the building of this great community center. I journey all over the nation, and I know churches and I know what they are doing.
And I think I can say without fear of successful contradiction that this will be the largest and most useful community center built by any Baptist church in our country.
Certainly you are to be praised for this.
And when something like this is done it means that the right leadership is around. You have a great pastor and a great preacher. As he says, he knew me before I knew myself.
The friendship has been an abiding and long and profound one.
I can never stand in this pulpit without thinking of a very difficult period in my life when I came perilously close to death.
Right here in the city of New York in the Harlem community.
And I convalesced after that stabbing incident right here in Brooklyn in the home of Uncle Sandy, as we affectionately call him in our family because we grew up thinking he was our uncle.
I can never forget how you befriended me here at Cornerstone, how you gave to me and my family every expression of sympathy and support and concern.
And I’m sure that through that difficult period I received new courage and new vigor to carry on as a result of all of the wonderful things that you did for us. I never feel like a stranger coming to Cornerstone because in a sense this is home for me.
I love the pastor. I love the members, and I love these sacred walls.
And so naturally I was proud and I was happy when I discovered that you had taken on this Herculean undertaking and had begun the construction.
Such a useful and impressive and beautiful center to carry on the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I regret so much that I cannot linger around to share more of your fellowship.
But, as you know, I live one of those lives that’s packed with too much activity.
I have to appear on a nationwide television program Face the Nation at twelve-thirty in Washington.
Then I’ve got to go from here to deliver a commencement address at Bryn Mawr College in the Philadelphia area at six o’clock.
So you can see that this has to be a dash-in/dash-out visit.
But when Uncle Sandy calls I can’t say no.
So when he called me and told me I had to be here today, I had to be here. That was all it was to it. So happy to see so many of our friends and supporters here.
I didn’t know Fireball was here. Reverend Nelson Smith, who has worked so closely with us, who’s a member of the executive board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the president of our conference of affiliates in S.C.L. in the state of Alabama.
And he is a fireball. Anybody who has heard Nelson Smith preach knows that. He’s here with Reverend Lou, our dear friend who’s seated to my right.
And then I’m happy to see Reverend George Lawrence, my dear friend who’s doing such a marvelous job in this community, who’s a dedicated servant of God. And there are so many others that time will not permit me to mention them, but I’m happy to see everyone of you.
On an occasion like this I’m sure there are many things to think about and many things to preach about. But as we think of the service that this church has rendered and that it will render in an even larger manner through the erection of this community center, I would like to preach this afternoon from the subject “Guidelines for a Constructive Church.”
The answer to a broken heart. Our nation has been talking a great deal about guidelines now. I’ve been reading about guidelines in the newspapers stemming mainly from the Department of Education.
The Supreme Court rendered a decision back in 1954 stating that “separate facilities are inherently unequal and that to segregate a child on the basis of his race is to deny that child equal protection of the law.” And this was a decision calling for an end to segregation in the public school system.
But you know there are forces always resisting and always seeking not to comply even with that which comes from the federal government.
And so since that decision was rendered back in 1954 only 5.2% of the Negro students in the South have been placed in integrated schools. And in recent days the Department of Education has set for certain basic guidelines to speed up the process saying that if federal funds are to be submitted to these various school districts they’ve got to follow the guidelines.
Well, somewhere hovering back the long recesses of eternity, God Almighty set forth certain guidelines for his church. Through the prophets and, above all, through Jesus Christ he made it clear that if we are to receive funds of grace from the Divine budget we’ve got to follow the guidelines. If a church is to be a constructive church, it must follow the guidelines that have been set forth by God through Jesus Christ.
I think the guidelines are clearly stated by our Lord and Master himself. We turn to the fourth chapter of the Gospel as recorded by St. Luke in the eighteenth and nineteenth verses. Jesus set forth the guidelines: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’
I want to deal with just a few of these guidelines, because time will not permit us to touch every one, and, indeed, each one of them can serve as a sermon in itself. I want to mention first that a constructive church sets out to heal the brokenhearted.
Now there is probably no human condition more tantalizing than a broken heart. You see, broken-heartedness is not a physical condition; it is a condition of physical exhaustion. Now a great deal of the broken-heartedness of our generation grows out of the complexity of modern life itself so often hovered up in big cities. In confronting the day-to-day problems that go along with our living of life we end up with broken hearts.
But probably more than that the basic reason for a broken heart is the constant experiencing of disappointment. You know it’s difficult to go through life without having to stand amid the chilly winds of disappointment.
People are disappointed by various things. This disappointment may grow out of some great hope that we have, some great dream that we have.
The fact that we ultimately come to that moment when we discover that our hopes have been blasted and our dreams have been shattered. It may come through the disappointment of a love experience. May come through the disappointment of a broken home. It may come through the disappointment of the loss of a loved one.
But whatever it is it leads to a broken heart. So many people ended up in this broken-heart situation crying out with Shakespeare’s Macbeth—that “…Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” So many in moments of broken heartedness end up crying out with the philosopher Schopenhauer.
That “Life is an endless pain with a painful end.”
Others end up crying out with the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar:
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in.
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double;
And that is life?
So many people feel this way because they have broken hearts. Now it is the role of the church to deal with the brokenhearted.
Now you know a doctor can deal with physical ailments. But the doctor can’t deal with a broken heart. Pain is one thing, and the doctor can deal with that. But misery is another thing. The doctor can’t grapple with misery.
Somehow when misery comes into being one must go back to the fountain of the Almighty. I’m still convinced that the church has the answer to a broken heart. That is a voice saying “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.”
As if to say, Come unto me all ye that are disappointed. Come unto me all ye who have anxieties floating in your mental sky. Come unto me all ye who are brokenhearted, and I will give you rest. The church is called to heal the brokenhearted.
Preaching to the poor. And there is another guideline there, and that is that the church is called preach the gospel to the poor.
Poverty is a tragic experience. On the one level it may be poverty of the spirit. You know we love America, and we love the democratic process.
America has not been true to all of the things she’s been called to do. Consequently America stands in a position of having a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to its scientific and technological abundance.
The church must tell America that it isn’t enough to soar high in the material realm and the technological realm. We’ve done that well. Through our scientific genius we’ve robbed distance and placed time in chains.
Our jet planes have compressed into minutes distances that once took months. Yes, we’ve carved highways through the stratosphere. And yet something is still wrong.
Seems that I can hear the Master crying through the vistas of time saying, What doth it profit a nation to gain the whole world of means—television, airplanes, subways, and electric light bulbs—and lose the end of souls? This is our problem.
In the midst of our affluence, in the midst of the fact that we are the wealthiest nation in the world, we suffer from a poverty of the spirit.
We’ve learned to fly the air like birds. We’ve learned to swim the sea like fish. And yet we haven’t learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
That is a word coming to us. It seems that I can hear the Master saying to America today, Even though you made these gains, in science and technology, if you don’t make gains in moral and spiritual terms, you are doomed to destruction.
Jesus is saying you have learned somehow to make of your world a neighborhood, and yet you haven’t learned to make of it a brotherhood. He is saying you must learn to live together as brothers, or you will all perish together as fools.
We are called to preach the gospel to a nation that has a poverty of the spirit. But not only that. There’s a lot of material poverty around. And God didn’t intend for his children to live in poverty. And yet we must face the fact, and we as a people know it, fifty-eight percent of the Negro families of the United States are poverty stricken.
It isn’t limited to our own country. It’s all over the world. Like a monster’s octopus poverty spreads it nagging tentacles in villages and hamlets all over this world. I never will forget some years ago when Mrs. King and I journeyed to India.
It was a marvelous experience to meet and talk with the great leaders of India. It was a marvelous experience to meet and talk thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people all over the cities and villages of that vast country.
My brothers and sisters, I say to you, that there were those depressing moments. How can one avoid being depressed when he sees with his own eyes evidences of millions of people going to bed hungry at night.
How can one avoid being depressed when he sees with his own eyes millions of people sleeping on the sidewalks at night, no beds to sleep in, no houses to go in. How can one avoid being depressed when he discovers that out of India’s population of more than four hundred million people some three hundred and eighty million make an annual income of less than ninety dollars a year.
Most of these people have never seen a doctor or a dentist. When I beheld these conditions something within me cried out. And we in America stand idly by and cannot be concerned. An answer came, oh no, because the destiny of the United States is tied up with the destiny of India and every other nation. And I started thinking of the fact that we spend millions of dollars every day to store surplus food.
And I said to myself, I know where we can store that food free of charge—in the wrinkled stomachs of the millions of God’s child in Asia and Africa and South America and in our own nation who go to bed hungry at night. It may well be that we spend far too much of our national budget establishing military bases around the world rather than bases of genuine concern and understanding. The church is called upon to speak to the world, speak to the nations.
Some forty million of our brothers and sisters are poverty stricken in this country. Don’t have adequate clothing. Don’t have adequate food. Don’t have adequate housing conditions.
Here they are finding themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. And so often these people are unseen. They become invisible, because we are such a rich nation. Do you know the National Growth Product of the United States this year is some seven hundred and fifteen billion dollars.
This is a lot of money. When you see all of this money and all of this wealth, it’s so hard to see poor people. But Jesus one day told a parable, and he gave any kind of word of condemnation to those who failed to see the poor. You know the parable. He talked about a rich man by the name of Dives. The poor man by the name of Lazarus. Lazarus ended up going one way to the bosom of Abraham, and Dives ended up going to hell.
There is nothing in that parable which says that Dives went to hell because he was rich. Jesus never made a universal indictment against all wealth. It’s the way you use it. Now it’s true that one day a rich young ruler came to him and raised questions about eternal life, and Jesus advised that brother to sell all. But in that instance he was prescribing individual surgery rather than setting forth a universal diagnosis. If you will read that parable in all of its symbolism, you will remember that a conversation took place between hell and heaven.
On the other end of that long distance call between hell and heaven was Abraham talking to Dives down in hell. Abraham in heaven was a rich man. Go back to the Old Testament. It will tell you about his wealth and his cattle and all that he owned. He was a rich man. He wasn’t a millionaire in hell talking with a poor an in heaven. It was a little millionaire in hell talking with a multimillionaire in heaven. Old Dives didn’t go to hell because he was rich.
Dives went to hell because he passed by Lazarus every day and yet he never really saw him. Dives went to hell because he allowed Lazarus to become invisible.
Dives went to hell because he allowed the means by which he lived to outdistance the ends for which he lived. Dives went to hell because he maximized the minimum and minimized the maximum.
Dives went to hell because he sought to be a conscientious objector in the war against poverty. Jesus is still speaking today saying to his church, “Preach the gospel and administer to the poor. Be concerned about the poor.”
No matter where you go in life, no matter how high you ascend on the economic ladder, no matter how you ascend on the educational ladder, in that day called judgment day, which is every day that we are judged, the great question will not be How much education did you get? The great question will not be How much money did you acquire?
The great question will not be How much prestige did the world surround you with? The great question will not be how many honors you received or how many awards you have on your wall. The great question will be What did you do for others? It seems that I can hear a voice saying, “I was hungry, and you fed me not. I was naked, and you clothed me not. I was sick, and you visited me not. I was in prison, and you weren’t concerned about me.”
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he’s anointed me to preach the gospel to the brokenhearted, to preach the gospel to the poor.”
He has also called upon his church “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” The acceptable year of the Lord. Now that’s important. “The acceptable year of the Lord.” The acceptable year of the Lord is that year that is acceptable to God, because it fulfills the demands of his kingdom. The year of the Lord is not some distant tomorrow, which is beyond history, but the year of the Lord is any year that men decide to do right.
The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when men will stop lying and cheating.
The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when men and women will stop throwing their lives with the pressures and know that God gave them a way in righteous living. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when women start using the telephone for constructive purposes, not use it to spread gossip and false rumors on their brothers and sisters.
The acceptable year of the Lord, the year when the United States of America will rely on its moral power, not merely on its military power. The acceptable year of the Lord is the year when the nations of the world will come to see that war is obsolete, that it must be cast into unending limbo.
The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when men will beat their swords into plowshares, bastilles into pruning hooks, and nations will not rise up against nations, neither will they study war anymore. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when men learn to live together as brothers. The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when a nation will allow justice to roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when politicians will begin to “do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with their God.” The acceptable year of the Lord is any year when men will get together and know that God rules this universe.
The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain will be made low, when the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when men will do unto others as they would have others to do unto themselves. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when the lion and the lamb will lie down together.
None shall be afraid. Every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree. The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when everybody will recognize that out of one blood God made all men, upon the face of the earth.
The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when every tongue shall confess, when every knee shall bow, when all over the world we’ll sing it like we did this afternoon—Hallelujah! Hallelujah! He’s King of kings. He’s Lord of lords. The kingdom of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when God reigns. God’s guidelines aren’t easy. These are part of the guidelines. I’m about through now, but I don’t want to leave you with any illusions.
When you follow God’s guidelines it isn’t always easy. It isn’t easy for a church. It isn’t easy for individuals. When you go out here to help the sick, when you go out of here to deal with the brokenhearted, when you go out of here to help the poor, to really preach the acceptable year of the Lord, it isn’t easy. It means suffering and sacrifice. But God wants the church today that will bear the cross.
Too many Christians are wearing the cross, and not enough are bearing the cross. Too many churches have a cross sitting at the center, but they aren’t willing to follow the true meaning of the cross. The cross means what it says. It’s something that you die on. I’m not talking about physical death now.
It may mean the death of your prestige. It may mean the death of your popularity. It may mean the death of your budget as it has always stood. But there are too many churches more concerned about a cushion than a cross; more concerned about making the gospel something easy, retranslating the gospel to read,
“Go ye into all the world and keep your blood pressure down, and lo I will make you a well adjusted personality.” This isn’t God’s church! Don’t forget that Bethlehem was just eighteen miles from Calvary. You got to go by Calvary.
Good Friday is a fact of life for the church and for all individuals, so don’t be afraid of suffering for what is right.
Don’t be afraid of being criticized for what is right. And if you do what I’ve been talking about this afternoon you’re going to be criticized. You’re going to be scorned. Paul tried it. Paul discovered pretty soon that when you follow Jesus you’re going to have problems. It seems that I can hear Paul saying to all of us this afternoon, Don’t worry about persecution.
My life was a series of persecutions. Before my conversion or right after it rather, I was tried for heresy at Jerusalem. And even during that period I was denied by the disciples at Jerusalem. By following Jesus later on I was beaten at Thessalonica.
Later on I was mobbed at Ephesus. Later on I was jailed at Philippi. Later on I was shipwrecked at Malta. Later on I was depressed at Athens.
I left all of these experiences more convinced than ever before that neither life nor death, angels nor principalities, things present nor things to come, can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s dark now, but morning will surely come.
And I want to say to you this afternoon, my brothers and my sisters, that I’m not worried about tomorrow. I don’t know what it holds. But I do know who holds the future, and I know he lives. He’s not dead. They haven’t reported on all the facts that they discussed his death.
But I raise the question when they talk about God being dead. What did he die from? What was his ill? I haven’t been able to get the answer yet. I asked who was the coroner that pronounced him dead? And they don’t know where he’s buried. I know he isn’t buried. God still rules. Because I have faith in this God, I have faith in the future. It’s dark now. It’s dismal now.
But morning will surely come. The Psalmist talked about it. He says that “weeping may tarry for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
Oh my friends, sometimes when we look at darkness we get disappointed. Our hearts are broken. But I have a message to tell you—that morning will come.
Our slave fore-parents talked about it, and they thought about the midnight surrounding their lives.
They would sing, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows but Jesus.”
But then they started thinking about the fact that morning would come. They started singing, “I’m so glad that troubles don’t last always.” I’m not in despair this afternoon because I’m so glad that trouble don’t last always. Centuries ago Jeremiah raised the question: Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Years later our fore-parents, our slave fore-parents came along.
There’s nothing to expect morning after morning but the sizzling heat, the rawhide whip of overseer, long rows of cotton. They did an amazing thing.
They took a pessimistic situation and used it as the raw material out of which they molded a creative optimism. They did an amazing thing.
They looked back across the years, and they took Jeremiah’s question mark and straightened it into an exclamation point.
They could sing “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.” Then they came with another verse that I like: “Sometimes I feel discouraged…” I’m not going to fool you this afternoon.
Sometimes I feel discouraged, living every day under the threat of death. Sometimes I feel discouraged. Having to stand amidst the surging moment of life’s restless sea, sometimes I feel discouraged.
Having to face the problems and the frustrations, sometimes I feel discouraged. Many days in Alabama I felt discouraged. Many days in Mississippi I felt discouraged. Many days in the ghettos of the north I felt discouraged. Many days as I live life I felt discouraged. And there have been times when it was difficult to sleep at night. I’d go out and sing this song,
“Sometimes I feel discouraged and feel my work’s in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.” And I’ve seen the lightning flash. I’ve heard the thunder roll. I felt sin break us dashing trying to conquer my soul. I heard the voice of Jesus promise never to leave me. Never to leave me alone. No, never alone!
No, never alone! He promised never leave me, never to leave me alone. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he’s anointed me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach the gospel to the poor, and preach the acceptable year of the Almighty God.> 1929MK110
In April of 1968, in an article shortly before his death, titled "Showdown for Nonviolence," Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated:
<For us in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, violence is not only morally repugnant, it is pragmatically barren....
We know from past experience that Congress and the President won't do anything until you develop a movement around which people of goodwill can find a way to put pressure on them...
This really means making the movement powerful enough, dramatic enough, morally appealing enough, so that people of good-will, the churches, labor, liberals, intellectuals, students, poor people themselves begin to put pressure on congressmen to the point that they can no longer elude our demands....
We really feel that riots tend to intensify the fears of the white majority while relieving its guilt, and so open the door to greater repression....We are not going to tolerate violence. And we are making it very clear that the demonstrators who are not prepared to be nonviolent should not participate in this....
We need this movement. We need it to bring about a new kind of togetherness between blacks and whites. We need it to bring allies together and to bring the coalition of conscience together....I am committed to nonviolence absolutely....
I will continue to preach it and teach it, and we at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference will still do this. I plan to stand by nonviolence because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice but also my dealings with people, with my own self....
There is an Old Testament prophecy of the "sins of the fathers being visited upon the third and fourth generations." Nothing could be more applicable to our situation....
We can write another luminous moral chapter in American history. All of us are on trial in this troubled hour, but time still permits us to meet the future with a clear conscience.> 1929MK010
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., told his followers:
<Nonviolence is not a symbol of weakness or cowardice, but as Jesus demonstrated, nonviolent resistance transforms weakness into strength and breeds courage in the face of danger….We must meet hate with creative love....
Let us hope there will be no more violence. But if the streets must flow with blood let it flow with our blood in the spirit of Jesus Christ on the cross.> 1929MK011
In 1962, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asked his followers:
<Must we, by concluding that segregation is within the will of God, resign ourselves to the will of God, resign ourselves to oppression? Of course not, for this blasphemously attributes to God that which is of the devil.> 1929MK012
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated:
<Even though morality cannot be legislated, behavior can be regulated. While the law cannot change the heart, it can certainly restrain the heartless.> 1929MK013
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's niece, Dr. Alveda King, warned that her uncle did not want "us not to be like the Romans who committed infanticide." She continued:
"Statistics today prove that African-American women and their babies, and their wombs are the most targeted wombs and families in America…A majority of the abortion clinics are in urban areas, near highly populated African American communities; so we have more abortions, with us being about 13 percent of the population and having roughly one-third of the abortions…
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said the Negro cannot win if he's willing to sacrifice the future of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety…
It's unjust to kill a little person because they're little. A woman has a right to choose what she does with her body, but where is a lawyer for the baby? How can the dream survive, if we murder the children?> 1929MK014
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece, Dr. Alveda King, told Notre Dame High School students, September 14, 2011:
<A woman has the right to choose what she does with her body, but the baby is not her body. Where's the lawyer for the baby? How can the dream survive if we murder the children?> 1929MK015
Dr. Alveda King told TheCall Detroit, November 11, 2011:
<In the 20th Century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was called as a modern day Moses...My father, Rev. A.D. King, is brother to Martin. Uncle M.L., Daddy, and their earthly father, Daddy King were preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
Daddy King rescued me from abortion in 1950. You can read the story in my book: HOW CAN THE DREAM SURVIVE IF WE MURDER THE CHILDREN?...Y
ears ago when my mother wanted to abort me, Daddy King told her: 'No. They are lying to you. She is not a lump of flesh.
She is a little girl, with bright skin and bright red hair.
She will be a blessing to many.'
So you see, this little girl who is part Irish, part African and part Native American is standing before you today to bear witness of Acts 17:26, that of One Blood, God made all people to live on earth in a Beloved Community, and one day, to live in Eternity with Him.
So we are one human race, not separate races.> 1929MK016
Dr. Alveda King is pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. She told Charisma Magazine, August 23, 2012:
<Traditional marriage...is ordained by God, one man and one woman. People say if you look in the Old Testament, men had several wives. That was not God’s intent. He made a beautiful design for the family.
But Satan came in and began to get some things tangled up. It took a very powerful and loving God to send his only begotten son to shed his blood and to correct that. In the shedding of the blood of Christ, marriage was restored to God’s original intent.> 1929MK017
African American Pastor Dr. Ken Hutcherson commented on the comparison between the gay agenda and racial prejudice:
<I'm appalled at that comparison....I remember ‘two’ water fountains in my day. This is me growing up. This isn't something I heard about; this is something I lived---where there were ‘colored’ water fountains, ‘white’ water fountains. I have never seen a homosexual water fountain, have you?> 1929MK018
Rev. Dr. Bill Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors, stated:
<I marched with Dr. King. I marched for civil rights....And they're trying to hijack and take over the civil rights movement and make it their movement. And they didn't pay the price, nor do they suffer the things that blacks suffered.> 1929MK019
On April 3, 1968, the evening before his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave an address in Birmingham, Alabama:
<I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land.> 1929MK020
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
1929MK001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., December 31, 1955, in an address at Montgomery, Alabama. Carroll E. Simcox, comp., 4400 Quotations for Christian Communicators (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991), p. 49.
1929MK101. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., 1958, Ebony Magazine. Matt Barber, "MLK: Homosexuality a 'problem' with a 'solution'" (WND.com, January 24, 2014) http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/mlk-homosexuality-a-problem-with-a-solution/#FdvdECdeDLlaMFhV.99
1929MK002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16, 1963, in a message written from his jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama. Christian Century, June 12, 1963. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968), Vol. 18, pp. 143-149. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013.
1929MK003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963, on the occasion of the Civil Rights March on Washington. The SCLC Story in Words and Pictures, 1964, pp. 50-51. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976), Vol. 18, pp. 156-159. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 909.
1929MK004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., December 11, 1964, in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 909. In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on December 11, 1964.
1929MK005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience. Carroll E. Simcox, comp., 4400 Quotations for Christian Communicators (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991), p. 370.
1929MK006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., Bless Your Heart (series II) (Eden Prairie, MN: Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1990), 1.16.
1929MK007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., February 1968, stated in his last sermon, given in Atlanta.
1929MK110. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., May 29, 1966, Sermon “Guidelines for a Constructive Church,” delivered at Cornerstone Baptist Church, Brooklyn, New York, at the invitation of Rev. Sandy F. Ray.
1929MK010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., April 1968, in an article written shortly before his death, titled "Showdown for Nonviolence," LOOK Magazine, April 16, 1968. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976), Vol. 18, pp. 663-669.
1929MK011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., statement. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., 1962, statement. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr. Statement. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK014. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr. Niece, Dr. Alveda King, statement. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99 Dr. Alveda King, heads up King for America, http://www.kingforamerica.com/ and is pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for the pro-life Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/
1929MK015. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece, Dr. Alveda King, to Notre Dame High School students, September 14, 2011. Dr. Alveda King, heads up King for America, http://www.kingforamerica.com/ and is pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for the pro-life Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/ (Ralph Finger, "MLK's niece preaches pro-life decisions," 9/14/11, address to Notre Dame High School Students) http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/3847-remarks-at-the-call-detroit-111111 King: ‘A Three-Headed Monster Attacking America’ 1:30PM EDT 8/23/2012 Shawn A. Akers http://www.charismanews.com/us/34025-king-a-three-headed-monster-attacking-america
1929MK016. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece, Dr. Alveda King to TheCall Detroit, November 11, 2011. Dr. Alveda King, heads up King for America, http://www.kingforamerica.com/ and is pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for the pro-life Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/ (Ralph Finger, "MLK's niece preaches pro-life decisions," 9/14/11, address to Notre Dame High School Students) http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/3847-remarks-at-the-call-detroit-111111 King: ‘A Three-Headed Monster Attacking America’ 1:30PM EDT 8/23/2012 Shawn A. Akers http://www.charismanews.com/us/34025-king-a-three-headed-monster-attacking-america
1929MK017. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece, Dr. Alveda King to Charisma Magazine, August 23, 2012. Dr. Alveda King heads up King for America, http://www.kingforamerica.com/ and is pastoral associate and director of African-American outreach for the pro-life Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/ (Ralph Finger, "MLK's niece preaches pro-life decisions," 9/14/11, address to Notre Dame High School Students) http://www.priestsforlife.org/articles/3847-remarks-at-the-call-detroit-111111 King: ‘A Three-Headed Monster Attacking America’ 1:30PM EDT 8/23/2012 Shawn A. Akers http://www.charismanews.com/us/34025-king-a-three-headed-monster-attacking-america
1929MK018. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. Dr. Ken Hutcherson, statement. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013. http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK019. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Rev. Dr. Bill Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors, statement regarding marching with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Jerry Newcombe, “The Politically Incorrect Rev. Dr. King,” Christian Post Op-Ed, August 29, 2013.
http://townhall.com/columnists/jerrynewcombe/2013/08/29/the-politically-incorrect-rev-dr-king-n1681056 http://godfatherpolitics.com/12334/politically-incorrect-rev-martin-luther-king-jr/#M4hEabmrvIUvsx0T.99
1929MK020. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Martin Luther King, Jr., April 3, 1968, the evening before his assassination, address in Birmingham, Alabama. Carroll E. Simcox, comp., 4400 Quotations for Christian Communicators (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991), p. 168.