A little late for MLK Day, but...

Ok,

I always knew Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pretty cool guy. But for my Peacebuilding class, we read one of his books, "Strength to Love." What an amazing and powerful speaker! This book has deeply affected me, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

At the risk of beginning and staying up late because I can't stop, here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves. On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practice the very antithesis of those principles."

The above quote is part of a theme throughout the whole book that makes its readers aware, page by page, that they are living far below their capacity for peace and good in the world. You cannot read this book as a feel-good book. When you read it, you feel your hypocrisies start to expose themselves to you and you feel inspired to be better.

"...we must recognize that the evil deed of the enemy-neighbor, the thing that hurts, never quite expresses all that he is. An element of goodness may be found even in our worst enemy....This simply means that there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

I like this quote and the sermon its a part of because Dr. King is so masterful at making every person into a human being instead of a monster. Even after being stabbed, threatened, having his house bombed, etc, Dr. King did not hate individual people or blame them for the evil in the world. He saw them as his brothers and sisters who were victims of evil instead of perpetrators of it, and he saw potential for redemption, kindness, cooperation and friendship even in the most ignorant and racist people. Here is another quote:

"To our most bitter opponents we say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws, because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour an beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory."

I believe Dr. King had a high sense of integrity, not just because he was a pastor and could write very intelligent-sounding words, but because he actually lived by them. He exacts a high price from his followers. He expects them not to be silent. He expects them to fight for what is right no matter the cost.

"Do not despair if you are condemned and persecuted for righteousness' sake. When you testify for truth and justice, you are liable to scorn. Often you will be called an impractical idealist or a dangerous radical...Sometimes you may be put in jail. If such is the case, you must honorably grace the jail with your presence. It may mean losing a job or social standing with your particular group. Even if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children from psychological death, then nothing could be more Christian. Do no worry about persecution, American Christians; you must accept this when you stand up for a great principle."

Dr. King experienced all of the things he described here. He gave his life for the cause he believed in. I could keep going, but I think I'll leave off for now.