Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and like we do every year in honor of Dr. King’s memory, I’m posting an excerpt from his Letter From Birmingham Jail.
The passages we are posting this year are from a portion of the letter in which Dr. King expresses his disappointment with white moderates. Addressing his “Christian and Jewish brothers,” he directly tackles some of the arguments he has heard in opposition to his strategy and tactics, including the argument that “you are in too great a religious hurry.” Below are Dr. King’s reflections on this argument and on how he believes that time ends up getting misconceived.
(We excerpted the preceding paragraphs — which are even better known — two years ago, and you can read those right here or in the full text of the letter.)
We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.
I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom.
I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.”
Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills.
Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will.
We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.
We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
Take a few minutes today to read the whole thing.
Monday, January 17th, 2022
Martin Luther King, Jr.: Time is neutral, it can be used either destructively or constructively
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and like we do every year in honor of Dr. King’s memory, I’m posting an excerpt from his Letter From Birmingham Jail.
The passages we are posting this year are from a portion of the letter in which Dr. King expresses his disappointment with white moderates. Addressing his “Christian and Jewish brothers,” he directly tackles some of the arguments he has heard in opposition to his strategy and tactics, including the argument that “you are in too great a religious hurry.” Below are Dr. King’s reflections on this argument and on how he believes that time ends up getting misconceived.
(We excerpted the preceding paragraphs — which are even better known — two years ago, and you can read those right here or in the full text of the letter.)
Take a few minutes today to read the whole thing.
# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 9:30 AM
Categories: Holidays
Tags: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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