A few years ago I remember coming across the recommendation on social media that Christians would do well to (re-)read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail each year on the holiday set aside to honor MLK. I’ve taken that recommendation each of the last several years, and am happy to recommend you do the same.
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
It’s an amazing piece of literature reminding us of the dramatic moment in history that called for King’s leadership. Don’t let this day go by without taking the time to read.
You can find the document at Stanford University’s website for The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. A scan of the full document is available here, as well as audio of King himself reading the letter if you’d like to listen to it in his own voice.
What is difficult (as an SBC leader) is to first read the letter signed by eight clergy to Dr King which prompted this very important response by Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The final signer was the pastor of First Baptist Church of Birmingham. It’s sets the power of Dr King’s words and ideas in context. May we not repeat this ugly path of standing on the wrong side of history and learn from lessons in our past.
Truth.
A Jewish friend of mine who became a believer in Chicago was raised in Birmingham. As a child he went to VBS with a friend at FBC. HE never forgot overhearing the pastor speaking of him as that “little Jew boy.” What have we wrought?
I submitted a resolution last year to ask the SBC to confront and rectify for its anti-Semitism during the Holocaust years while still being evangelistic today. It did not get out of committee. I am resubmitting it again … this year in Birmingham.
It would be interesting to hear your comments about David Stanley Levison, who was the support behind shaping many of Dr. King’s messages.
It was Stanley David. He was Jewish and there is no evidence that he was a Communist. Is that what you want to discuss?
Never suggested he was…..probing for understanding positions taken and relevance today…..they were of obvious importance to Dr. King.