MLK Still Speaks Today

So many of the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. still ring true today. While many people tried to pigeon-hole Dr. King, particularly toward the end of his life, he was taking on more and more issues, seeing all intertwined within his calling. On this day honoring his legacy, then, I will let a rather lengthy excerpt from his speech delivered at Riverside Church in April of 1967 speak for itself in light of current events:

… when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do …we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.

…For those who ask the question, “Aren’t you a civil rights leader?” and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: “To save the soul of America.” We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath —
America will be!

…America’s soul … can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for the health of our land.

An Indictment from Centuries Past

I considered several posts for today, and clearly wrote none, but all the better, as nothing could have been as striking as we enter the second decade of the 21st century as the following from Walter Rauschenbusch’s classic Christianity and the Social Crisis, written early in the 20th century:

When the Nineteenth Century died, its Spirit descended to the vaulted chamber of the Past, where the Spirits of the dead Centuries sit on granite thrones together. When the newcomer entered, all turned toward him and the Spirit of the Eighteenth Century spoke: “Tell thy tale, brother. Give us word of the humankind we left to thee.”

“I am the Spirit of the Wonderful Century. I gave man the mastery over nature. Discoveries and inventions, which lighted the black space of the past like lonely stars, have clustered in a Milky Way of radiance under my rule. One man does by the touch of his hand what the toil of a thousand slaves never did. Knowledge has unlocked the mines of wealth, and the hoarded wealth of today creates the vaster wealth of tomorrow. Man has escaped the slavery of Necessity and is free.

“I freed the thoughts of men. They face the facts and know. Their knowledge is common to all. The deeds of the East at eve are known in the West at morn. They send their whispers under the seas and across the clouds.

“I broke the chains of bigotry and despotism. I made men free and equal. Every man feels the worth of his manhood.

“I have touched the summit of history. I did for mankind what none of you did before. They are rich. They are wise. They are free.”

The Spirits of the dead Centuries sat silent, with troubled eyes. At last the Spirit of the First Century spoke for all.

“We all spoke proudly when we came here in the flush of our deeds, and thou more proudly than we all. But as we sit and think of what was before us, and what has come after us, shame and guilt bear down our pride. Your words sound as if the redemption of man had come at last. Has it come?

Spread the Wealth

Given the shared interest, I thought I’d use Luba Lukova’s social justice posters as jumping-off points for some posts. By way of giving credit where credit is due, following is some more about the posters:

Social Justice 2008 is a powerful portfolio that features 12 thought-provoking posters by world-renowned artist and designer Luba Lukova [with] themes that include peace, war, ecology, immigration, privacy, health coverage, media, corruption, censorship, and Sudanese poverty. …Lukova’s portfolio captures many of the complex issues our society faces…and yet each poster speaks to the viewer in an accessible and honest way.

Starting with the income gap, I’ll revisit my particular dumbfounderment at one of the 2008 Presidential election’s later attacks. While a background in political science tells me that seizing upon the idea of “spreading the wealth” in the United States is sure to play well, my Christian identity was stunned by some of the response to this attack.

I’ve always been a bit confused how some seem able to find a basis in Christianity for capitalism when the book of Acts is perhaps as close to a socialist manifesto as many Christians will ever read. The problem with any man-made economic system, of course, is that it necessarily involves men (in the generic use of the term, of course). While communism may look great on paper, it falls apart when sinful human beings enter the equation.

Never mind Acts – if you really want to talk about “spreading the wealth,” how about that Jubilee Year, where everyone is freed from their debts and bondage? I dare say that looks pretty good to a lot of Americans right about now.