I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was not merely eloquent, but with words that emanated from his deep belief in the promises of God, he issued forth words as powerful as cannon blasts, filled with compelling messages of hope that urged others to action.
This quote is from his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1964. But only one year earlier he had been arrested and placed in solitary confinement for taking part in the Birmingham Campaign against racial segregation. Alone in a narrow, dark cell, his attorney visited and brought him a newspaper that shocked him. Religious leaders in the area—black religious leaders—had condemned his nonviolent demonstration.
Frustrated and weary, he found a pen and began scribbling a response in the margins of the newspaper article. His words were sorrowful, as you can imagine. He wrote: “I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom.”
His work and sacrifices were not in vain, one year after that arrest, The Civil Rights Act, outlawing segregation based on race was passed by Congress. The next year Congress passed the Voting Rights Act that would guarantee African American voting rights. King had been jailed 29 times. He had followed in the footsteps of Gandhi and other great pacifists who had harnessed the power of peace and love to overcome barriers to freedom and greatness.
In my quiet moments, listening to the rhetoric of today’s political battles, I like to think of Reverend King. He was a man who turned a few tables over in the temple, for sure. But like Jesus, he fought the war against evil with love, hot hate, with peace, not violence, and in doing so, he left a righteous legacy that we should not forget.
Blessings,
Jim
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