MLK Inspiration

Yesterday I started this amazing class about modern day injustice. Awesome reading material for this class, let me tell you. Even two books by Gary Haugen (the man who started International Justice Mission, you can be reminded all about it here, it's the most amazing organization)! 

To start the class we read Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. It's amazing, so many quotes worthy of repeating. 

So, instead of writing the reflection paper on MLK's letter, I'm telling you about it. And eating a chocolate muffin. And chai tea. And water. (I'm big on liquids.) Don't you find that a much better use of time? I do too. 

You should really read the whole letter yourself, but in case you find the idea of a 10-page letter daunting, I'll try to share the highlights with you. 

What I find most amazing is what he says about injustice. Obviously, this is a main focal point of his letter; the injustice of segregation, but what he says applies to any injustice throughout the world. As an advocate for Invisible Children I've heard a lot of people say, "Gee, that's terrible. But..it's all the way over there. It doesn't affect us." To such a sentiment, MLK says this, 

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Our liberty is bound together. If one person on the other side of the globe is being treated unfairly, it is our responsibility to come to their rescue. We would want to be rescued.

Obviously, this letter is quite lengthy, and though I'd love to continue sharing quotes with you I really should write the reflection that needs to be written (and my chai tea has run out, which signals to me that I have neglected my paper long enough). But I must share this last bit with you. For the first half of the letter MLK seems almost insulted that he has been called an "extremist." But on page 6 he comes to a realization that all the greats have been extremists; Abraham Lincoln was an extremist for freedom, Paul an extremist for sharing the gospel. And so he says,

"So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.Will we be extremists for hate or love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime- the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality..The other, Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness."

And you thought MLK talk was over for January.