A Message From Prison, pt. 2
by on Jan 19th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Let’s continue to ponder some lines from Martin Luther King’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."
As Christians, we must constantly and carefully live within the tension where are commanded to live for our God, do justice to our fellow man, and respect our political leaders. These three goals sometimes find themselves in conflict with one another, and here is King’s understanding of how Christians can stand up for what is right when it is against the law to do so. A key part of this is the man’s willingness to accept the punishment for doing what is right:
One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
One of the difficult realities of manhood is that adults must address difficult issues while children have the luxury of judging adults’ decisions in the safety of their laboratories and classrooms. When racial injustice, or another form of mistreatment to humans, is prevalent, Christians must live their doctrine even if it causes problems. Being a man of God is costly because once you act, you can’t take back the consequences. Nevertheless, King can handle action above inaction:
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Righteousness is demonstrated, not acknowledged mentally. The man with right doctrine and no demonstration in his life is not a man of solid doctrine at all. If we claim to be men of God, which naturally includes loving others as He commanded us, we will need to act on this love:
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 rational 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.
Most of us will encounter injustices of one type or another during our lifetimes. When we encounter them, we will be tempted to either fight it in anger or flee from it through silence. I hope that Dr. King’s words have encouraged you to consider avoiding these two extremes, but still engaging the injustice, knowing that God is not neutral about the treatment of people.