Excerpts from Martin Luther King sermons
___ The real tragedy is that we see people as entities or merely as things. Too seldom do we see people in their true humanness. A spiritual myopia limits our vision to external accidents. We see men as Jews or Gentiles, Catholics or Protestants, Chinese or American, Negroes or whites. We fail to think of them as fellow human beings made from the same basic stuff as we, molded in the same divine image. The priest and the Levite saw only a bleeding body, not a human being like themselves. But the Good Samaritan will always remind us to remove the cataracts of provincialism from our spiritual eyes and see men as men.
___ From "On Being a Good Neighbor."
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., shown here at a civil rights march in Selma, Ala., in 1965, is remembered for his political and social action, but his roots were in the Baptist church, where he was an able preacher.
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___ We must be reminded anew that God is at work in his universe. He is not outside the world looking on with a sort of cold indifference. Here on all the roads of life, he is striving in our striving. Like an ever-loving Father, he is working through history for the salvation of his children. As we struggle to defeat the forces of evil, the God of the universe struggles with us.
___ From "The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore."
___ The church must be reminded once again that it is not to be the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state--never its tool. As long as the church is a tool of the state, it will be unable to provide even a modicum of bread for men at midnight.
___ From "A Knock at Midnight."
___ In the terrible midnight of war, men have knocked on the door of the church to ask for the bread of peace, but the church has often disappointed them. What more pathetically reveals the irrelevancy of the church in present-day world affairs than its witness regarding war? In a world gone mad with arms buildup, chauvinistic passions and imperialistic exploitation, the church has either endorsed these activities or remained appallingly silent. ... A weary world, pleading desperately for peace, has often found the church morally sanctioning war.
___ From "A Knock at Midnight."
___ There are two types of Negro churches that have failed to provide the bread at midnight. One is a church that burns up with emotionalism and the other is a church that freezes up with classism. The former is a church that reduces worship to entertainment and places more emphasis on volume than on content. It confuses spirituality with muscularity. The danger of this church is that its members will end up with more religion in their hands and feet than in their hearts and souls. So many people have gone by this type of church at midnight, and it had neither the vitality nor the relevant gospel to feed their hungry souls. The other type of Negro church that leaves men unfed at midnight is a church that develops a class system within. It boasts of the fact that it is a dignified church, and most of its members are professional people. It takes pride in its exclusiveness. In this church the worship service is cold and meaningless. ... The tragedy of this type of church is that it fails to see that worship at its best is a social experience with people of all levels of life coming together to realize their oneness and unity under God.
___ From "A Knock at Midnight"
___ This text has a great deal of bearing on our struggle for racial justice. We as Negroes must combine tough-mindedness and tender-heartedness if we are to move creatively toward the goal of freedom and justice. There are those soft-minded individuals among us who feel that the only way to deal with oppression is to adjust to it. ... But this is not the way out. This soft-minded acquiescence is the way of the coward. My friends, we cannot win the respect of the white people of the South or the peoples of the world if we are willing to sell the future of our children for our personal and immediate safety and comfort. Moreover, we must learn that the passive acceptance of an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby become a participant in its evil. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
___ From "A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart"
___ If your white brothers are to master fear, they must depend not only on their commitment to Christian love but also on the Christ-like love which the Negro generates toward them. Only through our adherence to love and non-violence will the fear in the white community be mitigated. A guilt-ridden white minority fears that if the Negro attains power, he will without restraint or pity act to revenge the accumulated injustices and brutality of the years. ... Many white men fear retaliation. The Negro must show them that they have nothing to fear, for the Negro forgives and is willing to forget the past.
___ From "Antidote for Fears"
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