Thoughts on Today’s Quote
Martin Luther King shaped his life, activism and ministry around the principles of nonviolent protest. He was influenced in forming those convictions by the writings of people like Ghandhi and Tolstoy.
In a world where people react with anger and hatred when they disagree with others, taking the path of nonviolence is not easily achieved.
Fear drives violence and hatred and that fear causes fear in those targeted by violence and hate. That generated fear causes violence and hate in return. An endless cycle can pursue.
Fear and hatred are primitive survival instincts within us which comes too quickly to the surface. In primitive times, we needed the adrenaline generated by fear to help us defend ourselves and survive enemies and other dangers.
How many times have you seen or heard of stories of generation feuds going on between families, communities, countries or even religious orders? All too often.
At some point, someone needs to step up and set the example that we can agree to disagree and still love our neighbour.
We can debate and argue with the basic understanding that our opponents are otherwise good people.
That is a hard conclusion to come to when there has been, or even continues, to be violence and bloodshed on both sides of those feuds.
Without someone with the courage to try, we’ll never know if it can happen. The will to love has to start the will to end hatred and it needs to be infectious.
I’ve been guilty of my hurt and anger becoming hate. That doesn’t mean I can’t strive to at least find a space of respect for my enemy as a person.
Who is Martin Luther King?
Martin Luther King’s birth name was Michael King when he was born January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. After his father, Martin Luther King Sr, visited Germany in 1934 he changed both his name and his son’s to Martin Luther in honour of the German reformer.
During his life, King suffered from bouts of depression. As a teenager he was skeptical about Christian faith before eventually concluding that the bible has many “profound truths which one cannot escape”.
At the age of 15 he tried and passed the entrance exam for Moorehouse College, a respected black college. By 18 he had decided he would enter the ministry after concluding the church offered the most assuring way to answer an inner urge to serve humanity.
In 1954 he was called as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
In December 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to w white man. King was among the organizers of a bus boycott that lasted 385 days. During the boycott King’s home was bombed and he was arrested.
The boycott ended with a United States District Court ruling ending racial segregation on Montgomery public buses. King’s role brought him national notice.
Inspired by Billy Graham’s crusades, King and several others founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). King was the inaugural president and remained so until his death. The group was created to harness the moral authority and organize black churches to conduct nonviolent protests for civil rights reform.
The Ghandhi Society for Human Rights was formed as a tax-exempt fund to assist the nonviolent civil rights movement to raise funds. King served as honorary president.
In 1962 King and the society issued a call for President Kennedy to follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln and issue an executive order as a second emancipation proclamation as a blow for civil rights. Kennedy did not issue the order.
King believed that organized, nonviolent protest against southern segregation would lead to greater sympathy toward the civil rights movement. During the turbulent 60s as the push for civil rights grew across the country driven by protests, King was arrested 29 times.
Civil rights became the most important issue in American politics. The marches led to civil and voting rights being enacted into American law. King was not without his enemies.
The FBI investigated King and the SCLC for communist sympathies without success but then used information picked up in wiretaps to work against him. More militant black groups led by people like Malcolm X criticized King for working toward integration. Malcolm X believed that black culture should be a distinct society.
In 1963, addressing the civil rights march on Washington which attracted more than a quarter of a million people from across the country, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. It is considered to be one of the finest speeches in American history. In 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
King opposed the Vietnam war but initially refrained from doing so publicly. He didn’t want to take attention away from the civil rights movement. As public opposition great he finally decided to speak up and in 1967 during a speech in New York he argued against the war.
His opposition to Vietnam lost him several strong white supporters, most notably, President Johnson, Billy Graham, union leaders and publishers.
On March 29, 1968 King travelled to Memphis, Tennessee to speak at a series of civil rights rallies. His flight was delayed departing due to a bomb threat. At the April 3rd rally he delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.
On April 4th King was assassinated at the motel where he was staying by James Earl Ray who managed to get out the country before being captured and brought to justice. King was 39 years of age.
*I will try to find information on the author of the quotes I share. I wont always be successful.
Don’t know about you, but I find it interesting to know who the person was that anyone took the time to record or quote that person.*
About Coffee Time Meditation
I love being inspired by other people’s quotes. I thought I’d start sharing some quotes that inspire me along with my own thoughts the quote evokes within me. So, think of someone, like me, sitting quietly with the first fresh coffee of the day and mediating about the words of the quote. That would be me, or it could be you.
I invite you to share your own thoughts on the quote in the comments.
If you like this series, please upvote it and share with others.
Have a great day
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Past Coffee Time Meditations
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