![]() ![]() Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that. Never must the church tire of reminding men that they have a moral responsibility to be intelligent. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. Jesus eloquently affirmed from the cross a higher law. We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart. It is pretty difficult to imagine a single person having, simultaneously, the characteristics of the serpent and the dove, but this is what Jesus expects. He was just 25 when he was appointed pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, largely based on his ability to preach.Ĭhristianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear. King, who was assassinated in 1968, was a fourth-generation preacher who earned a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary and a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University. And his acclaimed book “Strength to Love” is not a scholarly dissertation, but a collection of sermons delivered and polished over the course of his tragically abbreviated career. “In the quiet recesses of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher,” the Rev. But before he became a champion of social justice and one of the most admired Americans of the 20th century, King was an ordained minister who said his first calling was his greatest commitment. King, in a speech about the Vietnam War in 1967 at New York City’s Riverside Church, said there comes a time to “break the silence.Editor’s note: This story was originally published Jan. ![]() Listening gives birth to speech prophetic words arise out of silence. My emphasis on listening doesn’t mean we never act because even prophets, like Samuel, eventually speak up. When we listen, we show that we don't have all the answers and need guidance. Perhaps, we need an ear-centered theology that recognizes listening as much as speaking since, as the Apostle Paul writes, “faith comes by hearing.” When we listen, we indicate our intellectual and spiritual humility. Silence, though, may be a corrective to a word-centered spirituality that believes that the number of words reveals how deep one’s spirituality is. Expectations were not met but it may also be the case that people just have a hard time centering down in silence. Many didn’t really care for this musical experiment, including his own mother who thought he went too far. Cage didn’t believe there was such a thing as silence because one could hear other sounds during that piece-the wind, raindrops and people talking or walking out. Some have called it the “silent piece,” but its purpose is to make people listen. He performed “4'33″,’’ a conceptual work by musician John Cage. He sat down at the piano, and, for four and a half minutes, made no sound. On August 29, 1952, David Tudor walked onto the stage of the Maverick Concert Hall, near Woodstock, New York. It’s not until the fourth time that Samuel responds to God’s call with "Speak, for your servant is listening." Through these words, this future prophet reveals that listening is actually the first task of a prophet, not speaking.Īnother example closer to our own place and time came during an unusual concert. When Samuel is still a boy, God speaks and calls his name "Samuel!" four times, but three of those times Samuel thinks it’s the elder priest Eli who is calling him. One example of this occurs in the Bible during the childhood of Samuel who would become a great prophet of ancient Israel. We may hear but that doesn’t mean we are listening. His prophetic work for justice and love was propelled by the posture of listening.Īs easy as it sounds, it can be hard to listen due to what the theologian Howard Thurman calls the “jangling echoes of our turbulence.” Thurman, whose writing had a significant influence on King, is talking about what we now experience as all the voices on social media clamor for our attention. King took “days of silence” and what we discover through his legacy is the interrelationship of prayer and protest. Baldwin argues that prayer was the “secret weapon” of the civil rights movement. In his book "Never to Leave Us Alone," Vanderbilt University historian Lewis Baldwin does a study of the prayer life of Dr. ![]()
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