Posted on 01/16/2006 12:43:00 PM PST by JTN
Anyone who has a list should ping it. You will not read anything more eloquent or beautiful today. little jeremiah, we might even agree on some moral absolutes here.
Bump.
Timeless truth bump and ping.
Well worth saving. Thanks for posting this.
But how dare anyone criticize a law ordaining abortion or homosexual "marriage"...
Good, good, post! Thank you!
My thanks to you, FRiends.
We also wrote, however, that just as King changed America, Bull Connner changed King by making him less enthusiastic about using this (successful) tactic in the future.
There is no question King had flaws. I believe he loved America and wanted to make it better, NOT "make it Africa," which is what some of his useless philosophical heirs have done.
"The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: There are just and there are unjust laws. I would agree with Saint Augustine that "An unjust law is no law at all."
This was a very sobering speech, and MLK was quite eloquent, along with being a good man. However, one must never break the law, regardless of the unjustness. As soon as one does that, they immediately lose credibility with those who would potentially sympathize with their plight. And this will cause a host of other problems to occur. We simply work to make things better for ALL those who live in the U.S. We follow set laws(rules), and if they are unjust, we LAWFULLY change them. Otherwise chaos results. Subjecting society to chaos, for the sake of one group makes no sense whatsoever. Many tradgedies would have been avoided if we all would have remembered, patience is a virtue.
As I think King's letter describes, inviting excessive force was not all that was needed. Neither Birmingham police nor Albany police were publicly violent. Winning the Civil Rights battle required shaming the Southern White Majority from a position of silence and complicity with firmly the entrenched racist power structure. His Letter from a Birmingham Jail implored "Christians" to act like Christians.
I am curious as to which "philosophical heirs" of King you believe want to "make [America] Africa".
Remarkable man,
remarkable writer.
"Many tradgedies would have been avoided if we all would have remembered, patience is a virtue."
Did you read the letter?
Would you be patient if your children were raised in a world in which they were routinely being called "nigger", and excluded from particpation in many areas of society for no good reason?
The foundation of our Country was in violation of "Law". Revolutionary war?
Hello?
Quoting from the article:
...there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman empire. To a degree academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.
We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws. I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last 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 the 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 can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
End quote...
and then this:
"History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals... We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
Yes. I did read the letter.
And yes. The initial idea for the foundation of our country was a violation of the "law". But, you are ommitting, "God's mercy". That is what they found AFTER enduring all the hardships of war. It is all quite clearly stated in our constitution. Very important point. Hello?
You nailed it. This is why he was ultimately effective. America sees itself as good, it aspires to be good; he called on it to live up to its own ideals. That, and the shock of his death, was the nail in the coffin of the Jim Crow system.
Things are not perfect, and in a human world will never be. But the kind of racial repression that existed prior to King, died in 1968 with his death.
It is common to read of his flaws of character, as his critics try to remind us of his ordinariness. Every reminder of his ordinariness makes me admire him all the more. There are millions of ordinary people in the world, all of them flawed in some way. Out of those millions only a very few stood up. Out of those millions only a few will ever make the kind of difference he did.
Yes. These are quotes from the speech. And what is your question?
Here we go. Let's see who will stand with Dr. King on this statement.
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