Therefore let us love

Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr - Wikimedia Commons

When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate — ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another, for love is God. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.” “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.” Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee says:

Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last word.

– Martin Luther King, Jr

Thoughts on love and forgiveness

St Peters Brewery

Originally posted at StPetersBrewery.info

I’ve witnessed a couple great examples of people truly living out love and forgiveness recently in my life — especially through some people very close to me. Their stories inspire me to believe that while St. Peter’s Brewery may be a fictional story — the ideas contained within it can truly be lived out day by day. Here’s a couple excerpts from Chapter 8 of St. Peter’s Brewery that deal with these ideas:
Continue reading Thoughts on love and forgiveness

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The work of Martin Luther King Jr. and his efforts towards love, unity and non-violence can teach us a thing or two about loving our neighbor — and loving our enemies.

The continue to inspire me towards a non-violent, pacifist, loving and gracious way of life.

“The black freedom struggle is the best example of bringing together the quest for unarmed truth and unconditional love in the face of American Terrorism for 400 years. Instead of a Black al-Qaeda you get Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther.” – Dr Cornel West

Continue reading Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

19/365 for MLK Jr

19/365

for MLK Jr

There’s a great line from the West Wing’s Season 3 – Isaac and Ishmael. Sam Seaborn tells a class gathered at the White House during a "crash" that terrorists never win. They may die for their cause but they never win. They often make their enemy stronger and more determined.

Forty years ago a gunman decided he’d had enough of Martin Luther King Jr. and decided to gun him down outside a Memphis Hotel. Yet King’s dream lives on. Tomorrow, an African American will be sworn in as the President of the United States.

I hope he remembers that love wins. It always has, always will.

Those who choose hate — never win. Those who kill — never win. Those who choose to love — will always win.

"…we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force."


BTW for those who are curious I did this with two separate images – one with me standing still (2 sec shutter) and the other is the text, written with a green LED flashlight (25 sec shutter). I stacked the layers on top of one another in Photoshop and gave the text layer a pin light blend.

P.S. U2’s new song Get On Your Boots came out today. Yes — it rocks!

45 years later we’re still fighting for it

Today will be an historic day. Last night the Democratic Party officially nominated Barack Obama as their party’s presidential nominee. Tonight, he will accept the nomination with a speech in Denver — exactly 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Today will be a great day in American history – and yet a sad day as well. Just this week, men were arrested in Colorado for plotting an assassination attempt on Obama – simply because he’s black.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

A VP in our office just walked through excited about Obama’s nomination but also noted, “looks like its going to come down to black vs white (in November).”

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” – the American Declaration of Independence

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

And whatever happens in November will already be historic. The downside though is that no matter what — we still have a long way to go.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

“America has given the negro a bad check. A check that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'” – Martin Luther King Jr.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

And this goes beyond just white and black. It goes for red and yellow, black and white. For all are precious in His sight.

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.

“I remember reading the stories of white Christians telling King to be patient. Black Christians were told over and over again, black and white alike, to wait for God’s kingdom in the arena of racial justice. The right to vote was not the end. It was seen as a means to participate in democracy, to work alongside fellow citizens to aide our society to fulfill its own sense of calling.

I live with a tragic history that remembers the failure of churches to be more determined by color than baptism. A reality we still wrestle with today. But a part of that tragic history is how fellow Christians, on this continent, refused to let people of color in on the conversation called America. What they didn’t know was that we already had our own conversation, and we wanted them in on it. Even though we had our own conversation going since the beginning of sojourn, we still wanted to join in as fellow citizens and broaden the conversation. We wanted to bring out gifts to the table. We wanted equity along racial lines. A piece to the puzzle to achieving such equity was the practice of voting.” – Anthony Smith (aka Postmodern Negro)

It amazes me that we’re still fighting this battle.