eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 05:26am on 2008-01-15

"But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.' Was not Amos an extremist for justice: 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.' Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.' Was not Martin Luther an extremist: 'Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.' And John Bunyan: 'I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.' And Abraham Lincoln: 'This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.' And Thomas Jefferson: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ...' So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. We we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?" -- Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929-01-15, d. 1968-04-04), Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963-04-16

There are 2 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] realinterrobang.livejournal.com at 07:19pm on 2008-01-15
I never thought Martin Luther King's own words would cause me to dislike him slightly for having written those words. Anybody who approvingly cites that misogynist whackjob Paul as an example of a "good extremist" (Paul reads more like a power-mad self-hater who made organised Christianity into his own personal cult of personality, to me) is not on my side, whether or not we have common goals.
 
posted by [identity profile] selki.livejournal.com at 09:36pm on 2008-01-16
Paul is certainly not my favorite from early Christian history, in some ways bad for the church (IMO), but I think some of his letters had good ideas, well expressed. And I can see why a traditional Christian minister would focus on that good.

MLK -- I so wish he hadn't been murdered. If he could have kept spreading his message of social justice ...

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