Considering Dr. King and this twenty-first century America, I found a very contemporary debate in an obscure speech from Dr. King’s files. “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” was delivered by the Rev. Dr. King on April 4, 1967 at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. You may preview the entire speech at view link . Having pulled this speech off the internet to read, I was moved by Dr. King’s introductory remarks as to why he would take a position against the Vietnam War. When questioned about his actions “hurting the cause of your people,” King said he was “greatly saddened, for such questions means that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.”
King’s words resonated with me in the same way I heard the apostle John write of the Christ in John Chapter 12. The writer so effectively captures the lack of understanding the disciples had of Jesus. In spite of approximately three years of instruction and companionship together, they were still in many ways “clueless” of the man from Galilee.
Dr. King’s presentation back in 1967 was laced with the same disbelief as he sorted out the impact of the Vietnam War to the programs of the, then “Great Society.” “Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.”
As a mother, student, educator, public servant, and American citizen, I am just as dumbfounded over America’s role as the world’s “strange liberators.” That is what Dr. King called Americans at Riverside Church forty years ago. It was not a new idea or label. Americans for the past one hundred years or more have been juggling the dichotomy of American domestic and foreign policy. The only grief I face daily is that I recently put my own son, Joshua, in harm’s way as a private in the Army.
My only comfort is that I presented and dedicated that young man (soon to be 21 years old on February 18th) to God from my arms as an infant and every day thereafter. Like Job (Job 1:5), I continue to call his name and the names of his siblings out in prayer by faith until the work of the divine Liberator is complete in their souls.
As the great Liberator, Jesus postured Himself in the synagogue at Nazareth to announce His role at the age thirty. Reading from the prophet Esaias (Isaiah 61:1), He said,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the [rabbi], and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, ”This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? - Luke 4:18-22 (KJV, emphasis mine)
As we Americans enter another century with the same poison of liberation and ambition, I choose to embrace the Fruit of my Great Liberator. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – I Corinthians 15:55-57 (KJV).
