Happy Birthday Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - Your Dream Lives On

Today would be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's 80th birthday if his life was not cut short. While tomorrow's inauguration of President Barack Obama represents an achievement in equality for America, it does not mean we have fully arrived. As Dr. King said in his "I have a dream" speech, "... we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Have we truly achieved justice in our society? Are all Americans treated equally as first class citizens? Have we learned to love our neighbors regardless of their race, color, gender, age, class, sexual orientation or creed?

Muslim Americans who are stopped each time they go through a security check point- probably think we have a way to go. Poor children who go to schools with leaky roofs and barbwire fences - probably think we have a way to go. Lesbian and gay families who are spit on as they walk their children to school, who are not given the same legal protections of other families - probably think we have a way to go.

We all should heed the message of Dr King's life:

"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. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone."

"I've seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you.... Throw us into jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence at midnight hour to beat us till we are half-dead, and we shall still love you. Be assured that we shall wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your hearts and conscience that we shall win you over in the process and our victory shall be a double victory."

While I was watching CNN this afternoon, they were interviewing one of the young girls who marched in Birmingham, AL with Dr King. She said that before they were set out to march, she and her compatriots went through extensive training about what they might undergo and the challenges they would face. They were told that they had to be 100% committed to non-violence or they should not participate. As he said outside Selma, "If you cannot commit yourself to the militancy of non violence, do not get in the line, do not get in the line." Therefore, when the police inevitably sent forth their dogs and their fire hoses, the marchers would not be afraid and that they would not retaliate - then the world would see the brutality of segregation.



These videos helped change the conscience of America. When they saw how cruel segregation was, they wanted to change- because the change was already taking place in their heart.

Dr King explains it well here ...



These lessons are still valuable today, especially in the context of the LGBT civil rights movement. LGBT people have long experienced hate crimes and death threats. No one can forget Matthew Shepard being strung up along a barb wire fence and beat to death, or Lawrence King who was gunned down at school because he was gay.

Here is an excerpt from For The Bible Tells Me So,



Most of the protests I have attended were organized by clergy from the local United Methodist and Episcopal Churches, who undoubtedly look up to MLK's civil rights movement. I just wish that message resonated with all of the protesters. I'd like to see more signs that say, "Thank You To Mormons Who Voted No" instead of "NO to Mormon Bigots"

Some people think that the Civil Rights leaders with the 60's would be appalled that "their language has been hijacked" by the LGBT civil rights movement. However, they should listen to the words of the people who marched with Dr. King.

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice... But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King, Jr., said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere' ... I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing, and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

- Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader and widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 25th anniversary luncheon of Lambda Defense and Education Fund, March 31, 1998

"Gays and lesbians have a more difficult time than we did. We had our families and our churches on our side. All too often, they have neither."

- Rev. Dr. James Lawson, a distinguished United Methodist pastor who worked side-by-side with Dr. King training the young people who staged the lunch counter sit-ins and the Freedom Rides.

"Some say they are uncomfortable with the thought of gays and lesbians marrying. But our rights as Americans do not depend on the approval of others. Our rights depend on us being Americans."

-John Lewis, Congressman and was a young leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He was 23 years old when he spoke at the 1963 March on Washington.

"That's why when I am asked, 'Are gay rights civil rights?' my answer is always, 'Of course they are.' Rights for gays and lesbians are not 'special rights' in any way. It isn't "special" to be free from discrimination -- that's an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship."

- Julian Bond speaking at the 2008 Creating Change Conference. Bond was a founding member of SNCC in 1960. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he helped organize a sit-in movement at Atlanta University. Since 1998, Julian Bond has served as Chairman of the Board of the NAACP.

"I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about."

- Mildred Loving, along with her husband, Richard, were plantiffs in the historic Supreme Court decision "Loving v. Virginia" which overturned state laws preventing two persons of different races from getting married.

"We are a retired Lutheran pastor and spouse, whose oldest son was born gay, and who at the age of 37 died with AIDS. Having spent years coming to grips with and trying to understand the concept of homosexuality, we have ultimately come to recognize this condition as a special gift of God conveyed to some of his carefully selected daughters and sons. We have come to know personally thousands of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons. And we have also become convinced that this condition is part of the 'creative given' rather than a personal choice by those individuals."

-Rev. Bob Graetz and his wife Jeannie in a letter to Catholic Bishop Daniel Pilarczyk. Bob Graetz was the only white minister to march with Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He and his wife Jeannie served an all-black Lutheran congregation in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Because of their participation in the boycott, their home was bombed twice.

Some people suggest that the LGBT civil rights activists should wait until America is ready, but Dr. King believed in the fierce urgency of now, that it was "no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off, or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism." As he most eloquently stated, "If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl - but by all means keep moving."

Many forget that Dr. King stood for more than just civil rights, he stood for total social justice. When asked whether it was politically expedient for him to oppose the war in Vietnam, Dr. King replied:

“‘I am sorry sir, you don’t know me. I am not a consensus leader. And I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or by taking a Gallup poll of the majority opinion. Ultimately a genuine leader is not a of consensus but a molder of consensus.’

“On some positions cowardice asks the question, ‘is it safe?’

“Expediency asks the question, ‘is it is politic?’

“Vanity asks the question, ‘is it is popular?’

“But conscience asks the question, ‘is it right?’

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. And that is where I stand today and that is where I hope you will continue to stand so that we can speed up the day when justice will roll down like waters all over the world and righteousness like a mighty stream. And we will speed up the day when men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and nations will not rise up against nations neither they will not start a war anymore and I close by saying as we sing in the old Negro spiritual,

“I ain’t going to study war no more.”

And it was shortly after he started vocally opposing the war, that he was assassinated. May we all show the amount of courage and civility in our movements for peace and equality.

God Bless Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and all freedom fighters of today.