MLK: Dreams of Reconciliation
There are few men that become generational men. Men who rise and shout from the rooftops, men who speak for a race, a people group, or a generation. Men whose voices rise into a roar, and they suddenly become lions.
Like his German namesake, Martin Luther, whose voice rose sharply against religious injustice some 550 years before him, Dr. Martin Luther King, emerged as a voice in the wilderness of racial injustice. King became the rising voice of a rising movement, a movement that echoed off the mountaintops and hills and villages and hamlets. A movement of freedom that rang out powerfully, a movement that is still ringing today.
Here is his historical “I Have a Dream” speech, which is perhaps the best speech in American History. (If you haven’t seen it, you really should watch it. Or if you have, you should watch it again today.)
I am deeply thankful for this lion-man, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His dream gives me hope for continued racial reconciliation… not only here in the United States, but in other countries, in the Middle East, in Africa, India, and every country in our world. We still need reconciliation. We still need forgiveness and unity and justice. And we all, like King, are voices and ministers of this sacred reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18)
King’s dream gives me hope that generational reconciliation can happen between fathers and sons. That the hearts of the fathers would be turned to their children, and the hearts of the children can be turned to their fathers… and that a generation would be changed. May we – like King – not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’
2 Responses to “MLK: Dreams of Reconciliation”
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Great post, John. Thank you so much for writing this. I just returned home from a trip to meet my father for the first time. The meeting went better than expected, and better than I could have hoped. God was certainly in the middle of our conversation and each of us had the support of our wives by our side.
I was able to ask some hard questions, and some more easy questions about my family’s history. Actually, I learned that I am a fourth generation minister on my fathers side. My grandfather, was actually the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon. (your neck of the woods?)
I thank you, and Don Miller, for your honesty and transparency in writing the books you have written. Your writings have given me hope to begin this journey toward reconciliation.
Thanks so much for this. More than standing up against racial injustice, you could contend that Dr. King was standing against any social injustice in the U.S. (racial injustice being the biggest). For instance, he was planning a march on Washington for the poor, where he and his staff were planning to set up a tent city in the nation’s capital so people could see the many faces of poverty.