In marking this special day, the contemporary reading at yesterday’s Zoom gathering of Spirit Catholic Community, which is my faith community here in Minneapolis, was an excerpt from an article Martin penned for Ebony Magazine in 1957.
As I’m sure you'll agree, Martin’s message is both timeless and incredibly challenging. It’s also essential for our current times of political and social turmoil.
I am convinced that love is the most durable power in the world. It is not an expression of impractical idealism; but of practical realism. To return hate for hate does nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Moreover, love is creative and redemptive. Love builds up and unites; hate tears down and destroys.
The aftermath of the “fight fire with fire” method is bitterness and chaos; the aftermath of the love method is reconciliation and the creation of the beloved community. Physical force can repress, restrain, coerce, destroy, but it cannot create and organize anything permanent; only love can do that.
Yes love – which means understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill, even for one’s enemies – is the solution.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Excerpted from “Advice for Living”
Ebony Magazine
November 1957
Excerpted from “Advice for Living”
Ebony Magazine
November 1957
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Moderates, Radicals, and MLK
• For MLK Day (2018)
• Quote of the Day – January 15, 2017
• Martin Luther King Jr. and Democratic Socialism
Related Off-site Link:
The Nation Must Have the Moral Courage to Carry On the Work of Martin Luther King Jr. – Liz Theoharis (Common Dreams, January 18, 2021).
What MLK Actually Thought About Israel and Palestine – David Palumbo-Liu (Jacobin, February 10, 2019).
The Forgotten Socialist History of Martin Luther King Jr. – Matthew Miles Goodrich (In These Times, January 15, 2018).
Dreaming Away the Reality of Racism: Media Misuse of Martin Luther King – Janine Jackson (FAIR, October 1, 2013).
Image: Photographer and artist unknown.
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