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Friends United Meeting |
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January/February 1999
Remembering"The Doc"
by David Hadley Finke
Remarks in the observance at Columbia, Missouri, of the 30th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s deathCommunity Vigil, April 4, 1998. We reproduce the remarks, slightly edited, in recognition of King's birthday holiday, January 15.
I stand here to pay tribute to my teacher, the most important man who taught me the most important things I've learned. "Doctor," in Latin, literally means "teacher"; and Doctor King"The Doc," we called himwas my very best professor of Civics and Political Science, of Sociology and Social Change, of Theology and Christian Ethics. The lessons I carry with me weren't in an academic classroom, but from pulpits in the north and south, on picket lines, and at mass meetings.
It's so common now to have a safe and sanitized Dr. King, but I am in debt to the Social Prophet, the one who was martyred for saying and doing that which was neither popular nor safe. He understood the nature of struggle and of sacrifice, and after 30 years the shock of losing him to violence has only slightly abatedbut he prepared us for it.
Let me highlight the strongest lessons I carry with me from Dr. King:
1. This man truly preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He understood and conveyed to us what the Prophet from Nazareth meant when he said, quoting Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor...to proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord"which is now. King showed and lived the way which leads to the cross, calling us to follow as well. But King's was not an other-worldly religious message: In his very last sermon, in Memphis, he said:
"It's all right to talk about 'long white robes over yonder,' in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about 'streets flowing with milk and honey,' but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do."
2. He taught, persuasively and systematically, what Love was all about, as understood in the life and teachings of Jesus. I'll always remember when I, as a teenager, heard him preach about the three different Greek words for Love; and when Jesus talked about "loving our enemies," it wasn't the same as "liking" them, or being sentimental about them. I urge you to read his profound sermon on this subject from 1957 in Montgomery.
3. Dr. King was a patient and effective teacher about what nonviolence means. Far from the sanitized versions that we might hear if we don't truly understand King, nonviolence was seen as a weapon in social struggle, an instrument of political and social liberation, requiring just as much if not more courage and discipline than is required by the military.
He was the one who most emphatically showed that nonviolence means noncooperation with injustice, while refusing to "stoop so low as to hate your opponent." It means rocking the boat, confronting structures of Evil, and living a life of creative risk-taking; solving deep-rooted problems, not focusing on the evil-doer, who may be trapped in those same oppressive structures.
4. The Doc was a truth-teller, and it probably killed him. He dramatically led us in pointing out that black people were not yet free, despite the 14th & 15th amendments and the rulings of the Supreme Court. And he pushed our consciousness to know that none of America's minorities have yet collected on the promises of democracythe "check that has bounced," as he called itthat we are truly in this together, to rescue a Civilization.
5. Part of that Truth was a focus not just on legal protections of Civil Rights, but beyond that to basic Economic Justice. What good does it do to have technical desegregation of public accommodations, when most people of color could still not afford the restaurants, the resorts, the country clubs, and the hotels? His focus on the misuses and exploitations of capitalism were anything but popular, but we need to be reminded again that he said:
"I still contend that money can be the root of all evil. It can cause one to live a life of gross materialism. I am afraid that many among you are more concerned about making a living than making a life." ("Paul's Letter to American Christians")
Dr. King was outraged that:
"One tenth of one percent of the population controls more than forty percent of the wealth....God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty."
6. Finally, I learned from Doc, and continue to learn as I hear and read his speeches, about the oneness of the human race, and the unity of the struggles of people everywhere seeking dignity and hope and decency. He pushed out the frontiers of our vision, and challenged our sectarianism and our nationalism.
I am reminded of his words, that "God is neither a Baptist nor a Methodist, a Presbyterian nor an Episcopalian. God is bigger than all our denominations." ("Paul's Letter to American Christians," 1956)
As Scripture testifies, "God hath made of one blood all nations...to dwell on all the face of the earth."and Dr. King termed this a "broad universalism" which continues to instruct me.
As I stand here, resuming the silence, I will remember being present whenduring the terrible war in Vietnam, which Doc vigorously opposedhe and one of this century's greatest rabbis, Dr. Abraham Heschel, walked in silence to Arlington's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to lay a wreath in pledge that we would "study war no more."
The central message of Martin Luther King's Nobel Prize acceptance speech was:
"The profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our timethe need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression."
I today recommit, with you, to that vision.
David participates in FUM via his membership in 57th St. Meeting in Chicago (part of both Western and Illinois yearly meetings), though he now lives in Columbia, Missouri. His vocation as a self-employed printer is now supplemented by a calling to assist and celebrate with four relatives all over 87 years of age.
Copyright (c) 1999 Friends United Meeting
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