For our reading class today, we read "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. I had read fragments before but never the entirety. I was absolutely stunned. If you have never read it, go and read it right now. Seriously.
The year is 1963, and King is in jail for leading a demonstration in Birmingham. Eight white clergy had published a letter in the newspaper, condemning King's use of civil disobedience and demonstration and urging him instead to wait and let the courts settle the issue. This letter is his powerful reply to those clergy.
The letter is impeccably crafted, balancing insight and respect with incredible prophetic power. I want to quote here one of his devastating images of the evil of segregation: ". . . when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people."
He also offers a strong critique of the Church (of which he is a pastor) which has remained oblivious to the cause of justice. He compares the lukewarm Church of the day with the fire of the early church, using the powerful images of a thermometer and thermostat: "In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society." As we encounter the evils of our day, what will we be - a thermometer or a thermostat?
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