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Instinct to Increase: A Conversation with Bishop T.D. Jakes
Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive
Courtesy of Helga Esteb/Shutterstock.com
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Instinct to Increase: A Conversation with Bishop T.D. Jakes
Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive
Recently, a meeting of leaders from around the nation came together and responded to the voice of the Lord. Powerful testimonies of healings and empathy were surfaced that were never before realized or possibly understood. This particular meeting was another answer to prayer. The sin of oppression and slavery has to be dealt with in order to release what is about to happen. Just this week, Pastor Len Ballenger of Jubilee Christian International hosted a panel of pastors to begin a conversation about diversity in the church. Be encouraged and greatly inspired as you hear of the journey of confirmations and affirmations from the Lord that led to where we are now, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: diversity, military, ethnos, nations, Azusa Street Revival, justice, mindsets, spiritual warfare, history, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., slavery, segregation, empathy, healing, John Wayne, The Hand of God, 2020, Harlem, leadership, and love. Greg, Pat and John shared in this segment. See original article HERE.
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16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.” Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against “outsiders coming in.” I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial “outside agitator” idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham’s economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants–for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” “Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?” We decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham’s mayoral election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: “Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?” The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; 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 eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state’s segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country’s antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.” Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect and a sense of “somebodiness” that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad’s Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro’s frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible “devil.”
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the “do nothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as “rabble rousers” and “outside agitators” those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist ideologies–a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent.” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . .” So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some -such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle–have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as “dirty nigger-lovers.” Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful “action” antidotes to combat the disease of segregation. Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen.
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: “Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother.” In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: “Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern.” And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South’s beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: “What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?”
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful–in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. 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. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.”‘ But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent–and often even vocal–sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment. I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands. Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.” I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.
It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in handling the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather “nonviolently” in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: “The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”
I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy two year old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: “My feets is tired, but my soul is at rest.” They will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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King, Martin Luther Jr.
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How we respond to these realities matters to those who are wounded and it matters to God. God has a mighty plan to pour out His Spirit across the land and the nations, but it’s up to the church to first acknowledge what hasn’t been acknowledged, to find each of our places at the foot of the cross, and begin the journey of healing. Hear more of the intricate depths of these powerful realities, how these truths are affecting not only a people, but an entire nation, and so much more. Also shared in this segment: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rick Joyner, mindsets, humility, UPS, justice, righteousness, repentance, restoration, Martin Luther, Don Piper, revival, dreams, visions, miracles, the Power of God, and love. See original article HERE. WATCH FULL PROGRAM!
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We have guests joining us today that have a call to unify the Church! Pastor Ron Lentine, with Myrtle Grove Baptist Church, Dr. James Miller, pastor of First Baptist Church of Warrington, and Pastor Riley Richardson with Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church. They share some great wisdom on how we can all be unified within our communities no matter our background or denomination.
Pastor Lentine starts the conversation and talks about how the Unity in the Community movement started in Pensacola, Florida. “There is a new thing the Lord is doing, a movement that is undoubtedly of God.”
We have a brief history of this movement and how it started. “This movement began in 2016 during the very heated and mean-spirited presidential election. As I witnessed the riots in cities across the nation and the division that was taking place in our nation culturally, racially, and politically I was deeply troubled in my spirit. I was convinced that there was no hope for our country outside of a spiritual awakening within the body of Christ. I was moved to action following the shooting of the police in Dallas, Texas. It was that event that prompted me to call my good friend, Dr. James Miller, a respected African American pastor of First Baptist Church of Warrington. I said to him, “Brother James, we need to do something. We may not be able to affect any change in Washington, DC, but we can make a difference in our own neighborhood.” So, the following day we brought our churches together during our Sunday night service…That night we celebrated and discussed the unity we have as family through our Lord Jesus Christ. Following that event, we reached out to other pastors in our community of different denominations, races, and cultures. Before long nine other church families within our… communities were onboard in our effort to build real Christian fellowship while we lifted up our Lord Jesus as the real source of unity and change and the only answer for our nation. As the months went by, we continued to meet every two to three months in different churches. The pastors would preach at these gathering meetings and the choirs and praise teams of the different churches would provide music. A great spirit of love and unity was building stronger with every gathering event that took place. In December of 2016 an idea came to my mind of the possibility of a unity march and rally down the main street of our neighborhood with people of every race and every culture walking side by side celebrating the transforming power of the gospel that unites us together. As I shared this vision with all of our unity churches everybody supported the idea. We set a date and began planning for what we believed would be an historical event in our community. Little did we know just how historical and wonderful this “Unity in Our Community” March and Rally would become.”
Jesus prayed for believers that we would be unified!
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are One— I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23
This unity movement is saying that God loves us as much as He loves Jesus! Pastor Lentine continues to share how as the Church is unified, we will show the world the truth of the Gospel just by them seeing our unity and love. “It struck me in my mind, the reason why the Church has lost its prophetic voice is because the body of Christ, with few exceptions, of course, are just as divided…so lost people out there have been looking at the Church and saying why should we listen to your message?”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” This generation is looking at the Church and seeing as much division as there is in the world today! Pastor Lentine shares next, “I think to regain a prophetic voice, the vision that God has given me, is that we need to unite around the Gospel. We have many differences beyond the Gospel, between Methodist, Baptist, independent churches, Pentecostal. There may be theological issues outside the Gospel we disagree on but to become a believer you have to believe in the Gospel.”
Dr. Miller, who also was the first African America police chief in Foley, Alabama, shares what is on his heart next. When Pastor Lentine first called him, he said it was a wow moment as their hearts connected on the unity movement. “We knew this was about God. This was much larger than we were, we both left that moment with the prayer that God would take it further.” He talks about how leadership in the Church needs to be unified and not divided because until that happens, there will not be unity in the Church.
Dr. Miller shares how they brought in Pastor Richardson next and that the three of them can bridge this gap together! This is just about the church working together for one common goal.
Pastor Richardson speaks next of how he got involved in the unity movement. He had a wow moment just like Dr. Miller when he heard about this movement. “The first two or three years of being a pastor there (Myrtle Grove), I was looking for a way to get the Church connected, now we were involved in mission and ministry in the community, but really getting our people in the pews doing ministry outside of the doors of the Church. Connecting with the needs of the community.”
He continues to share how as Pastor Lentine shared with him the vision of the unity movement he knew that this was something that he was to be a part of. “I’ve always believed that there’s more that unites us than it is that divides us. And that if we focus in on one message and that is the message of the cross, that all can come to know Christ and be saved. And allow Holy Spirit to live and work through us becoming the Body of Christ and becoming one…our love for one another will then make a difference in the community.”
Pastor Richardson continues to speak on how there was once a huge revival on the Gulf Coast, the Brownsville Revival, “I believe that this (unity movement) can have that impact, not just in the Pensacola area, but worldwide. As people can see men and women of God coming together around one central message, and that’s Jesus.”
Many believers want to know how to please God and unity is how we please Him!
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1
Greg shares that God showed him confirmation of this unity movement through a dream. They were at a large gathering with diverse people of all ethnicities. Greg and Pastor Lentine were at the front of the gathering and said let’s pray. So, they faced the wall and prayed as soon as they did that the glory of God filled that place. Throughout the crowd people were touched by the glory of God. God showed Greg specifically that Pastor Lentine is called to do this and is anointed for it as he invites Holy Spirit that He will come in and will bring His glory.
Pastor Lentine shares that we need to fast and pray for the will of God for our lives specifically. Catch a vision from all that has been shared so that you can start a unity movement in your community as well! What is God saying to you about this? We want to hear from you! Write to us at Friends@VFNKB.com. Maybe you have already started a unity movement in your community, let us know about that! Be sure to listen or watch the full segment to hear much more.
Courtesy of Storyblocks.com
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Unity in the Community! Red, Yellow, Black and White All Precious in HIS sight: Pensacola’s West Side Story
We have guests joining us today that have a call to unify the Church! Pastor Ron Lentine, with Myrtle Grove Baptist Church, Dr. James Miller, pastor of First Baptist Church of Warrington, and Pastor Riley Richardson with Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church. They share some great wisdom on how we can all be unified within our communities no matter our background or denomination.
Pastor Lentine starts the conversation and talks about how the Unity in the Community movement started in Pensacola, Florida. “There is a new thing the Lord is doing, a movement that is undoubtedly of God.”
We have a brief history of this movement and how it started. “This movement began in 2016 during the very heated and mean-spirited presidential election. As I witnessed the riots in cities across the nation and the division that was taking place in our nation culturally, racially, and politically I was deeply troubled in my spirit. I was convinced that there was no hope for our country outside of a spiritual awakening within the body of Christ. I was moved to action following the shooting of the police in Dallas, Texas. It was that event that prompted me to call my good friend, Dr. James Miller, a respected African American pastor of First Baptist Church of Warrington. I said to him, “Brother James, we need to do something. We may not be able to affect any change in Washington, DC, but we can make a difference in our own neighborhood.” So, the following day we brought our churches together during our Sunday night service…That night we celebrated and discussed the unity we have as family through our Lord Jesus Christ. Following that event, we reached out to other pastors in our community of different denominations, races, and cultures. Before long nine other church families within our… communities were onboard in our effort to build real Christian fellowship while we lifted up our Lord Jesus as the real source of unity and change and the only answer for our nation. As the months went by, we continued to meet every two to three months in different churches. The pastors would preach at these gathering meetings and the choirs and praise teams of the different churches would provide music. A great spirit of love and unity was building stronger with every gathering event that took place. In December of 2016 an idea came to my mind of the possibility of a unity march and rally down the main street of our neighborhood with people of every race and every culture walking side by side celebrating the transforming power of the gospel that unites us together. As I shared this vision with all of our unity churches everybody supported the idea. We set a date and began planning for what we believed would be an historical event in our community. Little did we know just how historical and wonderful this “Unity in Our Community” March and Rally would become.”
Jesus prayed for believers that we would be unified!
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are One— I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” John 17:20-23
This unity movement is saying that God loves us as much as He loves Jesus! Pastor Lentine continues to share how as the Church is unified, we will show the world the truth of the Gospel just by them seeing our unity and love. “It struck me in my mind, the reason why the Church has lost its prophetic voice is because the body of Christ, with few exceptions, of course, are just as divided…so lost people out there have been looking at the Church and saying why should we listen to your message?”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” This generation is looking at the Church and seeing as much division as there is in the world today! Pastor Lentine shares next, “I think to regain a prophetic voice, the vision that God has given me, is that we need to unite around the Gospel. We have many differences beyond the Gospel, between Methodist, Baptist, independent churches, Pentecostal. There may be theological issues outside the Gospel we disagree on but to become a believer you have to believe in the Gospel.”
Dr. Miller, who also was the first African America police chief in Foley, Alabama, shares what is on his heart next. When Pastor Lentine first called him, he said it was a wow moment as their hearts connected on the unity movement. “We knew this was about God. This was much larger than we were, we both left that moment with the prayer that God would take it further.” He talks about how leadership in the Church needs to be unified and not divided because until that happens, there will not be unity in the Church.
Dr. Miller shares how they brought in Pastor Richardson next and that the three of them can bridge this gap together! This is just about the church working together for one common goal.
Pastor Richardson speaks next of how he got involved in the unity movement. He had a wow moment just like Dr. Miller when he heard about this movement. “The first two or three years of being a pastor there (Myrtle Grove), I was looking for a way to get the Church connected, now we were involved in mission and ministry in the community, but really getting our people in the pews doing ministry outside of the doors of the Church. Connecting with the needs of the community.”
He continues to share how as Pastor Lentine shared with him the vision of the unity movement he knew that this was something that he was to be a part of. “I’ve always believed that there’s more that unites us than it is that divides us. And that if we focus in on one message and that is the message of the cross, that all can come to know Christ and be saved. And allow Holy Spirit to live and work through us becoming the Body of Christ and becoming one…our love for one another will then make a difference in the community.”
Pastor Richardson continues to speak on how there was once a huge revival on the Gulf Coast, the Brownsville Revival, “I believe that this (unity movement) can have that impact, not just in the Pensacola area, but worldwide. As people can see men and women of God coming together around one central message, and that’s Jesus.”
Many believers want to know how to please God and unity is how we please Him!
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” Psalm 133:1
Greg shares that God showed him confirmation of this unity movement through a dream. They were at a large gathering with diverse people of all ethnicities. Greg and Pastor Lentine were at the front of the gathering and said let’s pray. So, they faced the wall and prayed as soon as they did that the glory of God filled that place. Throughout the crowd people were touched by the glory of God. God showed Greg specifically that Pastor Lentine is called to do this and is anointed for it as he invites Holy Spirit that He will come in and will bring His glory.
Pastor Lentine shares that we need to fast and pray for the will of God for our lives specifically. Catch a vision from all that has been shared so that you can start a unity movement in your community as well! What is God saying to you about this? We want to hear from you! Write to us at Friends@VFNKB.com. Maybe you have already started a unity movement in your community, let us know about that! Be sure to listen or watch the full segment to hear much more.
LISTEN or WATCH NOW!
There is something that happened in Pensacola, Florida in the 1970’s when there was much racial tension during the time that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. America was being confronted that we had to deal with the injustices that took place. With all that took place some stories never were finished, the injustices never resolved. A school in Pensacola, Escambia High School, had a confederate flag and the mascot was The Rebels. It was at a time of change that they should have renamed the mascot and removed the confederate flag. This caused riots, violence and division among people who at one time may have been friends. Ultimately, we need to remember that racism is a spirit and it is a tool of the enemy to divide us from one another. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 Don’t let the world define racism for you!
Many people who were teenagers during the 1970’s now as adults are making a new Pensacola West Side Story. They all are in different careers, some pastors, police chiefs and parents. Pastor Ron Lentine, with Myrtle Grove Baptist, is leading this new story. It is a story about unity in the body of Christ. It is a story about how one community in Pensacola, Florida came together across racial, cultural and denominational lines to lift up the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost and searching of this community. When the police officers were gunned down in Dallas, Texas in 2016 it awoke the heart of Pastor Lentine. He shares his heart, “Our country is in trouble there is a cancer of hatred that is spreading among many, not all, but many. And there is only one cure for that…our Lord Jesus Christ is the cure.”
Pastor Lentine knew it was time to call a friend Pastor James Miller, an African American minister and the first black police chief in Foley, Alabama. He is also a direct descendant of a slave brought to America. They aren’t a normal match up as Pastor Lentine is an Italian American. Pastor Miller shares his heart concerning this story, “It is time for us to get together! We should not just come to church and sing songs and have praises while our world is being torn apart. If we are going to stay like Jesus, we are going to have to live like Jesus.”
Pastors of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds have joined this modern day westside story. The gatherings are so diverse that one person says, “This is a small taste of what heaven will be like.”
This movement transformed into being called, Unity in the Community and ironically met at Escambia High School which was once a place of racial riots and has been transformed by this coming together of believers. They all came together as one and are believing that this will spark an awakening that is needed in the body of Christ.
This is just the beginning! It is time for us to be united together! “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:23 Believers coming together with Jesus in the center it is a supernatural witness to people that they are loved by God. Dr. King said that the most segregated hour is at church on Sunday morning and to see all these denominations and cultures coming together is amazing! We plan to have these pastors on VFNKB soon! We are excited to see all that God is doing. We want to hear from you and what you think about this movement. You can write to us at Friends@VFNKB.com. Greg and John shared in this segment.
Screen Capture courtesy of vimeo.com Myrtle Grove Baptist
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Race, Riots and Reconciliation Pensacola’s West Side Story
There is something that happened in Pensacola, Florida in the 1970’s when there was much racial tension during the time that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. America was being confronted that we had to deal with the injustices that took place. With all that took place some stories never were finished, the injustices never resolved. A school in Pensacola, Escambia High School, had a confederate flag and the mascot was The Rebels. It was at a time of change that they should have renamed the mascot and removed the confederate flag. This caused riots, violence and division among people who at one time may have been friends. Ultimately, we need to remember that racism is a spirit and it is a tool of the enemy to divide us from one another. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 Don’t let the world define racism for you!
Many people who were teenagers during the 1970’s now as adults are making a new Pensacola West Side Story. They all are in different careers, some pastors, police chiefs and parents. Pastor Ron Lentine, with Myrtle Grove Baptist, is leading this new story. It is a story about unity in the body of Christ. It is a story about how one community in Pensacola, Florida came together across racial, cultural and denominational lines to lift up the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost and searching of this community. When the police officers were gunned down in Dallas, Texas in 2016 it awoke the heart of Pastor Lentine. He shares his heart, “Our country is in trouble there is a cancer of hatred that is spreading among many, not all, but many. And there is only one cure for that…our Lord Jesus Christ is the cure.”
Pastor Lentine knew it was time to call a friend Pastor James Miller, an African American minister and the first black police chief in Foley, Alabama. He is also a direct descendant of a slave brought to America. They aren’t a normal match up as Pastor Lentine is an Italian American. Pastor Miller shares his heart concerning this story, “It is time for us to get together! We should not just come to church and sing songs and have praises while our world is being torn apart. If we are going to stay like Jesus, we are going to have to live like Jesus.”
Pastors of diverse racial and cultural backgrounds have joined this modern day westside story. The gatherings are so diverse that one person says, “This is a small taste of what heaven will be like.”
This movement transformed into being called, Unity in the Community and ironically met at Escambia High School which was once a place of racial riots and has been transformed by this coming together of believers. They all came together as one and are believing that this will spark an awakening that is needed in the body of Christ.
This is just the beginning! It is time for us to be united together! “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:23 Believers coming together with Jesus in the center it is a supernatural witness to people that they are loved by God. Dr. King said that the most segregated hour is at church on Sunday morning and to see all these denominations and cultures coming together is amazing! We plan to have these pastors on VFNKB soon! We are excited to see all that God is doing. We want to hear from you and what you think about this movement. You can write to us at Friends@VFNKB.com. Greg and John shared in this segment.
LISTEN or WATCH NOW!
What does law mean? In America, we have many different laws, but with God we have morality. When you think about the laws of men you have an example of the laws the legislator decides to establish. As Christians, we have morality from God. Morality is defined as: of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical; moral attitudes. Founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations. When you think about the aspect of these two things, law, and morality, they are not the same thing! Paul talks about the war between law and morality, Romans 7:15-20 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Sometimes laws are put in place that is against the moral law of God; this is not the end of the world, God does not change based on the law of the land. Also, God doesn’t expect us to change when laws are put in place against the moral law. Then at times, we have laws and morality overlapping where a law lines up with the morality of God.
Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” Therefore Christians groan; we have the law of the land that can create a problem when we are called to live moral lives. We can only do this walk by God’s grace. Many people historically have violated God’s moral law while they were living by the law of the land. And at the end of their life, they are deceived into thinking they lived morally correct before God, when in reality they are legally correct before man but immoral towards God. In this world we will have man’s law and God’s law collide and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shares his perspective on this, “Hate does not drive out hate, only love can do that. Darkness does not drive out darkness, only light can do that.” And he also talks about the right choice you can make concerning immoral laws, “I do feel that there are two types of laws, one is a just law, and one is an unjust law I think we all have moral obligations to obey just laws, on the other hand, I think we have moral obligations to disobey unjust laws, because non cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.” Dr. King was warning us how we can save a nation.
In this world, men are trying to save themselves by the law. A law can be a person’s preference over one thing versus another. This is not God’s law. The plan of satan is for people to live up to their own rules. Relationship with God is about grace, mercy, and empowerment and Jesus’ finished work on the cross that enables us to walk right with God! Any good that happens in our life is God, not us. Mark 10:18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” Our righteousness is not based on the law of man but what Jesus did on the cross. You cannot legislate morality and keep in mind we are saved by grace. In this segment, many different examples are discussed with the difference between morality and laws which you can watch or listen to as well. We want to hear from you and what you think about law and morality. Also shared in this segment: Saul Alinsky, Roe V Wade, Abortion, Lawyer, Court, Slavery, Race, Rules, School. Greg and John shared in this segment.
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When Law and Morality Collide-Understanding the Present-Day Christian Dilemma in America
What does law mean? In America, we have many different laws, but with God we have morality. When you think about the laws of men you have an example of the laws the legislator decides to establish. As Christians, we have morality from God. Morality is defined as: of, relating to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical; moral attitudes. Founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations. When you think about the aspect of these two things, law, and morality, they are not the same thing! Paul talks about the war between law and morality, Romans 7:15-20 “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Sometimes laws are put in place that is against the moral law of God; this is not the end of the world, God does not change based on the law of the land. Also, God doesn’t expect us to change when laws are put in place against the moral law. Then at times, we have laws and morality overlapping where a law lines up with the morality of God.
Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” Therefore Christians groan; we have the law of the land that can create a problem when we are called to live moral lives. We can only do this walk by God’s grace. Many people historically have violated God’s moral law while they were living by the law of the land. And at the end of their life, they are deceived into thinking they lived morally correct before God, when in reality they are legally correct before man but immoral towards God. In this world we will have man’s law and God’s law collide and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shares his perspective on this, “Hate does not drive out hate, only love can do that. Darkness does not drive out darkness, only light can do that.” And he also talks about the right choice you can make concerning immoral laws, “I do feel that there are two types of laws, one is a just law, and one is an unjust law I think we all have moral obligations to obey just laws, on the other hand, I think we have moral obligations to disobey unjust laws, because non cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.” Dr. King was warning us how we can save a nation.
In this world, men are trying to save themselves by the law. A law can be a person’s preference over one thing versus another. This is not God’s law. The plan of satan is for people to live up to their own rules. Relationship with God is about grace, mercy, and empowerment and Jesus’ finished work on the cross that enables us to walk right with God! Any good that happens in our life is God, not us. Mark 10:18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” Our righteousness is not based on the law of man but what Jesus did on the cross. You cannot legislate morality and keep in mind we are saved by grace. In this segment, many different examples are discussed with the difference between morality and laws which you can watch or listen to as well. We want to hear from you and what you think about law and morality. Also shared in this segment: Saul Alinsky, Roe V Wade, Abortion, Lawyer, Court, Slavery, Race, Rules, School. Greg and John shared in this segment.
screenshot from youtube
A powerful answer to prayer has come about to begin a conversation. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus commands His disciples, “…go and make disciples of all nations…”. The nations are made up of all people, not one particular demographic, or ethnicity, or race. We are called to tell everybody, of every ethnicity about Jesus. For someone to look at the gathering of the Church, the nations should be seen and reflected. God created all the nations, including the diverse people that make up each of the nations. In addition, He calls each of us to love the people that are within those nations. Continue Reading…
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