JohnEngelman
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Strength to Love is an anthology of seventeen sermons Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia. In these sermons Dr. King demonstrates the eloquence that later went into his “I have a dream” speech. That speech is considered by many, including me, to be one of the greatest speeches in the English language.
Dr. King composes his sermons with impressive erudition, profound insight, good advice, and deep faith in God.
In his sermon “Transformed Nonconformist” Dr. King writes, “When we would yield to the temptation of a world rife with sexual promiscuity and gone wild with a philosophy of self-expression, Jesus tells us ‘whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
In view of what we have learned about Dr. King’s personal life, this may seem hypocritical. Nevertheless, if I have a doctor who smokes cigarettes, I would rather have one who warns me about the dangers of smoking, than one who recommends tobacco as a medicinal herb. I greatly prefer Dr. King’s message to what Hugh Hefner was expressing in his “Playboy Philosophy” essays.
Throughout these sermons Dr. King preaches non violence and forgiveness. In his sermon “Antidotes for Fear” Dr. King said:
“Many white men fear retaliation. The Negro must show them they have nothing to fear, for the Negro is forgiving and is willing to forget the past.”
He began his sermon, “Shattered Dreams” with the words:
“One of the most agonizing problems within our human experience is that few, if any, of us live to see our fondest hopes fulfilled. The hopes of our childhood and the promise of our mature years are unfinished symphonies.”
At my age this spoke to me personally. Dr. King said toward the end of this sermon, “Our capacity to deal creatively with shattered dreams is ultimately determined by our faith in God.”
Dr. King’s enemies accused him then and now of being a Communist sympathizer. In his sermon “How Should a Christian View Communism?” Dr. King wrote:
Communism “enunciates movingly the theory of a classless society, but alas! Its methods for achieving this noble end are all too often ignoble. Lying, violence, murder are considered to be justifiable means to achieve this millennial end...
“Listen to the words of Lenin, the real tactician of Communist theory, ‘We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, lawbreaking, withholding and concealing truth’.”
Dr. King welcomed the support of the American Communist Party. There is no evidence that he took orders from the American Communist Party, the Soviet government, or that he passed classified information to the KGB.
Strength to Love was published in June 1963. That was the high watermark of political liberalism in the United States. In October 15, 1964 the National Election Study issued a survey that indicated that 77% of the American people trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time.
Strength to Love was also published during the high watermark of the religious revival that began during the 1950’s. In Dr. King’s sermon “A Knock at Midnight” Dr. King said:
“In this country the role of church members is longer than ever before. More than one hundred and fifteen million people are at least paper members of some church or synagogue. This represents an increase of 100 percent since 1929, although the population has increased by only 31 percent.”
The decade of the 1960’s began well. It did not end well. If President Kennedy and Dr. King had lived, if the War in Vietnam had been avoided, and if more people heeded Dr. King’s message of love and forgiveness, the hopes of the early 1960’s may have been achieved.
Dr. King composes his sermons with impressive erudition, profound insight, good advice, and deep faith in God.
In his sermon “Transformed Nonconformist” Dr. King writes, “When we would yield to the temptation of a world rife with sexual promiscuity and gone wild with a philosophy of self-expression, Jesus tells us ‘whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
In view of what we have learned about Dr. King’s personal life, this may seem hypocritical. Nevertheless, if I have a doctor who smokes cigarettes, I would rather have one who warns me about the dangers of smoking, than one who recommends tobacco as a medicinal herb. I greatly prefer Dr. King’s message to what Hugh Hefner was expressing in his “Playboy Philosophy” essays.
Throughout these sermons Dr. King preaches non violence and forgiveness. In his sermon “Antidotes for Fear” Dr. King said:
“Many white men fear retaliation. The Negro must show them they have nothing to fear, for the Negro is forgiving and is willing to forget the past.”
He began his sermon, “Shattered Dreams” with the words:
“One of the most agonizing problems within our human experience is that few, if any, of us live to see our fondest hopes fulfilled. The hopes of our childhood and the promise of our mature years are unfinished symphonies.”
At my age this spoke to me personally. Dr. King said toward the end of this sermon, “Our capacity to deal creatively with shattered dreams is ultimately determined by our faith in God.”
Dr. King’s enemies accused him then and now of being a Communist sympathizer. In his sermon “How Should a Christian View Communism?” Dr. King wrote:
Communism “enunciates movingly the theory of a classless society, but alas! Its methods for achieving this noble end are all too often ignoble. Lying, violence, murder are considered to be justifiable means to achieve this millennial end...
“Listen to the words of Lenin, the real tactician of Communist theory, ‘We must be ready to employ trickery, deceit, lawbreaking, withholding and concealing truth’.”
Dr. King welcomed the support of the American Communist Party. There is no evidence that he took orders from the American Communist Party, the Soviet government, or that he passed classified information to the KGB.
Strength to Love was published in June 1963. That was the high watermark of political liberalism in the United States. In October 15, 1964 the National Election Study issued a survey that indicated that 77% of the American people trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time.
Strength to Love was also published during the high watermark of the religious revival that began during the 1950’s. In Dr. King’s sermon “A Knock at Midnight” Dr. King said:
“In this country the role of church members is longer than ever before. More than one hundred and fifteen million people are at least paper members of some church or synagogue. This represents an increase of 100 percent since 1929, although the population has increased by only 31 percent.”
The decade of the 1960’s began well. It did not end well. If President Kennedy and Dr. King had lived, if the War in Vietnam had been avoided, and if more people heeded Dr. King’s message of love and forgiveness, the hopes of the early 1960’s may have been achieved.
