“The anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows”

Today is Martin Luther King Day, and in honor we’d like to share some of King’s insights from the Letter from Birmingham Jail. The letter was written in response to a statement made by eight clergymen – including two Methodist bishops – who had denounced King as an “outside agitator” in Birmingham and criticized the Birmingham campaign’s use of civil disobedience. The letter is one of the most eloquent expressions of the civil rights cause and lays out a brilliant explanation of the necessity of direct action strategies. It also laments the complicity of the white church in the support of racial segregation and contains a vision of what Christ’s church ought to be that is as relevant today as it was in 1963:

“I had felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents…all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows….

“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....

“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.”

King closes the letter with this:

“If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates and 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,”

On this Martin Luther King Day, may we all honor his legacy and emulate his faithfulness to the Gospel by being impatient enough with injustice.

The Letter from Birmingham Jail was published in the collection Why We Can’t Wait in 1964, which is still in print. The text can also be found for free on numerous websites.