Thursday, January 12, 2012

Be an Extremist for LOVE!

In memory of Martin Luther King Jr, I love this very poetic "Was not....?" excerpt of MLK's letter from the Birmingham jail: 
  • "Was not Jesus an extremist in love? -- "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." 
  • Was not Amos an extremist for justice? -- "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." 
  • Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ? -- "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." 
  • Was not Martin Luther an extremist? -- "Here I stand; I can do no other so help me God." 
  • Was not John Bunyan an extremist? -- "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a mockery of my conscience." 
  • Was not Abraham Lincoln an extremist? -- "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." 
  • Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? -- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." 
"So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?"
(To read the full letter go to: http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf)

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