MLK..."the beloved community"

Unfortunately, The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. remains on my bookshelf still unread. Maybe I’ll get it read by MLK Day 2009? In the meantime, this morning I reread a chapter on Martin Luther King, Jr. in Philip Yancey’s book, Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church. In the book, MLK is one of twelve mentors and spiritual directors who inspired and transformed Yancey’s life and work.

A couple quotes from MLK really stand out to me this weekend. Most of the civil right’s victories and progress did not come until after King’s death. Yancey tells the story of how Roy Wilkins of the NAACP kidded King that his methods of nonviolence had not achieved a single victory for integration in Albany or Birmingham. King responded with these words, “Well, I guess the only thing I’ve desegregated so far is a few human hearts.”

Ultimately, regardless of what laws and oppressive structures are changed, the real, lasting victories for reconciliation, forgiveness, and love must take root in human hearts. King goes on later to say the real goal is “to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority…The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community.”

This vision and truth of King's words and example challenge and inspire my own life today, as the themes of reconciliation and hope continue to take root this 2008.

PS - Here is a link to an excerpt from the book With Justice for All by John Perkins. "The book tells Perkins’ journey toward finding racial reconciliation even in turbulent times."