Sublime

If the church does not participate actively in the struggle for peace and for economic and racial justice, it will forfeit the loyalty of millions and cause men everywhere to say that it has atrophied its will.

King despaired. After nearly three years, his relationship with President Kennedy had run out of room. Although the movement needed federal intervention more than ever, realism told King he could not pressure President Kennedy an inch further. Brooding, he took the young Justice Department lawyer Thelton Henderson privately aside. “I’m concerned ab

King challenged the power structures of evil. That was why he was killed. King's suffering, and that of freedom fighters around the world, is redemptive when, like Jesus’ cross, it inspires us to resist evil, knowing that suffering is the consequence. To resist evil is to participate in God's redemption of the world.

“Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

Martin Luther King Jr. worked hard to train leaders

Moreover, we must learn that passively to accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.

“While not himself a racist, Mr. Goldwater articulates a philosophy which gives aid and comfort to the racist,” King declared. “His candidacy and philosophy will serve as an umbrella under which extremists of all stripes will stand.”