Where Most Needed
Theme of the Week: Time to Count the Cost
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: "We will never … worship the gold statue" (Daniel 3:18) Bonus Reading: Daniel 3:1-23
Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," was addressed to eight white clergymen who, fearing violence, opposed King's civil disobedience. King had been jailed for unlawful demonstrations against the city's segregationist ordinances.
"How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" King wrote. "The answer [is] that there are two kinds of laws: just and unjust. … One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
One factor propelling his letter to such explosive influence was that he wrote it from a prison in the epicenter of segregation. Dr. King didn't move to New York City and carry on his ministry from there. He didn't move to Los Angeles and call strategic initiatives from there. He personally took his ministry to a town where the injustice was at its worst. The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce bragged about its status as the most segregated city in America. Today Birmingham has an African-American mayor, and it's situated in one of the most integrated parts of the country.
—Richard Land in Real Homeland Security
My Response: A situation in which I should stand up and be counted is …
Thought to Apply: There comes a time when one must take a position that's neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it's right.—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (pastor, civil rights leader)>
Adapted from Real Homeland Security (Nelson, 2004) by permission.
Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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