Ted Mallory's Reviews > Strength to Love
Strength to Love
by
by
Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior wrote that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" in 1963.
Just last week Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan said that "A terrorist attack on any of us is an attack on all of us."
I shared both quotes with my Civics class, but one eighth grader wrote on the board under Dr. King's words that "no one gets this." I asked if they'd like me to discuss it with them and the same student said, "no, we don't care either."
That made me thing of Jimmy Buffett's famous line, "Is it ignorance, or apathy? I don't know and I don't care."
I care, God knows I care, but God only knows how I'm supposed to teach eighth graders how to care.
So I took King's words,
Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to Justice EVERYWHERE
and I paired them with James Madison's words-
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
[Disunity] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Unity] EVERYWHERE
[Turmoil] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Tranquility] EVERYWHERE
[Insecurity] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Security] EVERYWHERE
Or would that have sounded better with [Offense] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Defense] EVERYWHERE?
[Suffering] ANYWHERE is a threat to [the General Welfare] EVERYWHERE!
Now THERE'S one that probably makes "rugged individualists" absolutely cringe, but AREN'T I my brother's keeper?
And of course,
[Tyranny] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Liberty] EVERYWHERE
So isn't it true?
Don't you CARE?
Don't you realize? Don't you know?
That "Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to Justice EVERYWHERE!"
Is justice really blind?
Have you ever heard, "No Justice, No Peace!"?
Did you know, what Cornell West says?
He says that “Justice is what love looks like in public.”
Merrium and Webster say that "public" means
"exposed to general view :
open, well-known, prominentc :
perceptible, material..."
and
"of, relating to, or affecting ALL the people."
Did you know?
Do you care?
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"
Just last week Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan said that "A terrorist attack on any of us is an attack on all of us."
I shared both quotes with my Civics class, but one eighth grader wrote on the board under Dr. King's words that "no one gets this." I asked if they'd like me to discuss it with them and the same student said, "no, we don't care either."
That made me thing of Jimmy Buffett's famous line, "Is it ignorance, or apathy? I don't know and I don't care."
I care, God knows I care, but God only knows how I'm supposed to teach eighth graders how to care.
So I took King's words,
Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to Justice EVERYWHERE
and I paired them with James Madison's words-
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
[Disunity] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Unity] EVERYWHERE
[Turmoil] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Tranquility] EVERYWHERE
[Insecurity] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Security] EVERYWHERE
Or would that have sounded better with [Offense] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Defense] EVERYWHERE?
[Suffering] ANYWHERE is a threat to [the General Welfare] EVERYWHERE!
Now THERE'S one that probably makes "rugged individualists" absolutely cringe, but AREN'T I my brother's keeper?
And of course,
[Tyranny] ANYWHERE is a threat to [Liberty] EVERYWHERE
So isn't it true?
Don't you CARE?
Don't you realize? Don't you know?
That "Injustice ANYWHERE is a threat to Justice EVERYWHERE!"
Is justice really blind?
Have you ever heard, "No Justice, No Peace!"?
Did you know, what Cornell West says?
He says that “Justice is what love looks like in public.”
Merrium and Webster say that "public" means
"exposed to general view :
open, well-known, prominentc :
perceptible, material..."
and
"of, relating to, or affecting ALL the people."
Did you know?
Do you care?
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"
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Strength to Love.
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Reading Progress
March 11, 2009
– Shelved
March 11, 2009
– Shelved as:
faith
May 4, 2010
– Shelved as:
progressive
February 8, 2012
–
Started Reading
February 13, 2012
–
37.5%
"I wish every Republican who attended CPAC last week would read this book."
page
60
March 20, 2012
–
66.25%
"I wish I could get all my Republican & Tea Party friends to read chapter 10 on Communism. "poverty, insecurity, injustice, and racial discrimination... are the fertile soil in which the seed of Communism grows and develops." if you're genuinely concerned about socialism or Marxism, you will curb the abuses of unrestrained Capitalism."
page
106
April 10, 2012
–
76.88%
"I wish this book were more widely read, it is so important and so powerful."
page
123
April 14, 2012
–
66.25%
"This line reminded me of Mitt Romney, "there is something obscene about a billionaire's being optimistic and aggressive and cunning.""
page
106
April 14, 2012
–
0.0%
"Oops- I think I accidentally posted something about a Kurt Vonnegut book but labelled it about this book. When it comes to typing on my iPod, I'm all thumbs!"
April 15, 2012
–
90.0%
"On the surface, it's another Martian invasion book. Since it came out in 1959, you could imagine it's a metaphor for conformism or communism- but since also reading some essays/columns by Howard Zinn, it's obvious that it's all about American Militarism & nationalism. Of course, being Vonnegut, he's got plenty of stabs in already about classism, capitalism, materialism, sexism, and fascism too! Beautiful ugliness!"
page
144
April 23, 2012
–
78.75%
"I recommend this collection of devotions to anyone; black or white, liberal or conservative, Christian or nonchristian."
page
126
June 21, 2012
–
Finished Reading
October 30, 2014
–
15.63%
"I am re-reading this, one of my all-time favorites. I think it gets better as I get older. Now I listen to these sermons while sitting in the pews with me are Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Rousseau, Roosevelt, Paul Tillich, Victor Frankl, St. Paul, Christ Himself, Luther, Matthew, Luke, and many others. Doctor King has SO much to say to all of us today, not just to African-American activists back in 1963."
page
25
November 6, 2014
–
33.13%
"For God's sake, if you've never read this- order it, buy it, read it. I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat, Black or White, Lutheran or Baptist, Christian or not- READ IT! ALL AMERICANS SHOULD READ THIS!!!"
page
53
December 6, 2014
–
67.5%
"Not just race or politics- this book has so much about, well love and God and God's love as an ethic, and after all, that is the new commandment Jesus gave us. America needs a voice like this now. #blacklivesmatter #faithmatters #hopematters #Godmatters #lovematters"
page
108
December 9, 2014
–
71.25%
""...in the long run of history might does not make right and the power of the sword cannot conquer the power of the spirit.""
page
114
December 16, 2014
–
79.38%
"Chapt.12, "The Antidotes for Fear" is a great comfort in times of anxiety. I wonder if Theologian Paul Tillich ever read it."
page
127
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One chapter in particular struck me as something that we could all use these days. Let’s face it, this is a time of high anxiety and stress for many of us. Governor Culver recently tried to reassure Iowans that we’re in better shape than the nation as a whole to face the coming recession. But come on, things have been getting hard for all of us for a long time.
Wars, stagnant wages, increasing costs of living especially gas, food, heating fuel and health insurance, talk of climate change, cultural change, and global competition have all left us a little frazzled. Perhaps you’re finding that just the challenges of daily life, let alone personal tragedies and crises are wearing you down.
Rev. King talked about Jesus’ parable of the man who knocks on his neighbor’s door at midnight asking for bread found in Luke 11:5-8.
“The traveler asks for three loaves of bread,” Dr. King wrote. The three things we need most are faith, hope and love.
“In a generation of so many colossal disappointments, men have lost faith in God, faith in man, and faith in the future…in the midst of staggering disillusionment, many cry for the bread of faith.”
“There is also a deep longing for the bread of hope.” Dr. King continued, “In the early years of this century many people did not hunger for this bread. The days of the first telephones, automobiles, and airplanes gave them a radiant optimism. They worshiped at the shrine of inevitable progress. They believed that every new scientific achievement lifted man to higher levels of perfection.”
But as we all know, came WWI and WWII and the Cold War. We realized that technology won’t produce a futuristic utopia. We may have more than enough food to eradicate world hunger, but greed and corruption prevent us from ever being able to get the food to who needs it. The twentieth century left mankind wounded and disillusioned.
King lamented that “the light of hope went out, and they roamed wearily in the dark chambers of pessimism. Many concluded that life has no meaning… But even in the inevitable moments when all seems hopeless, men know that without hope they cannot really live, and in agonizing desperation they cry for the bread of hope.”
If anything, we’ve learned too well that life is not fair. Some people don’t even see the point in trying anymore.
Finally, MLK pointed out what we are most starved for.
“There is the deep longing,” King wrote, “for the bread of love. Everybody wishes to love and to be loved. He who feels that he is not loved feels that he does not count. Much has happened in the modern world to make men feel that they do not belong. Living in a world which has become oppressively impersonal, many of us have come to feel that we are little more than numbers.”
We all need to find ways to get out of bed in the middle of the night and come to our neighbor’s aid. We all need to try to feed others in anyway we can but we should also remember where to turn when times get worst.
Luke 11: 5-8 has a man asking to borrow bread from a neighbor, but in Luke 11:1-4, Jesus teaches the disciples the Lord’s Prayer and in 11:9-13, He urges us to pray and ask God’s help for anything we need. If we need faith, hope, or love, all we have to do as ask, seek, or knock.