Martin Luther King, Jr.: Remembrance, Reflection and Renewal

Pastoral Message from the Rev. William G. Sinkford
President, Unitarian Universalist Association

William G. Sinkford at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

(January 14, 2005) This Monday we observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a time of remembrance, reflection, and renewal. This national holiday is a celebration of our democracy, and of the faith and tenacity of a man who believed that this nation could fulfill its promises. If it wanted to.

Dr. King will be remembered for leading the civil rights struggle that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , landmark achievements in America 's ongoing process of redefining who "We the people" are. But we should remember as well that to get to 1964 and 1965, Dr. King and our country needed to pass through 1963.

In 1963 the city of Birmingham, Alabama, went after peaceful demonstrators with dogs and fire hoses. In 1963 King himself went to jail. In 1963 four little girls were killed in Birmingham 's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church by a segregationist bomb. In 1963 civil rights worker Medgar Evers was killed in Mississippi . And in 1963 John F. Kennedy, the first U.S. president to champion racial justice, was assassinated.

Dr. King never lost hope during these dark days. Buoyed by his faith in God and faith in his country, he vowed "to hew out of a mountain of despair a stone of hope."

Despite the indisputable progress of the last forty years, our country today finds itself grappling with many of the same challenges that faced Dr. King and his followers. Despite the Voting Rights Act, many Americans – especially the poor, elderly, and people of color – encounter problems registering to vote and having their votes counted.

In the 1960s the revolution for gay rights was incipient; today we see both advances and setbacks in the struggle to achieve full civil rights for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans.

In the 1960s the women's movement was just under way; today we are still striving to empower women and to make sure that they do not lose the right of reproductive choice .

In the last years of his life, Dr. King spoke out against economic injustice , and today the gap between rich and poor in America is wider than it has ever been.

And Dr. King grew to oppose a war that divided America at home, sacrificed our youth abroad, and turned the world against us.

For all its changes, our America is much the same.

Dr. King never lost hope. And we need to sustain our hope as well, to create our own "stone of hope." I recall hearing those words, "stone of hope," from Dr. King as I sat in a crowded room at the UUA's General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida, in June of 1966, listening to him deliver the Ware Lecture. Dr. King decried militarism, economic injustice, and the scourge of racism. He invoked the words of Jefferson and Lincoln, a call for Americans to live up to the ideals that this country was based upon. And he called for Unitarian Universalists to be part of this struggle, reminding us that "when the church is true to its nature, it stands as a moral guardian of the community and of society."

Today I call upon Unitarian Universalists to honor Dr. King's memory by renewing our commitment to peace and justice. I believe there will be backlash every time the circle of equality is widened, but I hew my stone of hope with these words: "The arc of the universe is long," said Dr. King, quoting 19th century Unitarian abolitionist Theodore Parker, "but it bends toward justice."

In faith,

William G. Sinkford

See also:

• Don't Sleep Through the Revolution: The 1966 Ware Lecture, delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.
• What Are You Doing to Honor Dr. King's Work and Carry on His Legacy? Inspiring and inspired stories from individuals and congregations.

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