"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King (January 15, 1929- April 4, 1968)
Dr. King would have been 82 years old on January 15. His legacy is still a sober and fresh reminder of how love can overcome hate and sadly how hate if un-diffused or unextinguished can lead to irreparable harm. Hate has the potential of consuming and destroying even the good. But I still believe the love is the greatest power and able to cover a multitude of sins. Love however takes courage and isn't for the faint of heart. Love takes patience and isn't for those who seek the quickest or easiest solution.
Dr. King put it this way in his book Strength to Love (1963:
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power."
Interestingly if we were to lay today's current society against the backdrop on the days in which Dr. King penned this book, you would find almost eerie similarities in terms of the social ills and crisis Dr. King identified as threatening human progress. His preface to Strength to Love starts as follows: " In these turbulent days of uncertainty the evils of war and of economic and racial injustice threaten the very survival of the human race. Indeed, we live in a day of grave crisis."
Another one of my favorite books by Dr. King is his last published book: Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community. In this book that is rich with wisdom and instructions for how to build what Dr. King referred to as a beloved community and "great world house" he wrote one of my favorite passages from his voluminous body of masterfully written documents:
"We must work passionately and indefatigably to bridge the gulf between our scientific progress and our moral progress. One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually."
It is troubling when we see people turn up in large numbers to some church service, march, rally or service project on the day the nation pauses to celebrate Dr. King's life and on the following day go back to living life hating, feeling entitled to privilege or unconcerned about the least of those around us. IN other words, people who celebrate Dr. King on Monday but are quick to go about hating on Tuesday. Dr. King was much greater than the man who gave that powerful sermon not on the mount but on the nation's mall. The very essence of who he is and was can best be identified as love personified.
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