I'm interested in your thoughts regarding what dream of the late Rev., Dr., Martin Luther King, Jr. is to be remembered.

Please share with me in as few words as possible what you feel is the dream that is to be remembered.

GOD's people. Please share with me your definition as to who would make up this category.

United to GOD's work: What work is there to do in 2004?

I can't wait to review your responses!

Be Blessed! WHS

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2004

Answers

MLK, Jr. is arguably the most influential clergyman ever produced on American soil. This includes luminaries like Cotton Mather, Richard Allen and Billy Graham. King's impact is simply unmeasured. QED

-- Anonymous, January 15, 2004

I heard a news broadcast about Dr. King yesterday that purported that Dr. King did not come into a full conversion experience until after the Bus Boycott. A colleague of mine was very offended by that given that King was ordained, educated and pastoring. However, I think if any thing the process of coming into a complete knowledge of Jesus Christ is long for many people. I think most of us have a working knowledge of Jesus Christ but when you read the writings and sermons of Dr. King you see a man who was trying to live out the faith he preached about. One of my favorite sermons of Dr. King was based on Revelation 21 and how the Great City of God was equal in all dimensions. He said we also need to have three dimensions in our lives love for self, love for humanity and love for God.

-- Anonymous, January 16, 2004

Thank you Brother Smith for such an excellent question!!!

I was just thinking about Dr. King the other day. I have read volumeI and part of volumeII of the King papers. I have also read some of his sermons. Dr. King received a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University. He studied at Harvard College and was required to pass a written examination in French and German as a requirements for his doctorate degree. He was an intellectual and very reflective. He could have settled down into academia if he wanted to but he chose to give his life for the social uplift of people.

In my estimation, Brother Smith, if Dr. King had lived, I am certain that he would have formulated a systematic plan for the social uplift of us black people. When I look at civil rights documentaries, they show the workshops and seminars that seminary students and ministers conducted fo SNCC. Dr. King was an orderly and systematic individual who knew the value of planning and preparation to provide solutions to problems.

Unfortunately, Brother Smith, we have not had any leaders since Dr. King to develop any stategies for addressing the many social ills that plague black people in this country. I have not heard of any national black organization call for a national conference to map out a strategy to address the social ills of teenage pregnancy, crime, unemployment, decreased educational achievement, increased HIV rates, decreased black businesses, and so on. I am certain that if Dr. M.L. King, Jr. had lived that there would have been yearly conferences addressing these issues.

Jazzman

-- Anonymous, January 17, 2004

Dr. King was criticised for calling for an end to the VietNam War where black soldiers served disproportionately to their percentage in the general population. Wherever there was injustice, be it calling for an anti-war stance, or siding in with the sanitary workers on strike for decent wages, wherever there was an incongruity in the structure of justice in America, in housing, in the service industries, in the school systems, wherever it lurked, Dr. King was there coming into the situation. He never parked...he kept on moving, he could hardly ever enjoy time at home. He was on a mission.

If everyone who could see the injustices still lurking in our system would take on their favorite cause as a personal mission, we would have a much more perfect society as Dr. King struggled to fight for.

The dream I can never forget is the dream he spoke of at the Lincoln Memorial, when thousands marched on Washington to insist on the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, before Fair Housing, the Voting Rights Act and other laws came into being. That dream that he spoke of was that all children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character. I was about 14 years old when I saw that speech on T.V. Dr. King was a modern day martyr and I look upon him as a saint for modern times. Granted he had personal flaws, as we all do, but no one in American history compares to what he could do with his gift of speech before the masses. If only people would remember what he stood for. Don't park, keep on moving. Keep on fighting for justice.

On Dr. King's day, I bumped into an acquaintance here in my small town in Florida, I said, today you have the day off, don't you.

He is a somewhat retarded "redneck" who responded, "Yeah, wasn't he that colored guy who got shot?"

It is to my great sorrow that to some people that is all they know of Dr. King, and to my regret they still call him "that colored guy."

Whatever you can do to educate the ignorant about Dr. King would serve both Dr. King and our nation well.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2004