“It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I’m going to tell him to include women in the sequel.” Hamilton
“All men are created equal.” Thomas Jefferson
It is not currently in vogue in the progressive Christian set to talk about King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech. We are supposed to instead discuss his stance on poverty, on reparations, on socialism, on the problems with white moderates in Birmingham. Certainly all those sermons and speeches are worth your time, and I commend them to you. But the simplicity and bluntness of King’s most well known address should not be forgotten.
Because it was at once an obvious summary of the proposition of the American project from the beginning — that we are all equal, and also a tremendous threat to the status quo for all of White America.
Today, almost 60 years later, that is still true.
Because we all clap at the first line — but you scratch at the surface of any of the pieces of that speech and you STILL meet tremendous resistance. School funding, equal housing, job opportunities, an unequal justice system - we are still issuing bad checks to Black America.
The question is - why?
Because White America still has not reconciled with the fact that our own life, liberty and pursuit of happiness was and is built upon the suffering and misery of others. Martin brought this into vivid detail as he marched, prayed, preached and taught his way through a segregated America and many of us hated him for it.
We are all in for the dream, as long as it doesn’t cost us anything.
I am proud of Memorial Episcopal Church for learning this lesson and committing $500,000 to reparations here in West Baltimore, because we want to make the Dream real. This is not a check that will come back marked insufficient funds. But money is only part of the work.
One thing I continue to find amazing about King is that, like Saints Francis and Paul before him, he walked everywhere. Perhaps his biggest gift was not his words but his presence. He was always there. And right there too. Not from a balcony or a passing car but right on the ground.
He got his hands dirty. We should get our hands dirty too.
That is how we can show the world the content of our character.