As a white kid growing up in the South, I watched this speech on television. It was the first time I understood that racism was far more that one race not liking the other. It was much more than slurs and slander. It was discrimination. It was near certain poverty. It was a systematic attack on dignity. It was hatred personified.I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of toclay and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
When I fell in love with Jesus as a teen, I saw Christ in action in Dr. King. He was preaching gospel truth about loving others before an enormous crowd on the very steps of power. It was an extraordinary witness for the love of God. King even dared us to look at each other through the eyes of God. What a radical concept!
I was enchanted by Dr. King fifty years ago and my admiration of him has grown with time.
Times have changed. Racial injustices are giving way to a widening economic gap between the affluent and everyone else. More are falling into poverty and struggling to find any semblance of financial security. Greed has become the only real virtue in our society. Some Christians even think the only sins that count are sexual. Love of money is no longer the root of all sorts of evil, but rather a fountain from which all blessings flow. Sure Christ said you cannot love God and wealth - that was long ago. Perhaps the rich of today are morally and ethically superior to the rich of Jesus' time. I think we need Dr. King's voice now more than ever.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
What has not changed is our thirst for freedom and justice.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:We need a new voice to channel Christ by reminding us what it means to be brothers and sisters in the family of God. To create that "beautiful symphony of brotherhood." Facebook friends and likes do not count. We are called by the Lord to love all, even strangers and enemies.
Free at last! Free at last!
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