He fought.
Fight haiku
Without violence
we can act for what is just
stand up for others
Yeah
He fought.
Nationalist Christians - a paradox if there ever was one - have no moral claim to the word “fight.”
No, they do not. “To fight” is not synonymous with violence. To fight means, should mean, to raise and rise up with the non-violent means that each individual is capable of.*
It does not, it does not, it does not mean “inaction.”
[ *ignore the dangling preposition. I do that a lot. ]
Also this:
Forgiveness is sometimes simple and easy. And sometimes it’s complicated and hard. Especially to forgive when the other party is not repentant.
But here’s the thing. The thing that I’ve argued with more than a few:
Forgiveness does not mean that you stop fighting. It doesn’t mean that you stop fighting for what is just and for what is right.
The Revererent Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about love and forgiveness and living together in a world where the color of one’s skin doesn’t matter.
But he fought.
He kept fighting.
He never gave up fighting.
He never gave up fighting.
But he did give up his life; he gave up his life in the middle of his short life, and thank God his life, his short life, mattered. Continued to matter.
He may have forgiven, and his heart may have been full of love. But it was also full of fight.
As was the heart of Jesus as he fought for dignity, kindness, and justice on the behalf of the oppressed, the suppressed, the marginalized.
He fought, oh, they fought. Those two fought.
With love, they fought.
And they named names.
He named names
I have a dream, he said.
Every sentence in this speech, this speech for the ages, is filled with beauty, with the eloquence and simple power of a poet, a preacher, an orator, an activist, a humanist, and a God-loving, human-loving man of strength and flaws.
And buried in there are his references to those in the way, in the way of equality for all God’s children. He says who they are:
"…even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression…"
and
"…one day down in Alabama, with vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification…"
He calls out that which has to be called out.
Being a Christian, being willing to forgive, being willing to embark on a path of non-violence, does not mean silencing oneself or standing by in the face injustice.
The first time that old guy
I still remember the first time, on a bus: an elderly fellow explaining to me how Martin Luther King was actually a Communist, and worse, a liberal, who actually hated America and didn’t deserve his own holiday.
This was in 2002.
It blew me away at the time. The idea that there could still be those who didn’t consider his legacy to be that of an icon and hero.
It doesn’t blow me away anymore. I’ve heard those same sentiments more since.
Salt
I don’t know what’s worse: the rejoinder that he was actually not such a great guy, or the co-opting of his words to somehow be relevant to all or to any situation;
the way that some grab the lines about unity and love and getting along and somehow remove the racial element, as if he was somehow a humanist speaking in generic terms about all people.
He was speaking out against an evil. An Evil.
Not generically speaking out about the importance of loving each other and getting along.
He fought. For what is right and against what is not.
He fought.
A spade a spade haiku
Christ and racism
that message does not work, or:
Trump’s words and Jesus.
Moses
Our heroes have flaws. We know that.
Our kids oughta know that. My kids know I’m not perfect. Oh, they know that well.
But I hope I can retain some degree of heroism to them in some small ways over the years, even as they discover more of my weaknesses and fallibilities and frailties.
Those mistakes and error and weaknesses are cracks; cracks that remind us of the humanity of our heroes, and how a person can be both heroic and human.
So let’s keep our heroes off pedestals so they don’t have to topple.
Jesus the Christ, Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. haiku
With great Christian love
two men stuck up for many
they sacrificed much.
——
They fought.
With love, they fought with love.
——
