Fifty years ago, MLK gave the greatest speech of the 20th century. Today, America is still far from fulfilling his dream. Stephen Prothero, astute observer of religion and politics in America, focuses on the biblical framework of King's vision:
Drawing on the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, Amos, and Isaiah, who had chastised the people of Israel for their sinful ways and called upon them to repent and return to their covenant with God, King laid bare the sins of America. Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been tempted to turn the conditional covenant invoked by Massachusetts governor John Winthrop in his 1630 sermon aboard the Arbella into an unconditional covenant in which God blesses America no matter what Americans do. But King called for a revitalization of the more venerable tradition in which God would bless the nation if and only if it heeded the call of Winthrop and the Old Testament prophets to “do justly, and to love mercy” (Micah 6:8) …In words drawn from Amos that would later grace Maya Lin’s Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, King said, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” And in words based on the passion of Jesus on the cross, he urged those who had been “battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality” to stand firm in “the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.” …In 2000, “I Have a Dream” was named by a panel of 137 academics the greatest political speech of the 20th century. In 2009, with the inauguration of Barack Obama as America’s first African-American president, there was much talk of King’s dream, and of Obama playing Joshua to his Moses. But according to a study entitled, State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression, the incarceration rate for black men that year was more than six times that for white men. The unemployment rate for young black men was 33 percent. The portion of all blacks in poverty was 24 percent, versus 8 percent of whites. So Americans are still struggling to answer the question, posed by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes: “What happens to a dream deferred?”
Excerpted from The American Bible: How Our Words Unite,
Divide, and Define a Nation by Stephen Prothero (HarperCollins, 2012).
Drawing
on the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, Amos, and Isaiah, who had
chastised the people of Israel for their sinful ways and called upon
them to repent and return to their covenant with God, King laid bare the
sins of America. Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been tempted
to turn the conditional covenant invoked by Massachusetts governor John
Winthrop in his 1630 sermon aboard the Arbella into an unconditional
covenant in which God blesses America no matter what Americans do. But
King called for a revitalization of the more venerable tradition in
which God would bless the nation if and only if it heeded the call of
Winthrop and the Old Testament prophets to “do justly, and to love
mercy” (Micah 6:8) - See more at:
http://religionandpolitics.org/2013/08/27/i-have-a-dream-the-50th-anniversary-of-martin-luther-kings-famous-speech/#sthash.LH14G6sQ.dpuf
Drawing
on the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, Amos, and Isaiah, who had
chastised the people of Israel for their sinful ways and called upon
them to repent and return to their covenant with God, King laid bare the
sins of America. Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been tempted
to turn the conditional covenant invoked by Massachusetts governor John
Winthrop in his 1630 sermon aboard the Arbella into an unconditional
covenant in which God blesses America no matter what Americans do. But
King called for a revitalization of the more venerable tradition in
which God would bless the nation if and only if it heeded the call of
Winthrop and the Old Testament prophets to “do justly, and to love
mercy” (Micah 6:8) - See more at:
http://religionandpolitics.org/2013/08/27/i-have-a-dream-the-50th-anniversary-of-martin-luther-kings-famous-speech/#sthash.LH14G6sQ.dpuf
Drawing
on the prophetic tradition of Jeremiah, Amos, and Isaiah, who had
chastised the people of Israel for their sinful ways and called upon
them to repent and return to their covenant with God, King laid bare the
sins of America. Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been tempted
to turn the conditional covenant invoked by Massachusetts governor John
Winthrop in his 1630 sermon aboard the Arbella into an unconditional
covenant in which God blesses America no matter what Americans do. But
King called for a revitalization of the more venerable tradition in
which God would bless the nation if and only if it heeded the call of
Winthrop and the Old Testament prophets to “do justly, and to love
mercy” (Micah 6:8) - See more at:
http://religionandpolitics.org/2013/08/27/i-have-a-dream-the-50th-anniversary-of-martin-luther-kings-famous-speech/#sthash.LH14G6sQ.dpuf
