We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

The Life and Death of MLK and What it Might Have to Say to Us

"I Have a Dream"Creative Commons License

Tony Fischer via Compfight

Here is an EXCELLENT reflection from Jonathan Martin in answer to a question that was posed to him on how he reconciles his rejection of the politics of this world with the social justice work of MLK. This is a must read.

From the article:

So to come to the question, I feel like the best thing I can do as a pastor is to form people in the shape of the cross and the hope of the resurrection.  This will have political implications, but they do not come first.  It may be that God works through us to an extent in the sphere of American politics, but that will be an extension of people shaped and formed by the message of the Kingdom of God and cannot work the other way around.  If we do impact that political world, my sense is that it will also come as it did for King—less through lobbying and more through sacrifice, less through legislation and more from not loving our own lives even unto death.  I also think as it was for King, it will come from power exercised underneath the established powers rather than from on top of them.

Related Reading

Capitalism and Greed

It’s hard to deny that capitalism is the best economic system around. It creates wealth far better than feudalism, communism, socialism or any other system one could name. But for all its advantages, capitalism has one major drawback that Kingdom people need to be concerned about: it needs people to stay perpetually hungry for more.…

Why the Rapture is a Bad Idea

Is the Rapture really what you think it is? Most Christians believe that God will take his followers up to heaven before the really bad stuff starts on earth, but is this what the bible says? Is this view consistent with the loving God that Jesus shows us in the New Testament? View the full…

The Purpose of the Church

Unlike most social groups, the relationships forged in the body of Christ are not ends in and of themselves. Rather, Christ calls us to unite with other believers for a unique purpose: to grow in, express and advance the kingdom revolution. We can gain clearer understanding of what the church is to be about by…

Topics:

The Way We Disagree Matters

Rachel Held Evans posted her reflections on the ways we interact over differences in Biblical interpretation. It’s an important topic as we live out the kingdom among one another in our polarizing environment. How do you maintain a Christ-like posture when you are attacked or when others question your devotion to Christ when you express…

Are You Really Saved?

When God came to rescue us through the Incarnation, the cross and the resurrection, he did a great deal more than merely provide a way for us to avoid the consequences of our sin. In other words, it is more than getting a ticket to heaven. He defeated the enemy that held us in bondage,…

Coming Home

The only way we can experience the life God has for us is to give up trying to acquire it on our own. We must surrender ourselves completely to God. This is not merely a matter of believing that our attempts to acquire worth and significance (some of the ways that we do this were…