Remembering Dr. King 2022 Part 2: The Letter from Birmingham Jail and Reflections

The second night of the livestream event reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was led by host and Northern Seminary affiliate, Pastor Greg Armstrong of Renew Church in Chicago. He opened the night with excitement and reverence sharing that his Church, mission, and life has been encompassed by many of the words Martin Luther “voiced on the earth as a prophetic witness not only for the gospel but for justice, reconciliation, and equity.” The night very much upheld Armstrong’s words as dynamite speakers joined and shared how Dr. King was a prophetic witness to their own lives and to the world. Pastor Greg covered the night in prayer and kicked things off with Karl Johnson, Director of the C.S. Lewis Institute, a sponsor of the event. Karl Johnson introduced the first speaker of the night, Chris Broussard, a Sports Analyst, NBA Insider, and the Founder and President of the King Movement. 

Chris Broussard was poignant and gripping in his deep analysis of the Letter from Birmingham Jail. He shared Dr. King’s words, “injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere,” sadly is a declaration made to his fellow Christians, to members of the body of Christ. The shameful truth of this letter, and our country, is “the blacks that Dr. Martin is fighting for, he was fighting on behalf of, were being persecuted and treated unjustly by so called Christians.” The decisions and actions of those Christians sewed fruitlessness that can be identified today. “Today’s America doesn’t want the church. Today’s America doesn’t want Christianity, it doesn’t want the Bible because of the past sins of the church.” In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King calls this an “inescapable network of mutuality,” meaning our destinies are intertwined, and we are “all tied together in a single garment of destiny.” Broussard takes viewers deeper into the letter sharing that Dr. King knew the interrelatedness of justice and injustice in the actions of the Church could sew good fruit or bad fruit, and in his letter, Dr. King passionately appealed to his fellow Christians to see this truth. Broussard laments “had the church, black, white, and other, understood this 70 years ago [had listened to the prophetic witness of Dr. King], we as a nation and we as American Christians would not be in the position we are in today.” So, what lessons can we learn for today? Broussard believes “the Biblical church that is going to spark revival in our nation is neither left wing or right wing, neither promotes white supremacy or black supremacy but God Supremacy.” He leaves with a final clarifying thought, “let’s be the Biblical church that Dr. King was longing for, that Jesus Christ came to establish, one that is not beholding to anything but God, and God alone.”

September Penn followed Broussard with her own powerful insight on the legacy of Dr. King. Penn, who is a singer, songwriter, and Director of her own production Sounds of the Civil Rights Movement: The Power of Song, shared with viewers how music stood witness to Dr. King’s kingdom work. In working with the Freedom songs, Penn realized “the significance of what the music did. It was not just these songs. It was glue. It was hope. It was power. It stirred, it guided, it comforted. All of that was in the music.” Music was an integral part of Dr. King’s mission and ministry. “Dr. King recognized the power of the music. When he would go to different towns and different cities, if he could hear the people singing as he was approaching, he knew that they were ready to participate in a nonviolent movement. If he didn’t hear them singing, he just heard lots of talking, he questioned if they would be able to get good work done today.” The music stood as a witness to the people’s heart and sang into existence hope, power, comfort, and was a guiding force that impacted Dr. King’s mission. And today we have the testimony of the Freedom songs to remind and to inspire us to continue with Dr. King’s work.

The panel of the night was led by Greg Jao and included Dennae Pierre, Tara Beth Leach, Nona Jones, and William Adjei. One topic the panel explored was what it means to embody extremism for the Lord. In Dr. King’s letter, he makes a challenge to the church, asking if they will be extremists for hate or extremists for love? Tara Beth Leach responded that “being an extremist for love is to learn how to love as God loves: to learn to love that is cross cultural, counter cultural, boundary breaking, inclusive and it’s hard and it makes us squirm because it is messy. It’s messy and hard because it’s learning to love as God loves.” Nona Jones reminded viewers that our God is a God of extremes, he’s not lukewarm, “the idea of being an extremist is simply the recognition that you have to fully embody your Christian witness. Jesus was so extreme that he went to the cross sinless, how much more extreme can we be?” Dr. King was criticized for calling a racist his brother, but what he did was live out being scalding hot when it came to love and compassion, unconcerned about how much it was going to cost him. Dennae Pierre adds “the call to live this embodied witness in our day-to-day action, habits, the kinds of community we have, the types of relationships, that word extremism really is an expansive word constantly calling us into greater love of others.” Dr. King lived out extremism for love and his life walk is a witness to the church today: don’t sit lukewarm for even the Lord will spit you out, go all in for Love and commit to living a life that is hot for God’s kingdom. 

To hear more from this incredible night including reflections from Pastor Randall Cunningham, a former Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings’ Quarterback, Denver Nuggets’ Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutumbo, Bob Doll of CIO Crossmark Global, Dr. Russell Moore at Christianity Today, Pastor Wayne Gordon of Lawndale Community Church, and Christian rapper Propaganda, please visit this link for the full second night streaming event.