Religion that Professes Concern with the Souls of Men, but Not the Slums that Damn Them…

[cbayer]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/paperbacktheology/2014/11/religion-that-professes-concern-with-the-souls-of-men-but-not-the-slums-that-damn-them.html

November 27, 2014 by Tim Suttle

“Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund [at the point of death] religion.” – Martin Luther King Jr

In a letter written on April 17, 1959, President Richard Nixon issued an invitation to Martin Luther King Jr. to join him at a conference to talk about how religious leaders might support the president’s efforts toward making employment more just, especially in regard to the issuing of government contracts. This comes from the speech King gave at that conference, as it was published in 1960.

“Religion operates not only on the vertical plane but also on the horizontal. It seeks not only to integrate men with God, but to integrate men with men and each man with himself. This means, at bottom, that true religion is a two-way road. On the one hand it seeks to change the souls of men, and thereby unite them with God; on the other hand it seeks to change the environmental conditions of men so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed. Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund [at the point of death] religion in need of new blood.

This, therefore, becomes a grave challenge to the Church and to churchmen. To meet it, all churches must accept the obligation to create the moral climate in which fair employment practices are viewed positively and accepted willingly. We must utilize the vast resources of the churches and synagogues for the many edu- cational functions they can employ,and for which they have highly developed skills, facilities and experience. However, to possess resources is worthless without the will to be effective. The time has come when the churches are needed by their people and their nation as never before. They, uniquely, can break the deadening silence which engulfs the well-meaning white people…”

I keep hearing white people referring to images of unrest and protests in Ferguson with a kind of detached disgust in their voices. They don’t want to see it. They don’t want to hear about it.
Although the vast majority of the protests have been peaceful, that sort of protest doesn’t make good b-roll for 24 hour cable news, so the images we see are the worst instances. I get the impulse to want to look away. But, I think that impulse says more about the banality of cable news than the intentions of my friends. Cable news is disgusting.

more at link

[Prophet 451]

1. We have to get off our knees and get our hands dirty

"For the lot of man to improve, the seer must become the do-er" - Philosophies 23:4, The Devil's Apocrypha

[okasha]

2. For the record, Eisenhower was President in 1959.

Nixon was VP.