Mehr lesen
Zusatztext “If you want to say that I was a drum major! say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. . . . Yes! Jesus! I want to be on your right or your left side! not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side! not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others! so that we can make of this old world a new world.” —From “The Drum Major Instinct” “But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom! but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process! and our victory will be a double victory.” —From “Loving Your Enemies” Informationen zum Autor The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968), Nobel Peace Prize laureate and architect of the nonviolent civil rights movement, was among the twentieth century’s most influential figures. One of the greatest orators in U.S. history, his speeches, sermons, and writings are inspirational and timeless. Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Coretta Scott King (1927–2006), the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr., was an American author and human rights activist. The Reverend Dr. Raphael G. Warnock is senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the spiritual home of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Klappentext The classic collection of sixteen sermons preached and compiled by Dr. King As Dr. King prepared for the Birmingham campaign in early 1963! he drafted the final sermons for Strength to Love! a volume of his most best-known homilies. King had begun working on the sermons during a fortnight in jail in July 1962. While behind bars! he spent uninterrupted time preparing the drafts for works such as "Loving Your Enemies" and "Shattered Dreams!" and he continued to edit the volume after his release. A Gift of Love includes these classic sermons! along with two new preachings. Collectively they present King's fusion of Christian teachings and social consciousness! and promote his prescient vision of love as a social and political force for change. From Chapter 5 Loving Your Enemies Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:43 – 45 Probably no admonition of Jesus has been more difficult to follow than the command to “love your enemies.” Some men have sincerely felt that its actual practice is not possible. It is easy, they say, to love those who love you, but how can one love those who openly and insidiously seek to defeat you? Others, like the philosopher Nietzsche, contend that Jesus’ exhortation to love one’s enemies is testimony to the fact that the Christian ethic is designed for the weak and cowardly, and not for the strong and courageous. Jesus, they say, was an impractical idealist. In spite of these insistent questions and persistent objections, this command of Jesus challenges us with new urgency. Upheaval after upheaval has reminded us that modern man is traveling along a road called hate, in a journey that will bring us to destruction and damnation. Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the ...
