Thread by @robertpjones

1/ On #MLKDay2022, we white Christians must get beyond the safe King highlight reel.
King uttered 1,052 words before the word “dream” crossed his lips. Those are much harder to hear.
Let’s hold King’s hard words for us up to the light this weekend.
robertpjones.substack.com/p/beyond-i-hav…

2/ King’s masterful “Letter from Birmingham Jail” ranks with Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address in the canon documenting America’s ongoing struggle to wrench its soul from the greedy clutches of white supremacy.
#MLKDay2022
robertpjones.substack.com/p/beyond-i-hav…

3/ In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King’s dismay at self-satisfied white Christians is still painfully relevant today:
“All too many [white ministers] have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows."

4/ MLK: In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline & mouth pious irrelevancies & sanctimonious trivialities. I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, w/ which the gospel has no real concern.”

5/ MLK: I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?

6/ MLK: If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.
#MLKDay2022
robertpjones.substack.com/p/beyond-i-hav…

7/ King: Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
In King’s day, the proportion of religiously unaffiliated was <10%. Today, 1 in 4 Americans—and about 4 in 10 Americans under the age of 30—are religiously unaffiliated.

8/ Particularly for we white Christians who imagine ourselves to be supporters of King's dream, meditating on his hard words about white Christianity is an authentic way to celebrate his birth and life.
#MLKDay2022
robertpjones.substack.com/p/beyond-i-hav…