Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail By Martin Luther King Jr

In Martin Luther King’s famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, King details his problems with the white moderate and the many churches in his time that refused to take a stand for the injustice that was happening to their fellow African American brothers and sisters. He writes to fellow clergymen who criticized King’s and the Southern Leadership Conference’s methods of nonviolent methods to defeat racism. King paints a picture of how many churches in his time stood on the sidelines and sung their songs without caring about injustice. Now, King does commend some church leaders for standing up to racism and injustice, but still wishes for more leaders to rise up and actively oppose segregation and racism. Is King’s portrayal of the church not caring

In my perspective, King’s portrayal of the church still applies to many churches today that do not stand up for the current injustices in our modern world.
To begin with, King boldly writes that though he hoped for the city of Birmingham’s religious leaders to stand up for injustice, he sadly states that they did not. He writes that he “came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of [the] community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, serve as the channel through which our grievances could get to the power structure” (King 485). Instead of serving as this channel though, King details that “in the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities” (King 485). King wishes the church would stop standing on the sidelines and step into the fight against racism. Being a minister himself, and as King himself states in his letter that he “loves the church” and was “nurtured in its bosom”, his call to the

While we have made some progress, issues like racism and prejudice still exist and are very prevalent in our modern culture. While these issues are still around and growing everyday, many churches are scared to speak up, due to not wanting to offend popular culture. If churches are going to truly follow the teachings of the Bible though, they need to realize that they should fear the Lord and follow his commands instead of fearing man, and care for their brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter the color of their skin. For the church in heaven is going to be full of many different cultures and ethnic groups all worshipping the Lord. Revelation 7:9 paints this beautiful picture of the future scene in heaven and states that “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” Student Study Bible, Revelation 7.9). Therefore, churches should have no problem addressing issues such as racism and prejudice, because, as the Word of God states, heaven will be full of people from every nation, tribe, and language. Why then are our churches not full of people from every nation and tribe then? As Martin Luther King Jr. sadly stated in 1963, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.” What is even more sad