On Jan. 16, the Catholic Diocese of San Angelo hosted an ecumenical celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) organized by the MLK Committee, a standing committee that promotes social justice and the spiritual values of Dr. King.

The bishop of the San Angelo diocese, Bishop Michael Sis, opened the service with prayer and a call to the congregants and the larger community to not only acknowledge and emulate the teachings of Dr. King but also to empathize with those who have suffered from racism and, most importantly, follow Christ’s teachings. The following is an excerpt.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian pastor who applied the message of the Gospel to the pressing social issues of his day: racism, economic injustice, and war.

“The sin of racism tries to divide the human family, but the human family is one. Every human being is our brother and sister, created in the image and likeness of God.

“Jesus Christ did not come to save just one particular race. He died for all.

“And when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on the great historic event of Pentecost, there were people present ‘from every nation under heaven’ (Acts 2:5).

“All human beings share a common historical origin, a common human nature, and the same divine calling and destiny. All people have a rational soul.

“Every human life is to be cherished and protected, whether convenient or not, regardless of age, location, economic status, language, ethnicity, or skin color.

“The beautiful variety of human faces, physical characteristics, languages, and cultures is like a colorful tapestry that gives glory to God, who is the creator and father of all.

“As we listen to the messages delivered here today, and as we praise God together in song, let’s open our hearts to God’s gift of new inspiration, new courage, and new life.

“We can live and work together peacefully and productively with those who are different from ourselves, because we are children of God and people of hope.

“You and I can sow seeds right here in West Texas to bring about a society that is more just, less divided, and more loving.

“As the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross said almost 400 years ago, ‘Where there is no love, put love, and you will find love.’”

Rev. Craig Meyers, pastor of St. Mark Presbyterian Church in San Angelo and MLK Committee chair, announced the theme of the event, “Dr. King, from Montgomery and Memphis to you.” He proceeded to provide the attendees with a reminder of the profound and destructive atmosphere of the era that launched the civil rights movement and Dr. King’s pilgrimage.

He told the story of the Freedom Riders, a group of Whites and Blacks who banded together to protest segregation at bus terminals and how they were regularly badly beaten.

He visualized for us through his words the carnage wrought by that era.

“The depths of depravity and levels of hatred were unimaginable: a young boy mutilated and killed because they say he whistled at a white woman. Three young people, civil rights workers, who disappeared were later found dead. Lynchings were commonplace and if you’ve ever seen the pictures, you know the horror of it.

“And the children were not immune to the savagery. They were dragged away from lunch counters, water-hosed and beaten, kicked and stomped no differently than adults.

“We’re angry when we hear about bullying on the playground, said Meyers. But can you imagine your children having to be escorted to school by national guardsmen and federal marshals and marching through mobs of shouting people who wanted to lynch children in order to protect what they saw as the purity of the school system.”

But the point that Pastor Meyers brought forward more than any other was how this brutal era was defeated, history was made and lives were changed for the better because of common people “like you and me.” He drew a constant parallel between those who served in the movement then and those living today.

“These were kids like yours and mine. These were families like yours and mine. No smarter than you, not any more courageous than you. No better than you, but they  were willing to sacrifice it all.

“The lesson is clear: Each of us has it within us to bring about change.

“The civil rights national unified movement lasted a brief 13 years, and look at all that was accomplished. We take it for granted. A gathering like this was illegal at one time.

“But there’s work to do. And who’s going to do it? Ordinary people like us. It always was and always will be people like us who decide not to slip back into the safety of darkness waiting to see what will happen.

“Our children will only inherit the future that we provide for them, and it will only be people like you and me who stand up and step forward and speak up and act.”
 

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To further honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King and in recognition of Black History Month, the keynote speech from the day of celebration will be printed in its entirety.

Rev. John S. Pope Jr., pastor of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in San Angelo, delivered the main address. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Liberty University and for a time, pastored a church in England. Pope was raised a Baptist. He was ordained in 2003, and has been the pastor of Galilee Missionary Baptist Church since November 2010.

Reshaping America

“Good morning. I’d like to start by giving honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is in him that I live, move, and have my being. I also want to thank the Martin Luther King Jr. committee for asking me to speak at this celebration honoring Dr. King. In life, Dr. King was husband, father, Baptist preacher, civil rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the voice working to change the social fabric in America. He was a man who wanted all men to be living examples of the royal law expressed by Jesus in Matthew 22:39, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ This man of God worked tirelessly to generate direct action through marches, boycotts, sit-ins, and other non-violent strategies to force the power base to listen to the voices of those who had been oppressed for generations in our free society. Dr. King embraced the commitment and perseverance needed to stir up the winds of social change in America because our society had been infected by the darkness of sin. That darkness bred hatred for one’s fellow man based on nothing more than the color of the person’s skin. That hatred led men to curse one another, beat one another with chains and billy clubs, hang men and women from trees, loose attack dogs on defenseless children, or turn fire hoses on peaceful protestors. The hatred in the heart of men led four Klansmen to rig a bomb of 19 sticks of dynamite and blow up the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, during a Sunday worship service. That bomb took the lives of four innocent girls, Addie Mae Collins, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, and Cynthia Wesley, 14. The darkness of sin led the local authorities to take 39 years to bring the last of these criminals to justice. For Blacks in America, the ‘palace of justice’ that Dr. King spoke of appeared to be just a mirage on the horizon. The call of Jesus to ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ seemed to fall on deaf ears among the millions of Christian believers in the United States of America. During Dr. King’s 13 years of civil rights activity he worked hard to galvanize the people and fight for a social awakening our nation urgently needed.  

“After the mantle to lead the fight for social justice for all people fell on a young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he chose to counter the intense racial hatred and discrimination against Blacks in America with the power of God’s agape love. That love would be manifest through a program of non-violence. Although Dr. King was a God-fearing man, his resilience was tested on multiple occasions. America’s herald for peace was stabbed in the chest, hit in the head with rocks, kicked by police, had crosses burnt in his yard by the KKK, and feared for the life of his family after finding out his haters had bombed his house. During one period, he received 30-40 harassing phone calls and threats on his life each day. After one really vicious call, Dr. King sat down at his kitchen table and had a talk with the Lord. At that table, he told God that ‘I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.’ In that moment, God transformed Dr. King’s thinking. The Lord let him know that his cause was righteous, and he would be with him. Reportedly, Dr. King never looked back or feared again. 

“From that point, Dr. King kept pushing the battle for civil rights in the streets of many cities in the segregated South. He also used the revered monuments of Washington, D.C., as a platform to call for America to wake up and recognize the rights of its black citizens. His non-violent campaign gained so much notoriety that he and other civil rights leaders were invited to the halls of power where he met with Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the White House Cabinet Room. Dr. King was a catalyst of change and he constantly pushed to secure voting rights for Blacks in the South, better working conditions and pay for Blacks, as well as desegregation of public accommodations. 

“I would like to shift gears for a moment and point out that Dr. King did not do all this great work alone. He and other great Black leaders such as Roy Wilkins, A. Philip Randolph, Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, John Lewis, Julian Bond, and a host of others who worked tirelessly to develop Black solidarity in order to stand against all forms of segregation and racial injustice.  Groups like the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Congress of Racial Equality, and The Freedom Riders also joined the fight to bring about equality for Blacks in America. Let me also mention the deliberate efforts of pastors and other spiritual leaders around the country who joined Dr. King in the fight for freedom. These religious leaders opened their churches for civil rights rallies and planning sessions for various activities. Dr. King built a coalition of ecumenical support from the nation’s clergy to join the fight for civil rights. Black pastors, White priests and nuns, Jewish rabbis and other religious leaders answered Dr. King’s call to stand with him and thousands of others during the various freedom marches. 

“As you study the history of the American civil rights movement, you will find Blacks and Whites working together, being beaten together, being carted off to jail and dying together, change racial oppression in America. The movement included young people standing up for their rights and White politicians who fought to improve the lives of our Black citizens. Inclusiveness was important then and it is important now if we as a people are going to continue the movement to change the culture of our great nation.  There is still work to do to improve the status of America’s Black citizens. Even though Blacks living in the latter part of the 20th century, and now in the 21st century, have experienced great successes, there is still work to do. We need to continue working to improve the quality of housing in racially segregated Black neighborhoods.  The schools and health care systems in these neighborhoods still lag behind that of the more affluent. We still need help to break the poverty mindset of the people. We may not be chained physically anymore, but in many ways, we are still bound emotionally, morally, intellectually, and spiritually. We live in a wealthy capitalist society, but if you drive across America, you will find that the largest part of the Black population in many cities and towns is often relegated to living on the ‘other side of the tracks.’ We need to come up with ways to capture the minds of our young children, especially our young Black men. It is painful to watch college enrollments for young Black men go down while the county jail and state prison inmate rosters for this same group continues to rise. If we look around, there are many challenges that stand between us and equality for all. 

“Dr. King not only looked at the shortcomings of society as a whole, he called on the Black community to take a critical look at ourselves and see what we can do to help ourselves. As a people we must realize that freedom isn’t free. Many people, including Dr. King, paid the high price of giving their lives so we could enjoy the freedom we have today. In a comment about the value of this price, Pastor Fred Shuttleworth, of Birmingham, Alabama, said “that every life taken was an installment on the payment for freedom.” If we want to balance the scales of justice for all, increase educational opportunities for all, improve housing and medical care for all, and open the doors for all to have an equal share of the American dream, we have more work to do. There is unfinished business associated with the goal of realizing Dr. King’s dream for all people to “live together as brothers.” Finishing that work requires people who are committed to the cause for justice. It requires people who will persevere in spite of the setbacks. It requires people with resources who can promote the work. It requires intelligent leadership who can be innovative in their approach to solving the problems before us. Finishing the work requires that we work together so that we can help reshape our America.”