Carrying on King's Work

Richard Deats, former executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and editor of Fellowship magazine, called my attention today to the latest column by John Dear -- another former ED at FOR -- in the National Catholic Reporter. John now travels the world teaching about Jesus' message of nonviolence, and he writes about this message in the context of world spiritual leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In this week's issue of NCR, in a piece entitled "Dr. King's final refusal to give up," Dear discusses King's final months of life and his steadfast commitment to a vision of hopefulness. It is an inspirational reminder of how King had come to "see the mountaintop" of a new day in front of him and us -- and a reminder that amidst a society of anger, fear, and retributive justice, another world is possible.

The whole article is worth quoting, but I'll offer just this tidbit from Dear:

I keep returning to that last speech in Memphis where he boldly proclaimed that we could be the first people in history to lead humanity back from the brink of global annihilation, and not only that, lead humanity forward toward a new world free of war, poverty, racism, sexism, violence, and nuclear weapons, toward a new culture of nonviolence.

It's certainly worth noting that John Dear himself is working to keep alive this vision that King put before us. Indeed, Dear will be sentenced this coming week in a federal courthouse in Albuquerque, N.M. for his participation in an action last year against the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. Two other Roman Catholic peace activists, Fathers Louie Vitale and Steve Kelly, are in prison right now serving for their own civil disobedience actions in 2007. I recommend reading the "Letters from Louie" series that Vitale is sharing from his prison cell, published online by Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service.

I offer my thanks to all those who -- like Dear, Vitale, Kelly, and so many others -- carry forth King's hopeful vision of peace, racial justice, and equality in the face of today's culture of militarism, racism, and poverty.