Evangelization or Alienation?

A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with a co-worker about Christian missions and ministry. His feeling was that “you Christians” were not interested in helping anyone unless they professed faith in Jesus Christ. I assured him that this was not the case, that any Christian following the teachings of Jesus would help anyone regardless of their beliefs.

Then I read this article on Beliefnet.com

I know that many would applaud the activities of these missionaries, congratulating them on not “watering down” the Gospel. However, the truth is that these believers are doing the Gospel no good by their actions. Taking the time to build genuine relationships with people, and then sharing your faith is the key to effective evangelism. If a mission team does not have the time or resources to get to know individuals, then I believe that they should not be evangelizing. Go to the scene of the catastrophe, help as you can, but do not force your faith on strangers.

30 “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Help with no strings attached. This is the model given here in the story of the good Samaritan. Conversions do not happen overnight. People must be shown who Christ is before they will come to Him.

God accepts us just as we are, we need to show our fellow human beings, whether they are believers or not, the same courtesy.

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Resolution or Revolution?

On January 1, I wrote a post discussing my resolution for the new year. This resolution involves me getting closer to God and not being afraid to allow Him to reshape my faith. Here I am on January 28 and I must say it has been an interesting month. Here are some reflections.

God has shown me a lot in the last 28 days. He has shown me that the prejudices that many Christians hold as sacrosanct, do not honour Him at all. The time has come to get back to the essence of the Gospel, sharing God’s love with a fallen world. Meeting people right where they are, and not judging them because we are all sinners who have “fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) As Christians we need to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to convict people of the right path for their life. Our impatience in this area, our need to bash people over the head with their sinfulness and wrong beliefs, only serves to alienate people from the truth of the Gospel. All the outside world sees is hypocrisy and hatred when we do this. Contrary to human ideas, we cannot judge the sins of those around us. God sees us all the same.

So when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Acts 1:6

Christian colonialism. This is an oxymoron. Like the early believers who were looking to Jesus to restore earthly power to Israel, we seem to be looking to win over the rest of the world to a Christian world view by force. Instead, we must seek justice for all people. Christianity must never be accompanied by force, whether verbal or physical. Meekness and humility should be the hallmarks of the Christian life. We must never forget that we are sinners who are redeemed only by the grace of God. Too often we forget that.

The truth does not lie in extremes. Liberal Christianity strips the Bible of its power, while conservative Christianity tends to ignore the social aspects of the Gospel (I know that I am speaking in extremes here. Many of us do not fall into these extremes, however, these are the images of Christianity that are most often displayed in the media.) The truth of God’s Word is best shared by living in genuine concern for those around you.

I’ll finish this post with this story:
Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Ghandi he asked him, “Mr. Ghandi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?”

Ghandi replied, “Oh, I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

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An Interesting Point Redux

More thoughts on the same-sex marriage issue.

My wife and I began attending church while we were living together unmarried. As we began to learn more about God, we became convicted of our need to marry. The pastor of the church we were attending at the time refused to marry us because my wife had been married before. He told us that he has never performed a marriage ceremony when it is a second marriage. We were deeply hurt by this. We were at a stage in our life where God was beginning to work through us, we were excited to be part of a faith community, and this decision by our pastor shocked us tremendously. This event did not lessen our resolve to get married, we both felt God leading us to take this important step. We went to a United Church minister to marry us, she did a fantastic job and we had a beautiful ceremony. I know that I would not have grown this much in the Lord if not for the gift from God of my wife and my two daughters.

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.” Jesus – Matthew 5:31-32

I believe in the Bible. I trust it. I believe it is God’s inspired Word. Studying it is one of my greatest joys in life. Jesus is my Lord and Saviour, I attempt (and often fail) to base my life on His teachings. I believe that I am saved and that one day I will meet my Saviour in Heaven. According to Jesus in God’s word, I am an adulterer. Ironically, I am also becoming a stronger Christian everyday in this marriage that I believe God has ordained for me. God has blessed us immeasurably since we have been together, I have no doubt that he wants us to be married. Does God approve of the countless sins I commit daily? No. Does He condemn me for them? The answer again is no. Somehow it seems that His purpose in our case was achieved by going against this teaching of His.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

In the church we used to attend, there were people in positions of influence who were in their second marriage. Once my wife and I were married, we were welcomed and asked to serve in several ministries. We were both blessed by these opportunities to serve. My point is that conservative Christians are forgiving and understanding about this particular deviation from God’s Word, but when it comes to homosexuality, they (we) stand firm for the most part. I wonder why this is?

Interesting food for thought.

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An Interesting Point

This morning I was reading the Connexions blog. The writer was stating his position on the gay marriage debate (they are pro). I thought that something he wrote at the end was interesting.

“Some will argue that this is a slippery slope. But is it really? Most churches don’t officially approve of couples having pre-marital sex or living together. However, the majority of churches and/or their congregants will nevertheless agree to allow marriages for such couples. Further, many churches already take the view, official or not, that a committed heterosexual relationship apart from marriage is better than promiscuity or serial sexual relationships. I could not count the number of adults in church who have a much more lenient attitude toward unmarried heterosexual relations than they do toward any type of homosexual relations.”

I think what he said there is true. Most churches will sanction marriage for a heterosexual couple that are cohabitating. I also fully believe that the majority of Christians “have a much more lenient attitude toward unmarried heterosexual relations than they do toward any type of homosexual relations.” The Bible teaches us that sex before marriage is adultery. To take this thought further, Jesus was concerned enough about adultery that he taught against it. Jesus never mentioned homosexuality.

I’m not sure if gay marriage is something I can support. My major concern is that at some point, those whose religious conscience prohibits gay marriage will be forced to conduct gay marriage ceremonies. I know that the Liberal government in Canada has stated this will never happen. However, in 1999, the same Liberal government that introduced same-sex marriage legislation passed a bill stating that marriage is “the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.” To say I have trouble trusting them would be an understatement.

Does the church need to be more tolerant towards homosexuals? Absolutely yes. I pray for Gods wisdom in understanding His will for same-sex marriages.

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Holy Wars

Christian Extremists. Not a term we hear today. Most often, extremists are connected to Islam not Christianity. Still Christian extremists do exist. In fact, they are everywhere. We have Christians who ignore sin and focus on Jesus’s love. On the other side, we have Christians who are focused on sin and forget about the forgiving nature of Jesus. Conservative Christians, liberal Christians, Christians who believe the Bible is factually true, and Christians who believe the Bible is a metaphor. Then there is the school of Christendom that is focused on unleashing Gods blessing in our lives. This last group is why I am staying away from religious broadcasting for awhile. I believe that God wants to bless me, but I’m left feeling incredibly shallow and empty when that is all I’m focused on.

We must face the fact that we cannot pigeon-hole God. God hates sin and loves the sinner. God hates injustice, desires mercy from us, and demands Lordship over our entire lives. He is everywhere, our agendas are not His focus, nor can we bend Him to suit our own prejudices. This is why the Bible itself can be so problematic, the God we meet in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) seems a lot different sometimes than the God we meet in the New Testament, yet it is the same God. It is possible for us to approach God as a friend, an intimate companion, but we must never forget to respect Him and be in awe of His power.

Still we must make some decisions about God. How we are to follow Him, how we will allow Him to shape our lives. I know that by doing this I am risking pigeon-holing God, still I feel that the portrait of Jesus in the passage below says a lot about who God wants us to be. As verse three says “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.” Think about yourself, if you were on your death bed and had only a short time to live. You wouldn’t waste your time on things you didn’t really mean. You would be attempting to convey what you felt was most important, what you wanted your legacy to be.

John 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
10 Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

Jesus, the Servant Master, humbling Himself. Want to be great? Don’t aim for your own glory, aim to serve. This is the image that Jesus wanted to leave us with. Incidentally, I remember when I was a kid going to church on Holy Thursday, one year in particular the Priest recreated this event by washing the feet of the deacons. I remember being a bit repulsed at the time. I think that something in my ego didn’t like the humility that this exercise requires. Now I just pray for the strength to live this in my life.

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The Enemy Within

What is the greatest enemy to Christianity today? Is it gay marriage, the liberal agenda, or right-wing imperialism? Maybe it is Islam, Buddhism, or some New Age religion?

Actually, the truth is much more insidious than that. The greatest enemy to the church today, comes from within the church itself.

The enemy is divisiveness.

Over and over again, when I have the opportunity to talk to marginal believers and non-believers, they tell me they aren’t sure what to believe. Why is that? The reply is that so many groups believe differently, it is hard to know what is true. Everyone, even those who don’t believe, understand the importance of making the choice to believe. They sense and understand that something incredibly important is at stake. They also understand the great personal investment involved. No one wants to invest themselves in a lie, so when in doubt, it becomes easier to make no choice at all.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13: 34-35

Is the world able to recognize the disciples of Jesus? According to Him, the world will recognize us by our love. Love is not the popular image for Christians today. It seems to me that Christians and Christianity have two basic images that are popular today. We are either seen as intolerant, gun toting war mongers, whose aim is to convert the rest of the world to our right-wing agenda, or as judgmental hypocrites who judge society while turning a blind eye to our own sins. Either way, these images are not attractive to the majority of society. Coupled with the confusion that arises from denominational strife, and it becomes easy to see why people run away from the church and Christianity as a whole.

Our job as the body of Christ is to fulfill the great commission by changing these perceptions. We must cross denominational lines and embrace our similarities rather than focusing on our doctrinal differences. We must emphasize the changing power of the Gospel, the salvation that is found in Christ Jesus, and the unconditional love that comes from the Creator, rather than why we are right and everyone else is wrong. We must wear our halos with a slight tilt that shows our need for salvation is as great as anyone else’s.

Is this an impossible dream? It certainly won’t be easy. For this to happen we have to let go of our pride. The problem with the factions that exist in the church is that they are sure they are right and the other groups are wrong. For us to be able to band together for the sake of the Gospel, we will have to admit we are not always right. I have been there myself, searching scripture for the reasons why others are “un-biblical”. There is a certain security that comes from doctrinal superiority. The time has come for a change, the time has come for us to admit our great poverty, and that no one is truly right but God.

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Pray Continually

As I have grown in my walk with Christ, there is one area that I feel has always been lacking. I have been disciplined in Bible study, church attendance, and family prayer. Yet my personal prayer life has been tepid and inconsistent. I have often admired the prayer life of Muslims and adherents to Judaism, their commitment to pausing for prayer at specific points everyday appeals to me. The Bible, however, teaches us to “pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), not just at certain times during the day.

Part of my resolve this year to grow closer to God, includes growing into a deeper communion with Him in prayer. This communion must be Biblical, not based on any law that legislates prayer. I desire to grow to a point where I am able to “pray continually.”

Whenever I have questions about my faith, the first place I go to is my Bible, specifically, I sought out what Jesus taught about prayer. The first passage that sprang to mind, is one of His most famous lessons, one that almost all of us are familiar with, the words of the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

This is a simple prayer, teaching us to give God the respect He deserves and to yield our lives to His will. It also shows us that we can trust God to provide for our material needs, that we are to forgive people for the sins they commit against us, and that we can trust God to release us from temptation. What else did teach us about prayer? “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:5-8). We are told to pray in solitude, and to not use words just for the sake of speaking. Later we see Jesus practice what He preaches by going off to pray by Himself.

This is what the Sovereign LORD , the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:15)

Solitude and quiet. Two things that with our hectic schedules seem to be an impossible dream. If we want true communion with God, this is what we must create. Everyones situation is different, there may be very little time in your day when you can seek solitude. Still you must create it when you can. Try getting out of bed a little earlier or maybe you can have quiet time during your commute to work. Wherever you make it, remember, words are not what is needed, bring your petitions before God, and then just enjoy communion with the Holy Spirit. This will take practice, but over time you will get better at it.

One final note, this kind of prayer sounds a lot, and is a lot, like the scary M word, meditation. The thing to remember is that the meditation connected with eastern religions is aimed at a great disconnect. A separation of your mind from everything. The aim of Christian meditation is the great connect with the One who is everything.

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The Vision

From the Revelation prayer-room: September 99

The Vision by Pete Greig

So this guy comes up to me and says “what’s the vision?

What’s the big idea?” I open my mouth and words come out like this….

The vision?

The vision is Jesus – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army.

And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.

They could eat caviar on Monday and crust on Tuesday.

They wouldn’t even notice.

They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.

People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.

They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry.

It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars.

It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.

It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.

This is an army that will lay down it’s life for the cause.

A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose that they might one day win the great

‘Well done’ faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday mornings as Sunday night. They don’t

need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds

chanting again and again “COME ON!”

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.

The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs.

Who can stop them? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation PRAYS like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with

warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter!

Whatever it takes they will give. Breaking the rules.

Shaking the mediocrity

from it’s cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious

little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers

cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer – pressure is powerless

to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like a costume to

communicate and celebrate but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or popularity?

They would lay down their very lives – swap seats with the man on death row

- guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair. With blood and sweat and

many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it

all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. ( He breathes out, they breathe in)

Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make the demons scream in shopping centres.

DON’T you hear them coming?

Heralds the weirdo’s! Summons the losers and the freaks. Here come the

frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees

applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another

dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient

dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.

How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning

of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant

hope is his 3D. And my feeble whispered, faithless prayer invokes a

thunderous, resounding, bone – shaking ‘AMEN!’

from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original

dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed

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Are You Acceptable?

The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable. – Paul Tillich

Acceptance. One of the greatest desires of the human heart. The need to be accepted influences so much of our life. From the car we drive, to the clothes we wear, we make many of our choices based on what those around us will accept. Our behaviour is governed by what is considered to be acceptable. Most of our deepest emotional scars stem from moments when we were not accepted. It’s no accident that we need to feel accepted. God put this desire into our heart because the only place we will find full acceptance is with God.

What exactly does it mean to be accepted? Does it mean we can do anything we want and God will turn a blind eye to our behaviour? While I do believe God loves and accepts each one of us as we are, a God who brooks at sin, is a God of human invention. It is interesting the images of God we humans create. We run the gamut from an anything goes God to an everyone is wrong but us, spew hellfire and damnation on everyone else, God. The truth of it is, both of these images are fabrications. God hates sin. He hates it so much that Jesus died for our sins. Scratch that, Jesus didn’t just die. He bore the complete wrath of almighty God so that sin could be atoned for, once and for all. However, He loves you and I so much, that He didn’t want us to have to bear His wrath for that sin.

To be accepted by God means to understand that we are loved, to accept the mind boggling fact that we are accepted, and to understand that God wishes to call us into deeper fellowship with Him. As we grow in fellowship with God, He will show us our failings as any loving parent would. Gently coaxing us into a new reality where we are no longer slaves to sin, but are free to live as God calls us to live.

The biggest stumbling block to us being able to internalize the acceptance of God, is lack of acceptance for ourselves. In human terms our failings are sickening, our shortcomings numerous, and our self image bruised. We must not measure God’s acceptance for us in puny human terms. His love is deeper than we can ever fathom and His acceptance is based upon much more than human acceptance can ever be. To avoid creating an image of God that is too small, never impose human limitations on Him. In fact, I think this is part of the reason why Jesus became so angry with those who thought they had God figured out. We must face the fact, we will never have God all figured out.

So how do we deal with sin? The only sin we should ever be concerned about dealing with is our own. By yielding our will to God, He will mold us into what He created us to be. We must never impose our standards on those around us, even if we may be correct. We need to trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to convict people of sin and to show them the way to truth. Judgment belongs to God alone. We are all so full of sin that hypocrisy will be the only fruit of passing judgment on the behaviour of others. When presenting the Gospel, explain the need for redemption for all people, including yourself. Tell them how God has changed your life and set you free. Speak of the depth of the love of God. We are all starving to feel that kind of love. Finally, accept those around you for who they are. Love them in the midst of their sin, be a friend, just like Jesus was a friend to sinners. By accepting other people for who they are and trusting God to free them from sin, you just may begin to accept yourself.

The Christian life is a call to freedom. Far too many of us are living in the bondage of sin and self-recrimination. This is not the will of God, this is not the way it is supposed to be.

Choose to accept yourself as God accepts you.

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I Have A Dream

In honour of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here is the complete I have a dream speech.

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

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