The early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles o popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the value of conviction and the role of the Church in shaping societal values.
Martin Luther King, Jr. reflects on the early Christians' willingness to endure suffering for their beliefs, showcasing a deep commitment to their faith. He contrasts the Church's historical role as not just a passive observer of societal trends but as an active force that influences and changes societal norms, emphasizing the transformative power of strong convictions in the face of adversity.
In practice
This quote can be used in a sermon to inspire conviction among believers.
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
If you think God’s there, He is. If you don’t, He isn’t. And if that’s what God’s like, I wouldn’t worry about it.
We have built a thousand temples to Fortune and not one to Reason
I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything...
To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly.
Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.
And all these questions I ask myself. It is not in a spirit of curiosity. I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric.
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