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<p>A full version is here: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/274668/" class="OWAAutoLink" id="LPlnk245983" previewremoved="true">
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/274668/</a> I used to spend a week teaching this in an English composition class--as an example of a perfectly crafted argument. </p>
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<a id="LPUrlAnchor_14847910871270.48804983993960005" style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/martin-luther-kings-letter-from-birmingham-jail/274668/" target="_blank">Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham
Jail' - The ...</a></div>
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www.theatlantic.com</div>
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King's famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail," published in The Atlantic as "The Negro Is Your Brother," was written in response to a public statement of concern and ...</div>
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And here is the letter to which he was responding: <a href="http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09a/mlk_day/statement.html" class="OWAAutoLink" id="LPlnk425625" previewremoved="true">
http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09a/mlk_day/statement.html</a>
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<a id="LPUrlAnchor_14847912153280.5730216838052893" style="text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09a/mlk_day/statement.html" target="_blank">M.L.King: 1963 Public statement by 8 Alabama clergymen</a></div>
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www.massresistance.org</div>
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PUBLIC STATEMENT BY EIGHT ALABAMA CLERGYMEN. April 12, 1963. We the undersigned clergymen are among those who, in January, issued "An Appeal for Law and Order and ...</div>
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--Diann McCabe, San Marcos, Texas<br>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt" color="#000000" face="Calibri, sans-serif"><b>From:</b> OE <oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of David Dunn via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, January 18, 2017 5:52 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> OE Lists<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Oe List ...] A letter to White Christians from Auburn Seminary re Trump</font>
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<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">I think this is King's original letter, or an edited version.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Birmingham City Jail</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">April 16, 1963</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">My dear Fellow Clergymen,</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">… Let me rush on to mention my other disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white Church and its leadership. Of course there are some
notable exceptions. …</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">But despite these notable exceptions I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the Church. I do not say that as one of those negative critics
who can always find something wrong with the Church. I say it as a minister of the gospel, who loves the Church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall
lengthen.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">I had the strange feeling when I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery several years ago that we would have the support
of the white Church. I felt that the white ministers, priests, and rabbis of the South would be some of our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many
others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of the stained glass windows.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice
of our cause and with deep moral concern, serve as the channel through which our just grievances could get to the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed
to hear white ministers say follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother. 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. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, “Those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern,” and I have watched so many churches
commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a tail-light behind
other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">I have travelled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have
looked at her beautiful churches with their spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlay of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over again I have found myself asking: “Who worships here? Who is their God? Where were their
voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave the clarion call for defiance and hatred? Where were their voices of support when tired, bruised, and weary Negro men
and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?”</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment, I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of
love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the Church; I love her sacred walls. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of preachers. Yes,
I see the Church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and fear of being nonconformist.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">There was a time when the Church was very powerful. It was during that period when 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 of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure
got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven” and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big
in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” They brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contest.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Things are different now. The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter of the status
quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church’s silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">But the judgment of God is upon the Church as never before. If the Church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, it will lose
its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. I am meeting young people every day whose disappointment with the Church has risen to outright disgust.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Maybe again I have been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Maybe I must turn my
faith to the inner spiritual Church, the church within the Church, as the true ecclesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity
and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone through the highways of the South on torturous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone
to jail with us. Some have been kicked out of their churches and lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have gone with the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. These men have been the leaven in the lump of the
race. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the Gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">… If I have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If
I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist
or a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities and in some not
too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal; min-height:13px"><font class="" size="2"><span class="" style=""></span><br class="">
</font></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Yours for the cause of</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Peace and Brotherhood,</font></span></div>
<div class="" style="margin:0px; line-height:normal"><span class="" style=""><font class="" size="2">Martin Luther King, Jr.</font></span></div>
<div class=""><span class="" style=""><br class="">
</span></div>
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