Martin Luther King

“The War Economy is Killing our Nation’s Spirit”

MatthewHoh Interviews, Recovery, Spirituality, War and Conflict , , , , , , , , ,

I would go farther than that and say that our war culture and our society’s militarism is killing our Nation’s Spirit, just as it is killing people, the environment and our future both at home, in the United States, and across the planet.

Tonight, I’ll be with Reverend William Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove in Raleigh at The Gathering, the monthly meeting of Repairers of the Breach and the Poor People’s Campaign. This month Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Agains the War and Code Pink are partners and I’ll be speaking. You can listen online or if you are in Raleigh you can join us.

Below is the announcement for tonight’s event:

Tax payers in the United States have spent nearly $4 Trillion for wars since 2001 – money that should have been used to transform our nation.

Just $1 Billion of our bloated military budget could pay for 12k elementary school teachers, 7k infrastructure jobs, 100k headstart spots for children, and 30k scholarships for university students. The moral question we must put before America is: What will make us safer? More and more and more money for building the mother of all bombs, money for jobs, education, healthcare, and infrastructure? We must choose community and peace over chaos and greed, recognizing that to fight against the war economy is to challenge the policies that advance poverty, and suppress democracy.

This Sunday, Nov. 5 at The Gathering, we’re partnering with Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and CODEPINK to hear from people affected by militarism around the world on how we can join the struggle for peace.

If you’re in North Carolina: RSVP here to join us this Sunday, Nov. 5 from 6-7:30pm ET at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh.

If you can’t make it in person: Watch the livestream this Sunday beginning at 6pm ET on our website or Facebook. Make sure you share the stream on social media so the #PoorPeoplesCampaign can reach more people!

The Gathering is a new movement resource by Repairers of the Breach, live on the first Sunday of every month in North Carolina and available via livestream and podcast. It’s co-hosted by us, Bishop William J. Barber II, Pres. & Sr. Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach; and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Director at School for Conversion. The Gathering aims to equip communities with resources for faithful reflection and public action on moral issues through an hour of storytelling, music, interviews with community organizers and impacted people, and a powerful call to join the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

We hope to see you at The Gathering this Sunday, Nov. 5 in North Carolina or online via the Repairers of the Breach livestream!

If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Erica Williams, Repairers of the Breach National Social Justice Organizer (ewilliams@breachrepairers.org).

Forward Together!

Bishop William J. Barber II
President, Repairers of the Breach

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
President, School for Conversion

P.S. Did you miss last month’s powerful Gathering on climate justice? You can watch the video or listen to the podcast here.

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I also strongly recommend Reverend Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove’s book, The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear.

Wage Peace!

Martin Luther King: Beyond Vietnam

MatthewHoh Spirituality, Uncategorized, War and Conflict , , , , , , , , , , , ,

April 4, 1967

New York City

 

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here tonight, and how very delighted I am to see you expressing your concern about the issues that will be discussed tonight by turning out in such large numbers. I also want to say that I consider it a great honor to share this program with Dr. Bennett, Dr. Commager, and Rabbi Heschel, some of the most distinguished leaders and personalities of our nation. And of course it’s always good to come back to Riverside Church. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of preaching here almost every year in that period, and it’s always a rich and rewarding experience to come to this great church and this great pulpit.

I come to this great magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization that brought us together, Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on.
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