Letters to a Birmingham Jail

In Martin Luther King Jr’s famous letter to white Protestant clergyman in Birmingham, he wrote while he was imprisoned in Birmingham, King defends the direct actions of the Movement. The white clergyman told King to be patient and to not act, basically to let things work themselves out. King knew the danger of indifference. As a Christian, King knew that the God he worshipped and the God these men claimed to worship hated indifference. “So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!” I don’t think this is much clearer than in Revelation 3:16.

Bryan Loritts, the pastor of Fellowship Bible Church, a multi ethnic church here in Memphis edited a book titled “Letters to a Birmingham Jail”. In the foreword of the book, it addresses the general sentiment of America that racism is no longer an issue. “Our President is black”. “Almost no one believes Jim Crow was right”. “Almost everyone thinks that equal opportunity under the law is a good and proper thing”. Then it addresses the facts. “That the U.S. has by far the highest rates of incarceration in the Western world....it offers less medical and family support for the poor than any other Western nation; it maintains inequalities of wealth on a part with the kleptocracies of the Third World…..The US racial history is not solely responsible for these indices of social pathology but that history has contributed substantially to every one of them”.

In this book, Loritts and 9 other men from various ethnicities and ages write essays to Martin Luther King Jr while he is hypothetically still imprisoned in Birmingham. These men know that the fight against racism in the Church is yet to be won. They are well aware that the most segregated hour in the nation is still Sunday morning. And they believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ requires that Christians be moved to action to pursue justice and reconciliation and thank King for his contributions to the movement and the words he has to say addressing the passivity of white Christians during this time, many words that still ring true today.

As a Christian, I believe that one day in heaven, I will be praising God with those from every tribe, tongue, and nation.  I believe God created diversity and that he is a God of justice. The time is again upon our hands to let our voice be heard and stand up for those that have been oppressed and marginalized. I am the first one to admit that Christians have done a terrible job at this in the past, but along with Bryan Loritts and the 9 other contributors to this book, I believe that there is hope for a better day. And that Christians are not simply called to sit on their hands. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, the one that came to right all wrongs.