Section II. January 13, 1988, Portland Observer, Page 5
Martin Luther King
Celebration
Monday, January 18,1988
7:30 p.m.
Mallory Avenue Christian Church
126 N.E. Alberta
Featuring Choirs:
Bethel A.M.E. Church
and
Sharon Seventh Adventist
Speaker:
The Rev. Milton Green
Sponsored by:
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon,
Albina Ministerial Association
and The Greater Portland Association
of Avangelicals
Ecumical Evangelicals
"King Remembered"
by Rev. Terry Allen Moe
Redeemer Lutheran Church
I was six when Martin Luther King
began organizing for justice and
equality for all people, prodded by
the spunky witness of Rosa Parks.
I was in seventh grade when he
made his famous "I have a dream''
speech in Washington, D.C. I was
just eighteen and not yet eligible for
the draft when he was assassinated
in Memphis.
Since that time, I have come to
know the man I didn't know in my
younger years.
I have come to
know him through his speeches,
through his writings, through what
others have said and written about
him. But most clearly I have come
to know him in the spirit of those
who continued his tradition of non­
violent resistance. In Jesse Jackson
and Ralph Abernathy, and closer to
home in Rev. John Garlington and
Rev. John Jackson. And as I reflect
on these people's lives, I have come
to understand that Martin Luther
King was caught up in a spirit great­
er than himself, a spirit which like
a wave carried him over and
through time, rolling on like the
waters of justice the prophets fore­
saw. Martin Luther King was
caught up in this Great Spirit — the
same spirit which gave voice to the
prophets and birthed the Savior and
planted Gandhi in South Africa
and India and is ours as well. It
is the spirit of peace and justice,
peace with justice, a spirit which
shines like a beacon in the dark­
ness, and the darkness has not put
it out. The spirit spoke so many
times, but in the words Martin
Luther King spoke the spirit was so
clear and precise:
''To our most bitter opponents
we say: 'We shall match your capa­
city to inflict suffering by our capa-
citv to endure suffering. We shall
_nmil
Enemies" published in "Strength To
force.
Do to us what you will,
Love” , Fortress Press, Philadelphia,
and we shall continue to love you.
We cannot in all good conscious 1963.)
Since I have come to know Mar
obey your unjust laws, because
tin
Luther King in my twenties and
noncooperation with evil is as much
thirties
— I'm now thirty-seven,
a moral obligation as is cooperation
the
age
of Martin at his death —
with good. Throw us in jail, and
I
feel
the
Great Spirit lifting others
we shall still love you. Bomb our
and
even
myself
at times, lifting and
homes and threaten our children,
carrying
us
upon
a great rolling rive
and we shall still love you. Send
your hooded perpetrators of vio­ of justice. Though at times it seems
nothing has changed, and for each
lence into our communities at the
midnight hour and beat us and leave step forward there is one backward
or even two, through racial and eco
us half dead, and we shall still love
nomic violence threaten like incur
you. But be ye assured that we will
able cancer, we are riding a wave
wear you down by our capacity to
suffer. One day we shall win free­ and when it crashes upon the shore
at our death, another crests inexor
dom, but not only for ourselves.
ably, and another, and another, for
We shall so appeal to your heart
the light shines in the darkness and
and conscience that we shall win
the darkness has not overcome it
you in the process, and our victory
T n M a rtin and to the Spirit which
will be a double victory.' " (From
„ J
»«I
V n n r
” I f you think I came to tell you
to hate white people,
you have the wrong man.
Our goal is not to defeat or humiliate
the white man,
but to win his friendship and love. ”
—The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
King— a modem
Moses fo r his people.
Dick Bogle, Commissioner
City of Portland
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