April 04 marks the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He chose to speak out against the illegal and unjust war in Vietnam on April 04, 1967 -- in a sermon which discussed a malady which went far beyond Vietnam, and which was appropriately titled "Beyond Vietnam."
It is very appropriate to listen to this entire talk by Dr. King today, in his own voice and in his own words, and to consider how everything he says is just as appropriate for our situation now as when he delivered that sermon in 1967, now fifty-four years ago.
Exactly one year later, Dr. King's life was ended by elements of the national security state in a criminal operation which was subsequently covered up and has continued to be covered up to this day. Proof of this criminal conspiracy to murder Dr. King has been uncovered in subsequent years by diligent researchers including William Pepper, who represented the King family in the civil lawsuit in 1999, which proved the existence of the conspiracy to kill Dr. King.
In a sermon he delivered in November of 1967, entitled "But if not," Dr. King expounds upon the civil disobedience depicted in the ancient text of Daniel, in which the three youths tell the king that they are confident they will be delivered from harm even in their refusal to violate their conscience -- but if not, they still will not violate their conscience, even if it costs them their life.
In that sermon, Dr. King declares:
It is important to see that there are times when a man-made law is out of harmony with the moral law of the universe. There are times when human laws are out of harmony with eternal and divine laws. And when that happens, you have an obligation to break it.
[. . .]
I say to you this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live.
The words of Dr. King are speaking directly to us this day in 2021, more than fifty years after his death, and it is more important for us to hear them now than ever.
Text of "Beyond Vietnam" (link).
