MLK II / Vincent Harding

"We preachers have also been tempted by the enticing cult of conformity. Seduced by the success symbols of the world, we have measured our achievements by the size of our parsonage. We have become showmen to please the whims and caprices of the people. We preach comforting sermons and avoid saying anything from our pulpit which might disturb the respectable views of the comfortable members of our congregations. Have we ministers of Jesus Christ sacrificed truth on the altar of self-interest and, like Pilate, yielded our convictions to the demands of the crowd? We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians, who were nonconformists in the truest sense of the word and refused to shape their witness according to the mundane patterns of the world."

-MLK, "Transformed Nonconformist"

Dr. Vincent Harding was in Bellingham over the weekend and I was fortunate enough to take 25 teens to an ecumenical discussion with him on Sunday afternoon along with teens from other churches in the county. It was great. Dr. Harding is a passionate man, but also a great teacher. He asked a lot of questions, remembered names, used multimedia, put us in break-out groups. He also said it how it is. He didn't let kids get off with the easy answers about who MLK was; he brought up King's fight against poverty and the war in Vietnam. I loved watching my kids squirm as Harding brought up the obvious parallels for today. It's always easier to admire a guy who is only remembered for the past. It's much harder when you imagine what they would say to us today. But kids did listen, and the highlight for me was watching one of my seniors go to Dr. Harding and ask him about non-violence and its biblical reasoning. Sure, I would have loved it if he asked me, but the fact that he asked at all was awesome. I think Martin Luther King would have been pleased to see such a small, but significant, interaction.

Peace,
Matt