“A time comes when silence is betrayal, and that time has come”
Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. King spoke these strong, pointed words on April 4th, 1967 in a speech titled “Beyond Vietnam – A Time to Break Silence”. Dr. King was among one of many social, political, business and religious leaders who gathered that night. Some asked Dr. King, “Why are you speaking about the war Dr. King?” “Why are you joining the voice of descent?” Others said “Peace and civil rights don’t mix!” and “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people?” Dr. King was deeply saddened by these questions and saw them as a sign that the people asking the questions knew neither him nor his calling. Dr. King saw the fact that we, as a country, were sending young black men to fight and die for the freedom of southeast Asians when the black men themselves did not possess the same freedom in southwest Georgia, as a “Cruel Irony”. That same “Cruel Irony” showed its ugly face in the fact that a black man and a white man could stand side by side and die together in battle, could not sit side by side, or study together in school.
Dr. King was a man of conviction. He was a man of peace and justice. A man who saw no good in being content while people hurt around him. His Christian faith only served to grow his convictions. He knew the Gospel was for all people whether, Maoist, Communist, Vietcong or the like. They were real people; people that could and would respond to the Gospel, and instead of solving our problems like brothers, we killed our brothers and moved on. Dr. King could not remain silent any longer. As he stood on the stage that April 4th night and the words came out of his mouth on that very public stage, I think Dr. King found a new freedom he had not yet known.
“A time comes when silence is betrayal and that time has come”
Silence had become his enemy. Silence was now equal to betrayal; not betrayal against his country or his cause, but against his self. Silence was a betrayal of every conviction in his body. Against every word he had ever spoken of peace and non-violence. Against every proclamation of the Gospel. Silence was no longer an option.
Brothers and sisters I think I’m there. Silence to me now seems like a distant thing, a cowardly thing… an unthinkable thing.
Injustice is at my doorstep.
When I look any one of the 10 orphan boys I live with in the eyes I feel the pain of injustice.
"Last night as I hugged one of the boys good night, I felt on his chest a bump. He is a skinny boy. As I pulled up his shirt, I saw the aftermath of such injustice. I touched pain with my hands. I looked hurt in the eyes. He went on to tell me about how when he was a baby, his father punched him so hard in the chest that it collapsed his chest cavity, and now he has a hole where his chest used to be. Fragments of broken bones shot up and poke at his skin where the bones never healed many years ago. He said there is no pain, no physical pain that is. That is injustice that he lives with. That is a hurt that does not go away easily."Me
What type of “man” does this? It makes me angry! It makes me want to scream and at the same time cry. I want to make it right.
How can I be silent?
How can I not do something?
Do anything? Say anything?
To not do so would be the greatest of injustices. Like Dr. King, to remain silent now would be a betrayal of my convictions. It would be a betrayal of the work that The Father has done in my life. It would be turning my back on the man I have become. I’m not willing to do that. I can’t. Not anymore.
Do you see the injustice around you?
Do you choose to allow your self to see it?
Are you open to the world not revolving around you?
Dr. King died for his convictions, and if I were to guess, there is no other way he would have rather gone out. He died because he chose to be vocal about an injustice millions of others saw and ignored. They didn’t have the resolve. They lacked the commitment! They lacked conviction!
Do you have convictions you would die for?
Do you have the resolve to push when other stop?
God cares about people, what do you care about?
I don’t have a clean, neat way of wrapping up this blog. I don’t have 5 “action” steps to give you to make yourself a more “aware” person. I know I don’t have it all together. I know that I, up to this point in my life, have been the chief of sinners when it came to ignoring injustice around me, but I can, with 100% confidence, say no more. That silent man is dead; he died a coward’s death. The new man might die one day also, but if he dies, he will die like Dr. King. He will go down with his convictions on his lips and action on his hands.
Just do somthing, anything!
