On Teaching at Drew University’s Theological School

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 25 July 2013 2 Comments
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Question

My question has the background of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" sermon. I believe the power of King's words lies not in poetry, emotion, nor logic, but from the moral core of all existence, the ground of our being that is love, what I call "God." I believe "I have a dream" is a modern example of prophetic speech, "Thus says the LORD." Is such a word to our culture possible today? With what authority could anyone speak such words?

Answer

Dear Chuck,

Thank you for your presence as well as your welcome and hospitality when we were recently in Amarillo, Texas. I plan to devote my column to that visit next week.

Your question is an insightful one. No person can be accurately determined to be a prophet in his or her own generation. That is a judgment that history alone can make and it is history that has proclaimed Dr. King to be one of the great prophets of the 20th century. His impact on this nation was a powerful and moving one. He bore the pain and indignity that was heaped upon him with a calm dignity and an increased resolve. He interpreted such tragedies as the murder of those little girls in an Alabama church in such a way as never to minimize the pain or to reveal the slightest surrender to that killing violence. He captured the moral high ground and reduced the Bull Connors, the Lester Maddoxes and the George Wallaces of the world to the status of being petty bigots, a status which they had earned and from which George Wallace alone repented. He called national leaders like John F. Kennedy and most especially Lyndon B. Johnson to become spiritually larger and more compassionate than we had any reason to believe they could ever be. It was not just his “I have a dream” speech,” it was also his “Letter from a Birmingham jail,” that lifted him so visibly into the pantheon of charismatic leaders.

The mark of a prophet is apparent when that figure moves the world, a nation or a people to a new consciousness. How a particular prophet does that is always subjective and debatable, but to do what Dr. King did means that he had a compelling vision that governed his life and that he was willing to pay any price to achieve that vision. In fact, he did pay the ultimate price, but his life and his words revealed that he was prepared to do that whether or not martyrdom was the price that such leadership required. Dr. King spoke with the authority of his own integrity, but it was clearly grounded in something or someone far beyond the limits of his humanity. I know him as a prophet and I am convinced that history will confirm for him that designation.

If Dr. King could be a prophet in our generation then prophecy is still possible. Leaders force us to go beyond our comfort zones into new understandings of life. History may record others in that category, who are not as yet clearly defined in the public arena. Critical moments in history have a way of calling them forth.

Thanks for raising the issue.

John Shelby Spong

 

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