MLK Jr. Day

One year ago today I was speaking in Washington, DC on Capitol Hill during President Barack Obama’s Inauguration events. What a crazy time this past year has been. As Martin Luther King Jr. quotes have been flying around all day, here’s my favorite; and one that has shaped a huge part of how I frame my life and work (this excerpt comes from my book):

“Christians need to start willfully planting themselves in the middle of some very uncomfortable places—making a conscious commitment to stay in that place with the GLBT community. In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was locked up in a jail in Birmingham, Alabama. In a letter to confront his fellow white clergymen, MLK reflected on his life’s work to that point and said: “I must confess that I am not afraid of the world tension. I have earnestly opposed violent tension my whole life, but there is a type of constructive, non-violent tension which is necessary for growth.”

I’m going to be real right now—the Christian community has been running from that constructive, non-violent tension for too long when it comes to gays and lesbians. The productive growth that MLK was talking about only comes retrospectively, after much time has been spent immersed in tension filled areas with what we are most uneasy about. Those tension-filled areas are cloudy, uncomfortable, confusing, overbearing, uneasy and in many times extremely painful. And they’re worth every minute for the kingdom we so boldly claim ourselves to be a part of.”

Much love.