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.Since community was hinged upon the concept of human relatedness, justice confronted the unjust socio-political structures while agape compelled King and advocates of the civil rights movement to “love their enemies and to pray for those who would despitefully use them.” Remarkably, King’s commitment to and hope for the realization of beloved community remained intact, despite the sobering levels of resistance to and regression of the civil rights movement.He would not be deterred.Instead, his tempered optimism regarding the realization of beloved community, and it’s imminent arrival, was offset by the assurance of his deep and abiding faith in the God of his ancestors who often spoke of the God “who may not come when we want him, but who’s always on time.” King wrote, “The eschatological thinking of the Christian religion is not without its social emphasis…Whether it comes soon or late, by sudden crisis or through slow development, the Kingdom of God will be a society in which all men and women will be controlled by the eternal love190p r a c t i c a l a p p l i c a t i o nof God.” 41 Community, he believed, may be temporarily delayed, but not permanently deferred.King possessed a theological anthropology that saw beloved community as a distinct human possibility.Blacks and whites could reconcile.The vestiges of racism and injustice could be reduced to historical footnotes instead of continuing to make the current headlines.Today’s poor could become tomorrow’s power brokers.Human beings created in the image of God, he fervently believed, could choose to cooperate with God in the creation of that much needed society.More than a mere dreamer of beloved community, King had to be , as Gandhi admonished his followers decades earlier, the beloved community he imagined would one day emerge as a dominant reality.He was determined to be the model of love that would discount the sociopolitical darkness.He was resolved to be the voice of reason that would rise above the chorus of irrationality.King essentially committed his life to being the loving neighbor that even his foes would come to appreciate and perhaps one day also become.Though hindered by numerous setbacks, King’s proleptic hope for humanity continued to be expressed in passionate oratory, in discomforting truisms, in fearless confrontation, in untiring commitment, but always in love.Though rarely discussed these days, many had become very uncomfortable with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s prophetic call to justice and community, yet he remained uncompromised in his theological conviction that the human family, created in the image of God, could be improved.For some it is hard to hear King unplugged, unedited, and unfi ltered by the fi nal lines of “I Have a Dream” in our modern day.And yet if we are to “hear something new,” something that transforms old dreams into new realities, we must hear him now as he spoke then.EpilogueOn the eve of his assassination, King asserted, “I may not get therewith you.But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people willget to the Promised Land.” King’s emphatic last word of exhortationto a weary people in a weary land appropriated language, originat-ing in the Old Testament hope, of a people’s exodus from a land ofoppressive limitations that resulted in their eventual entrance intothe land of promise, a land outfitted with all the accoutrements offreedom.In that land envisioned by King, the enjoyment of life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would become distinct realities irrespective of one’s color, creed, or cultural origin.His prophetic pronouncement to Memphis sanitation workers, this nation, and thisworld on the eve of his murder affirmed the possibility of a success-ful promised land pilgrimage.“We as a people will get there,” washis unwavering declaration of emancipation.Admittedly, the journeyto that land of promise was marked by difficult days, and yet, beyond the challenge of that obstructed sociopolitical pathway, King claimed to have been elevated to the mountaintop.From the mountaintop,he looked over the symbolic Jordan River to capture and convey asight that most could not see, that parting glimpse of promised landpossibility, beloved community, an America characterized by greatercapacities for humane consideration, cooperation, and compassion.The exodus from the plantations of segregated society had com-menced; the entrance into the promised land of beloved communitywas the eminent hope [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]