Khadija Abdulahi God is Able In the book, “Strength to Love” by Martin Luther King Jr, focuses on the problem of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. King was a leader in the civil rights movement. He used a non-violent tactic from his Christian belief. King argued that the Christian faith is what brings people together and it is key to their freedom. Through King’s teaching we learn his belief that the view and trust you have of God influences human nature. King believed that in order to accomplish a greater good we must have faith in God. God will give them the strength they need once there is trust and faith with him. Martin Luther King Jr. Christian beliefs ultimately influenced his view on human nature. King believed that even though humans are wired to do evil and harm, God is trying to stop the evil from spreading. King said that if you have love for God and have trust and loyalty with him then God would guide you and keep you away from evil. “The Christian doctrine of love, operating …show more content…
King said “The Christian faith makes it possible for us nobly to accept that which cannot be changed, to meet disappointments and sorrow with an inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope.” (King, 97) The statement reiterates how the Christian faith is the beacon of light at the end of the tunnel for them. God is the dawn of all hope and the beckon of light. Even when we reach our lowest and are struggling in our darkest hours, King says that we know that a new dawn of hope will arrive because God is ultimately able to do anything. God’s love, strength, justice and wrath are infinite but the worldly disappointments, hatred and the fear ends. King uses Christian scriptures as his evidence. In the bible, God promised his people as long as they have full faith in him that he would aid them and strengthen them to do what is difficult in the midst of hard
Dr. King uses descriptive words and metaphors to convey the emotions and things he is feeling. King is condemning the clergymen saying other religious leaders have come and joined us, then why will you not help us? He speaks of the other religious leaders helping his cause as a way to convince and urge the clergymen to join his side. King wants freedom breaking out of the metaphorical “chains” and not conforming and is thankful to everyone that has decided to join in and help him do so. “Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in the tragic attempt to live in monologue rather than dialogue” (King 354).
He emphasizes the fact that he helps all the organizations in his church community and that they did not do the same in Birmingham where they needed it the most. King gives many specific accounts from the Bible to help tell his argument and to tell the Clergymen
King directly responds to the points brought up by the clergymen in their letter and always backs up his argument with evidence. He objectively uses rhetorical questions to provoke the clergymen to consider his own ideas on the points raised in their letter. He aims to put turn a negative situation, into a positive one by hoping that positive social change can come out of a negative situation such as
Was not Jesus an extremist for love: ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you’". Here King uses pathos to build his ethos, he places himself among Jesus Christ which builds his ethos and since the initial letter writers were clergymen, it connects to pathos. That is just one of the many effective passages from King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail. This shows a lot of courage because most people choose to fight fire with fire but he chooses to fight hatred with love. This took a lot of courage because many people of the black community wanted to riot and attack the racists and the white community already was against him.
King in his speech in order to alert the people of what the letter is really meant to say now that he has gathered rather the readers full attention of what he had to say about the true root of the matter at hand. “I am implied to write you concerning the responsibilities laid upon you to live as Christians in an UnChristian world.” In this quote the Baptist minister points out that while this may not be a discussion many people wish to hear, it is one he however must give in order to remind them of that they have lost their way in terms of being true to their faith despite outsides forces such as the war and the fight for civil
MLK’s ultimate claim is that the church is to blame for these happenings and “the judgement of God is upon the Church as never before”(276). King stated how even the people who were in the church trying to fight for justice had been looked down upon and some had been kicked out of their own churches. King’s claims were passionately presented. He relentlessly provided evidence to prove his position on the issue of injustice and also showed ample amounts of examples to solve these problems.
In paragraphs 33 to 44 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s response to “A Call for Unity,” a declaration by eight clergymen, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), he expresses that despite his love for the church, he is disappointed with its lack of action regarding the Civil Rights Movement. Through powerful, emotionally-loaded diction, syntax, and figurative language, King adopts a disheartened tone later shifts into a determined tone in order to express and reflect on his disappointment with the church’s inaction and his goals for the future. King begins this section by bluntly stating that he is “greatly disappointed” (33) with the church, though he “will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen” (33). By appealing to ethos and informing the audience of his history with the church, he indicates that he is not criticizing the church for his own sake, but for the good of the church.
The sureness King presents in this quote both instills hope in the reader and allows them to relate to King’s passion. Parallelism, in the way King uses it, connects what seems like small problems to a larger issue. King says on page
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of his time and played a crucial role in the African-American Civil Rights movement. Luther was a charismatic leader who took a firm stand against the oppressive and racist regime of the United States (US), devoting much of his life towards uniting the segregated African-American community of the US. His efforts to consolidate and harmonise the US into one country for all is reflected in many of his writings and speeches spanning his career. As a leader of his people, King took the stand to take radical measures to overcome the false promises of the sovereign government that had been addressing the issues of racial segregation through unimplemented transparent laws that did nothing to change the grim realities of the society. Hence, King’s works always had the recurring theme of the unity and strength of combined willpower.
King was the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was located and enforced in every state in the South. This was an organization for African American civil rights. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (Page 204) King establishes that when the world opens their eyes into reality and realizes the inequality, there will be a greater problem than before. An increase in protestors, means the greater retaliation will be against the law and when there’s retaliation against the law, then people with justice are afraid.
“Letter from Jail” On April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter to the eight clergymen while he was incarcerated. Dr. King wrote this letter to address one of the biggest issues in Birmingham, Alabama and other areas within the United States. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” discussed the great injustices that were happening during that time towards the black community. Dr. King wanted everyone to have the same equal rights as the white community, he also went into further details about the struggles that African Americans were going through for so many years, which he felt like it could change. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, expressed his beliefs and his actions about the Human Rights Movement.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong leader in the Civil Rights movement, the son and grandson of a minister, and one heck of a letter writer. As he sits in a cell of Birmingham Jail in 1963, he responds to criticism from eight white clergymen. Though this letter was intended for the judgemental and condescending men of high faith, his response touched the hearts and minds of the entire U.S. population, then, and for years to come. In his tear-jerking, mind-opening letter, King manages to completely discredit every claim made by the clergymen while keeping a polite and formal tone. Metaphors, allusions, and rhetorical questions are used in the most skillful way to support his argument and ultimately convince his audience of the credibility behind his emotional, yet factual, claims.
philosophizes that if we, as human beings, forgo our instincts at the service of something higher, justice will prevail. In “A Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” he asserts that there are certain permanent truths which will never evaporate. These truths will always stand firm as fundamental principles which justify what is morally right and wrong, just and unjust. King deliberates that “the yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself” (“Letter,” p. 771). Furthermore, Martin Luther King, Jr. declares that there are universal and borderless Gospels of Freedom and Justice, which resound in the natural constitution of every human person, and are uplifted, fulfilled, and dignified by the divine wisdom of
He places the strong authority of the declaration on his side to show how the American people are in contradiction to their own “sacred obligation” and the Negros have gotten a “bad check.” A metaphor representing the unfulfilled promise of human rights for the African Americans. King skillfully evokes an emotional response from all races with the use of religion: “Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” By doing this he finds a common ground that brings black and whites closer with a common belief in God they share, as well as the mention of
Nonviolent resistance and realistic pacifism were more than an intellectual assent, but rather a way of life for Martin Luther King Jr. The profound dedication that King exemplifies is a testament to the power of love in the face injustice. King notes in his work Pilgrimage to Nonviolence, of the process of meticulously surveying the works of other philosophical thinkers in search of something to medicate his religious, and personal dilemma when addressing philosophical perspectives. Ghandi’s nonviolent resistance has made a lasting impact on King, which has made a tremendous influence in African American rights.