“Certainly, otherworldly concerns have a deep and significant place in all religions worthy of the name. Any religion that is completely earthbound sells its birthright for a mess of naturalistic pottage. Religion, at its best, deals not only with man’s preliminary concerns but with his inescapable ultimate concern. When religion overlooks this basic fact, it is reduced to a mere ethical system in which eternity is absorbed into time and God is relegated to a sort of meaningless figment of the human imagination.”
For religion to be germane, it should be reactive to the social conditions prevalent in people’s lives. Religion should rise above the teachings vis-à-vis the idealistic heaven by focusing on the earthly situations that could encumber individuals from trailing the heavenly goals. Besides, religion should accomplish the roles of assimilating individuals with each other notwithstanding their races. Religion which disregards social injustices is immaterial because it would only offer fabricated optimisms instead of reproving the society-wide putrefaction. Religion should be a trigger for positive transformations at the individual and macro disciplines.
“Some of the passivity of the uneducated could, like that of the educated, be attributed to the fear of economic reprisals. Dependent on the white community, they dared not protest against unjust racial conditions for fear of losing their jobs. But perhaps an even more basic force at work was their corroding sense of inferiority, which often expressed itself in a lack of self-respect. Many unconsciously wondered whether they actually deserved any better conditions. Their minds and souls were so conditioned to the system of segregation that they submissively adjusted themselves to things as they were. This is the ultimate tragedy of segregation.”
Although education kindles empowerment, some educated individuals exhibit affected inferiority complex which daunts them from defying ubiquitous biases. Systemic segregation which makes the educated blacks to be dependent on the whites condenses the empowering latency of education. An educated individual who is deficient of self-esteem would straightforwardly submit to segregation due to the fear of economic sanctions that could ensure should he/ she antagonize white supremacists. Consequently, the learned individuals are unequivocally degraded resulting in their inactiveness.
“In reading such Communist writings I drew certain conclusions that have remained with me as convictions to this day. First I rejected their materialistic interpretation of history. Communism, avowedly secularistic and materialistic, has no place for God. This I could never accept, for as a Christian I believe that there is a creative personal power in this universe who is the ground and essence of all reality—a power that cannot be explained in materialistic terms. History is ul-timately guided by spirit, not matter. Second, I strongly disagreed with communism’s ethical relativism. Since for the Communist there is no divine government, no absolute moral order, there are no fixed, immutable principles; consequently almost anything—force, violence, murder lying—is a justifiable means to the “millennial” end. This type of relativism was abhorrent to me. Constructive ends can never give absolute moral justification to destructive means, because in the final analysis the end is preexistent in the mean. Third, I opposed communism’s political totalitarianism.”
Martin Luther King Jr destabilizes communism because it is an ideology that patrons egocentricity. Communist ideology disrupts the religious ethics due to the unwarranted secularism that it ratifies. Furthermore, the creed of ‘ethical relativism’ is injurious in the expansion of civil rights because it would be used to validate the governmental tyranny, and depravities that hearten the deprivation of the blacks. Communism disturbs ethical philosophies that would be fundamental in building a racism-free and classless culture. Communism ratifies destructive predispositions at the pretext of tailing fruitful for it emboldens the subjugation of helpless citizens to the states; hence the odds of flouting civil liberties are extraordinary.
“For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be, what is once well done is done forever.” Mahatma Gandhi never had more than one hundred persons absolutely committed to his philosophy. But with this small group of devoted followers, he galvanized the whole of India, and through a magnificent feat of nonviolence challenged the might of the British Empire and won freedom for his people. This method of nonviolence will not work miracles overnight. Men are not easily moved from their mental ruts, their prejudiced and irrational feelings. When the underprivileged demand freedom, the privileged first react with bitterness and resistance. Even when the demands are couched in nonviolent terms, the initial response is the same. Nehru once remarked that the British were never so angry as when the Indians resisted them with nonviolence, that he never saw eyes so full of hate as those of the British troops to whom he turned the other cheek when they beat him with lathis. But nonviolent resistance at least changed the minds and hearts of the Indians, however impervious the British may have appeared. “We cast away our fear,” says Nehru. And in the end the British not only granted freedom to India but came to have a new respect for the Indians.”
Mahatma Gandhi impressively enthuses Martin Luther King’s conviction apropos the productivity of non-violence. Although Ghandi’s commencement was small, he burgeoned by utilizing the devoutness of the few followers that believed in him originally. Ghandi’s maneuvers may not have been as refined as those of the colonists, but he managed to deliver Indians from colonial suppression. Martin Luther’s enthusiasm to liberate blacks from subjugation and racism is comparable to Gandhi’s progress. Nonviolent performances appeal to the followers Pathos categorically which aids in curtailing the subjugated individuals’ fears.
