We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing that Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this. Now, I'm sure that if the church had taken a stronger stand all along, we wouldn't have many of the problems that we have. The first way that the church can repent, the first way that it can move out into the arena of social reform is to remove the yoke of segregation from its own body. Now, I'm not saying that society must sit down and wait on a spiritual and moribund church as we've so often seen. I think it should have started in the church, but since it didn't start in the church, our society needed to move on. The church, itself, will stand under the judgment of God. ~Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963Dr. King's words would almost be funny if they weren't so terribly tragic: "I'm not saying that society must sit down and wait on [the] church..." It's a darn good thing society hasn't waited on us. In our defense, however, we've been busy considering some really critical issues like coffee cups in the sanctuary.
Prophets have always been a royal pain in the behind.
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