I agree with you also, and thanks for clearifying more. After reading what you said I looked into it and started reading that letter but didn't get far. Glad you brought it back up so I got a chance to finish reading it. Amazing writer.
I can see how you could interpret he was arrested for carrying the gospel, and I'd agree given those associations. I was thinking along the lines of the reasoning behind the actions of those who imprisoned him, which I believed to be to keep an event that'd have a large impact on maintaining segregation from happening.
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Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in it's application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
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I'd of course agree that he was carrying the gospel, as he himself stated. It's simply a matter of associations, and demonstrates how easily it can lead to misunderstanding. I'm glad it came up though and brought to light this letter.
Of course it's wise to make a distinction between civil rights and voting. It'd be ignorant not to. They are both steps to the acquire and ends though, and gives foundation on which to build. I think this part of the letter fits in with this:
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How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus is it that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.
Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?
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It's important to have that ability to state your opinion on who you think is most capable of governing your country. It's my belief that those who would hope to maintain this babylon system would see the lucractive and influencial potential of positions in government. It'd be a worthy investment, and of course large corporations do invest, expecting return. We need to have as much awareness and influence on these vital systems of a society in order to best keep it from being exploited. Voting being a part of that.
However, it would seem that many people have come to think that our influence ends at voting. It doesn't, it shouldn't. We have a democractic society, with all these rights, and we should use them. Public assembly, protest, freedom of speech. These are all there to ensure the publics constant presence in public matters. This presence is ill kept at best by the majority and this is because of social issues and conditioning. MJK Jr and his movement forced a presence on an issue, a public, supported presence. As he said he brought to surface the tension that was already alive, and still is.
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My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral that individuals.
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Our participation in these systems is manditory in order to ensure they're not exploited. They're put in place for the betterment of society, but just like anything with potential power and influence it's manipulated. People are a resource that're tapped through psychological, conscious, methods. Media, advertisement, government. The maintainence of current in currency, a stable, flowing economy with a significantly large profit margin.
In an consciously charged environment such as this people need to be sharp and involved, contributing. They need to be open minded and accepting yet critical and cautious. Independant enough to form their own opinion and to balance opposing perspectives with eachother. This allows them to be consciously aware enough to remain uninfluenced and manipulated by psychological trappings of those who would wish to maintain power structures. These power structures, as historically shown, is dependant on the knowledge and awareness of the populace. The masses has had the means to take down governments. Technology however tips the scales radically when you think about it. This is why vigilence and active participation is of utmost importance, imo.
I'd now get back into Jesus and Christianity, and how though the morals of the story are great but the vessel it travels in, the story, obscures the viewing of such great morals. In an age where many people don't have the time or even the care to closely examine concepts in their minds, this can lead to a very mislead understanding of them. This leads to the development of characteristics that lead to the continuation and maintainence of the power structures in place. But, I have to get going. Maybe some other time.
