‘“It’s ‘You can’t destroy my spirit,’” Cone told the magazine. ”‘I have a forgiving spirit because that’s what God created me to be.’”
Thompson’s message doesn’t let Whites off the hook. White people must repent, he said. Though today’s White Americans haven’t participated in slavery, they reap the benefits, which are seen in today’s social and economic inequities, Thompson said.
Thompson, who was the speaker for this year’s MLK ecumenical service at Greater St. Luke AME on Jan. 16, sees a connection between his message and King’s philosophy of nonviolence. In his sermon “The Meaning of Forgiveness,” King preached that he saw forgiveness as the solution to the nation’s “race problem.” King saw forgiveness as a “weapon of social redemption.”
Similar to King, Thompson feels that forgiveness can bring about racial healing.
“Martin Luther King Jr. once said: ‘We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love,’” Thompson said at the service.’
The Rev. Anthony Thompson has reached thousands with his message of forgiveness and his belief in its power to lead toward racial healing.
The message is, in part, influenced by King. But it largely stems from Thompson's personal experience.https://t.co/lAepCHWpZm
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) January 17, 2022