When I listen to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, I’m always curious as to why many of us overlook the opening statements of his 1963 address. It’s as if we only hear one side of his speech. Why do we quickly repeat the words “I have a dream,” and not the words “America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’ But we refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation….”
In 2010, poverty can disguise itself by hiding behind unemployment lines, housing foreclosures and the inability of a young person to afford a college education. When we look around our nation, many businesses are suffering from insufficient funds, as are too many families.
Once again, we wonder if the great vaults of America are still rich with opportunities for everyone.
The “fierce urgency of now” is what King mentioned back in 1963. But how long is “now”?
It is the persistent cultivation and formation of moral character that returns capital to the bank for future withdrawals. Yet it is simply the case that those who have risen to power in many Western countries during the 1970s to the 2000s have squandered their inherited moral capital on autonomous ventures. Little wonder their kids’ culture is now so narcissistic! Alternatively, so violent … for who/what is the ‘Other’?!
Nothing less than a profound national repentance from such ‘idols’ and a turning towards the Living God – NOT the ‘god’ of civil religion(s) – will pave the way for a renewal of the image of Christ in our generation today. And as MLK well knew: it will take hard work too … Are we up to it?