Chat: Martin Luther King Day

[Vicki Sipe <vsipe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Colleagues
In memory and in marking the upcoming Martin Luther King Day, I thought to 
share an excerpt from one of his sermons. The sermon is entitled Loving 
Your Enemies. I'm not sure of the date of the sermon, but it was written 
before 1963 while he sat in a Georgia jail. The excerpt is taken from about 
the middle of the sermon.
Vicki
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Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. 
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night 
already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can 
do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiples 
hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a 
descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "Love your enemies," 
he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have 
we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our 
enemies---or else? The chain reaction of evil---hate begatting hate, wars 
producing more wars---must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark 
abyss of annihilation.
-----Martin Luther King, Jr.