Brother Ed Dogan graciously provided me a copy of Dr. Martin Luther King’s moving Letter From A Birmingham Jail. While confined in the Birmingham City Jail, Dr. King responded to a published statement by eight Alabama clergymen. The clergymen opined that Dr. King’s activities in Birmingham were ‘unwise and untimely.” Dr. King response to the criticisms was, to say the least, a literary master-piece. In the rich language of the letter, the following portion absolutely cried out for greater elaboration: [“I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: “Any Christian knows that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth.” Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral, it can be used either destructively or constructively.] Proper utilization of time comes from a proper mindset. The brother from Texas was guilty of “stinking thinking.” The kind of thinking that emanates from a mind in need of transformation. A mind that is more attuned to the mores of the day than the authoritative Word of God.
Hear what Jesus has to say: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40) What claimed my attention in the quoted portion of the letter was how prevalent this kind of thinking was, and unfortunately, still remains. Dear Ones, we must stamp out “stinking thinking.”
Be bless with a renewed mind.
Pastor J. Amos Jones
