Today we honor a great man, a great American, a great Christian; a man of courage and conviction, who, like Christ, laid down his life for the greater good.

Here is a quote from MLK on Christian faith and responsibility:

“Every true Christian is a citizen of two worlds, the world of time and the world of eternity.  We are called to be people of conviction, not conformity; of moral nobility, not social respectability.  We are commanded to live differently and according to a higher loyalty.  As Christians we must never surrender our supreme loyalty to any time-bound custom or earth-bound idea, for at the heart of the universe is a higher reality – God and his kingdom of love…If any earthly institution or custom conflicts with God’s will, it is our Christian duty to oppose it.  We must never allow the transitory demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of Almighty God.  In a time when men are surrendering the high values of faith, we must cling to them.  We must be willing to challenge unjust mores, to champion unpopular causes, and to buck the status quo…Our Christian faith makes it possible for us to nobly accept that which cannot be changed, to meet disappointments and sorrow with inner poise, and to absorb the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope…At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when storms of disappointment rage, when the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith our lives will be ripped to shreds… But with faith we can bring new light into dark caverns of pessimism, and transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit joy”.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968