The View From The Pulpit Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Spiritual Home

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/19/martin-luther-king-raphael-warnock_n_6500882.html

By Carol Kuruvilla

Posted: 01/19/2015 10:11 am EST Updated: 10 minutes ago


Rev. Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock. | ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Rev. Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock is the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, which was once the home church of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. The Huffington Post caught up with Pastor Warnock to chat about the state of black lives in America, and continuing Dr. King's legacy.

What is the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday like at Ebenezer?
The Martin Luther King Jr. day holiday and the Sunday prior to the actual holiday are always an exciting time at Ebenezer Baptist church, the spiritual home of Dr. King. As you might imagine, there are a number of people still around in our congregation who knew “ML,” as they call him. Some of his classmates and his family are here. So it is special in that way for all of us here at Ebenezer, even as we take stock again of his extraordinary impact on our country and indeed the entire world.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday before the holiday is a time of deep reflection upon what it means to expand Dr. King’s legacy in a new century. And so issues around mass incarceration, America’s prison industrial complex, the widening gap of inequality in America, the lack of commitment to public education, climate change -- these are all issues that get addressed on any given Sunday at Ebenezer, but they come into sharp focus.

Is this year different somehow?
The events of the last five months, and really the last two or three years, bring into sharp focus the relevance of Dr. King’s work. People are understanding how far we have to go. Racism has proven to be extraordinarily resourceful and flexible in its ability to reinvent itself in each era. We went from slavery to Jim Crow segregation to the new Jim Crow -- a social caste system where the hand of justice is in effect an instrument of social control, and millions of young black Americans, in particular, young black men, are stuck at the bottom of the well. We’re living in a moment where one in three black men can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. Because of this, the discrimination that an earlier generation fought against is now legal -- job discrimination, housing discrimination, being denied voting rights. The criminal justice system is now a profit-driven industry based on the warehousing of black American lives and that’s the moment we’re living in right now after gaining voting rights.

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[rug]

1. He has become such an icon it's easy to forget he started out simply as a pastor.

[cbayer]

2. A glorious Reverend M.L. King, Jr. day to you, rug.

Have you seen Selma yet?

It's so good and really does remind you of how far he climbed and how hard he worked and how much he sacrificed.

His religion is woven into the story in a way that is very meaningful.

[rug]

3. Same to you and yours, cbayer.

Nope, not yet. I wasn't expecting too much but the reviews have been powerful.