Seminary Journal 2008 (August) - Virginia Theological Seminary

The Seminary’s Contemporary Sacred Singers presented special music for the service
during the Commemoration of the Martyrdom of Martin Luther King, Jr. A few members
of the group are, left to right, Erin Hensley, Mary Thorpe, Leigh Hall, and Janet
Zimmerman.
don’t want to hear some of what Jesus
has to say. If you cozy up too close to
Jesus, you are probably not really listening
to him. The real Jesus is going
to discomfort you, because he loves
you enough to discomfort you. I know
he does for me. But anyway, they used
to pass out these cards that they had
and people used to promise that they
would read from the teachings of Jesus
every day, that they would follow the
principles of nonviolence, which were
listed. Everybody who participated
in the movement was given a card.
The Freedom Riders all received those
in the earlier days. By the later days
this stuff was not passed out. It was
not passed out at Memphis where the
march turned into a riot…it wasn’t being
passed out in the later days, and it
was the later days that the movement
began to dissipate and lose its center
and lose its orientation.
But anyway, after Montgomery, King
said this, and I quote, “When I went
to Montgomery, Alabama, as pastor
in 1954, I had not the slightest idea I
would become involved in a crisis in
which non-violent resistance would be
applicable. The Negro people of Montgomery,
exhausted by the humiliating
experience that they had faced on the
buses, expressed in a massive act of
non-cooperation their determination
to be free. They came to see that it was
ultimately more honorable to walk
the streets in dignity, than ride the
buses in humiliation. At the beginning
of the protest people called on me to
serve as their spokesman, and accepting
this responsibility, consciously
or unconsciously, I was driven back
to the Sermon on the Mount and the
Gandhian principles of nonviolent
resistance. This principle became the
guiding light of our movement. Christ
furnished the spirit and motivation
12 VIRGINIA SEMINARY JOURNAL AUGUST 2007