Maya Angelou, a famous American poet, once wrote, “See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.” I wonder why she feels this way, does she think that love within a revolution makes us fight harder or believe more in what waits on the other side of the fight? Her motivations behind the statement aside, one thing I am sure of is that Martin Luther King would agree with her, as he said: “at the center of our movement stood the philosophy of love,” (Page 41) and with love on our sides “the aftermath… is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community…the end is redemption,” (Page 40).
This past week I’ve been incredibly interested in the theme of love and religion in MLK’s speeches and letters. Whether it be when he delves into agape, one of the Greek words for love that “biblical theologians would say is the love of God working in the minds of men,” (page 40) or his use of parables to highlight the need and justness of the movement, his words have managed to stick with me greatly. When he wrote about loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that person does, I asked myself if that kind of love is visible today. Last week I read a blog post about self-serving people and the opinion that many people that join these movements are self-serving. Yet, MLK sees it from another perspective, he sees the motivations of individuals joining the movements to be agape for fellow man. In his use of the parable of the Good Samaritan, he framed the two sides as follows: “‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ [and] ‘If I do not stop to help this man what will happen to him?’” (Page 258). He emphasizes the capacity of the Good Samaritan to “project the ‘I’ into ‘thou,’ and to be concerned about his brother,” (Page 257). Are the widespread movement happening today and the emotions flowing through it so different from the one in 68’ that we now have the perception of self-serving intentions when people outside of the minoritized race join ranks, or perhaps was MLK deluded in his thinking all along? While there may be a lot of love within the communities of people protesting and those fighting back, is there any across the line? And additionally, what would MLK say about our movement today, would he be proud?
If the movement today, or for lack of better words, the movement of 68’ has turned into now, lacks the foundation of love that MLK argues is needed to ultimately change humanity and make for the society that we all long for, would he have trust in it, and should we?