The City of Auburn shared the following message from city councilmember Chris Stearns:
In his 1967 speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Dr. King asked the question, “Where do we go from here?” His answer was that the civil rights movement “must address itself to the question of restructuring the whole of American society.”
Dr. King argued that if we are to address the grave problems of racism, economic exploitation and war, then we must recognize that they are interconnected. He used the story of Jesus and Nicodemus to illustrate how to tackle those problems. He said that Jesus didn’t tell Nicodemus how to make specific changes in his life in order to be saved. Dr. King said, “Instead, of just getting bogged down on one thing, Jesus looked at him and said, ‘Nicodemus, you must be born again.’ In other words, ‘Your whole structure must be changed.’”
Dr. Kings’ reiterated this point: “America, you must be born again!”
So today, as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, let’s remember that our shared path to a more just and equal society lies in spiritual rebirth and structural change.
The above is aggregated from the City of Auburn.