This mp3 of the rarely heard “But If Not” speech by MLK is crucial to
grasp his soaring moral vision and deep intimacy with the Bible.
Essential listening for our times.
Download the whole MP3 here. The following quote from the speech does it for me (speech begins at
32:32 into the track):
"I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so
dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit
to live.
You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some
great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for
some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you
refuse to do it because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re
afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be
criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that
somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a
stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.
And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”
(via Boing Boing)