Beloved Community

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of the day when we would live in the beloved community. He proclaimed, "Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives."

King had a vision of people at the grassroots and community level participating in creating new values, truths, relationships, and infrastructures as the foundation for a new society. He called for programs that would involve young people in "self-transforming and structure-transforming" direct actions "in our dying cities." He called for a radical revolution in values and a new social system that goes beyond both capitalism, which he said is "too individualistic," and communism, which is "too collective."

The Apostle Paul also speaks of beloved community. In Colossians 3:14 he describes love as "the harmony which binds all." As people of faith, I believe we are asked to act in ways that move us toward the realization of King’s dream of the beloved community. King started a revolution, where everyone would find hope and value in their life.

This is what true revolutions are about. They are about redefining our relationships with one another, to the Earth and to the world. They are about creating a new society in the places and spaces left vacant by the disintegration of the old. They are about hope, not despair; about saying yes to life and no to war; about finding the courage to love and care for the peoples of the world as we love and care for our own families.

King's revolutionary vision was about each of us becoming the change we want to see in the world. Are you ready to continue his work today? Are you ready to make lasting change?