Joining Love and Power
...And one of the
great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually
been contrasted as opposites – polar opposites – so that love is identified
with a resignation of power, and power with a resignation of love.
We’ve got to get
this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is
reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power
at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its
best is power correcting everything that stands against love. It is precisely
this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the
major crisis of our time.
-
Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., in his final presidential address to the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference in 1967
2 comments:
I haven't read this before. Thought provoking.
I hadn't heard or read it before either, Dawn, so when I ran across it yesterday morning (what a coincidence!) in a book, I had to share it.
Post a Comment