Dr. Martin Luther King - Thou, Dear God: Prayers That Open Hearts and Spirits

PRAYERS THAT OPEN

HEARTS AND SPIRITS

The Reverend Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

FOREWORD BY

the Reverend Dr. Julius R. Scruggs

EDITED AND INTRODUCED BY

Lewis V. Baldwin

Beacon Press Boston

Beacon Press

25 Beacon Street

Boston, Massachusetts 02108-2892

www.beacon.org

Beacon Press books are published under the auspices of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

Beacon Press gratefully acknowledges the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock for its generous support of the King Legacy series.

Reprinted by arrangement with the Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. and the Heirs to the Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., c/o Writers House as literary agent for the proprietor, New York, NY.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system. For permission or for more information, contact Writers House, 21 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10010.

THOU, DEAR GOD copyright 2012 by the Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. Introduction and supplemental material copyright 2012 by Lewis V. Baldwin. Foreword copyright 2012 by Julius R. Scruggs.

In Association With

The prayers in this book were taken from a variety of written archival sources and transcriptions, and reflect the grammatical style of the originals.

Printed in the United States of America.

Text design by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

King, Martin Luther, Jr., 19291968.

Thou, dear God : prayers that open hearts and spirits / Martin Luther King, Jr. ;

foreword by Julius R. Scruggs ; edited and introduced by Lewis V. Baldwin.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8070-8603-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)

E-ISBN 978-0-8070-8604-9

1. Prayers. I. Baldwin, Lewis V., 1949 II. Title.

BV245.K5445 2012

THE REVEREND DR. JULIUS R. SCRUGGS

LEWIS V. BALDWIN

For People of Faith Everywhere

There can be no gainsaying of the fact that prayer is as natural to the human organism as the rising of the sun is to the cosmic order. Prayer is indigenous to the human spirit. It represents a throbbing desire of the human heart. As [Thomas] Carlyle stated in a letter to a friend: Prayer is and remains the native and deepest impulse of the soul of man. We often try to call prayer absurd and presumptuous. But a yearning so age-old and deep-rooted cannot be slain by a couple of objectives. Men have often tried to dismiss it by affirming that pressing the rigidity of natural law makes it impossible. But such a declaration is unconvincing; for there is something deep down within us that makes us know that God works in a paradox of unpredictable newness and trustworthy faithfulness.

THE REVEREND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

The Misuse of Prayer

Martin Luther King, Jr., is without a doubt one of the most influential men of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His life and ministry continue to impact Christendom and other religions throughout the global community. Because his life was intellectually respectable, socially relevant, and spiritually redemptive, he will continue to positively influence and impact future generations.

One of the reasons that Dr. Kings life has been and will be so impactful is because of his relationship to God in Christ. That relationship is keenly felt and sensed in his prayer life. Dr. Lewis Baldwin has rendered a tremendous service by helping us see and feel the amazing prayer life that King experienced. As Baldwin notes, King spoke of prayer as the sacred heart of faith, as the foundation of devotional life, as an essential component of prophetic social witness, and as a vital ingredient in the overall effort to free, humanize, and empower humanity.

All of our lives can be made richer and more service oriented by reflecting on the context that shaped and molded the prayer life of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One can sense the profound depth and breadth of Kings spirituality through reading his prayers, which were richly grounded in scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Dr. Baldwin insightfully observes that, as a whole, Kings prayers blend adoration, confession, supplication, intercession, petition, and thanksgiving, while also affirming that some of the most complex and necessary facts of the authentic spiritual life are altruistic love, humility, forgiveness, reconciliation, community, and service to humanity.

This special book illustrates that Dr. King knew how to pray in all seasons of life, especially finding God to be a source of strength, comfort, and guidance during times of adversity. King references the time during the Montgomery bus boycott when the bigots threatened to kill him and blow up his home. He retreated to the kitchen and laid his soul bare before God, praying for strength and guidance, and God sustained him then and throughout his difficult and challenging pilgrimage. Thou, Dear God allows us to peek into the soul of this prayerful prophetic preacher and will be a cherished book for generations to come.

How I wish that someone in Dr. Kings congregation had recorded all of his prayers so that we could have an even more comprehensive record. Since that isnt possible, we are deeply indebted to Dr. Baldwin for not only gathering these prayers but penning a masterful exegetical commentary on the prayer life of this legendary preacher and iconic leader for justice and peace.

THE REVEREND DR. JULIUS R. SCRUGGS

Thou, Dear God is the first compilation of prayers by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. These sixty-eight prayers rekindle the spirit, prick the conscience, and stimulate the intellect even today and are the most fruitful and accessible sources for probing Dr. Kings devotional life and spirituality. They expose the soul of a man who realized that the whole of life is lived in a God-centered universe, and that God is able to work wonders and even miracles in nature and in history. For Dr. King, such affirmations were expressed theologically in the concepts of Gods omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnibenevolence.

The seed of faith was planted and cultivated in Kings heart by the prayers he heard from his elders during his childhood, passed down orally through generations. While growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1930s and 1940s, King, Jr., and his siblings, Willie Christine and A. D., were taught to always pray at mealtime, and prayers were routinely recited at bedtime, in the mornings, and on Sundays before their parents, Martin, Sr., and Alberta Williams King, took them to Ebenezer Baptist Church. King, Sr., the pastor at Ebenezer, literally lived by the power of prayer, and he and his wife modeled the kind of praying for which generations of their slave forebears were known. King, Jr., actually learned to pray by imitating his parents and other elders, and the prayers in