Martin Luther King: The Drum Major Instinct

People wish to have the power to otherwise do what they will. They wish to use God as a sort of vending machine, a compliant God, a God who does our will if one knows the right words to compel Him.  And they think that they have no sin, when they choose to give what they wish to Him, grudgingly, as they serve themselves.   And this pride, the refusal to serve, is the sin of the Fallen.

"And he answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

'You have answered rightly,' Jesus replied. 'Do this and you will live.'

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'

Luke 10:27-29”

And Martin Luther King corrects this tendency to be self-serving, rather than serving, in a most remarkable way in this famous sermon, an excerpt of which was played at his funeral observance.

And below that is a very brief statement by King on 'maladjustment,' or that is, the state of the principled person, who is in the world, but not of it.

Remembering the 44th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's Last Speech

Martin Luther King's Last Speech

3 April 1968, Church of God in Christ, Memphis, Tennessee



On 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and abuse those whom God has sent as messengers to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you would not let me.

As you willed, your house is now yours, but is made desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you rise and say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Martin Luther King Day 2012

Martin Luther King's Last Speech



Speech from 3 April 1968, Church of God in Christ, Memphis, Tennessee

On 4 April 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.