News and Views

By Rev. Dr. C. Anthony Hunt
Senior Pastor, Epworth Chapel UMC in Baltimore

This year marks the 96^th anniversary of the birth of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of America’s greatest advocates for peace with justice. Born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Ga., amidst the persistent crucible of racial turmoil and racist extremism that were endemic across America — especially in the deep South — King committed his life and ministry to employing nonviolent methods to address racial and economic injustice.

Today, nearly 57 years after King’s death, America remains divided along many lines — racially, economically, and politically. The Christian Churches in America mirror this division.

In April 1963, he wrote what has famously become known as the Letter from Birmingham Jail. The context of the letter was King’s effort to address eight white Birmingham, Alabama religious leaders—from Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches, and one Jewish rabbi who had alleged that King and others were extremists in their fight for racial and economic justice. In the letter, King asked: “Was not Jesus an extremist for love—"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you”… So, the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or love?” Today, we are left to wonder what King might write to America if he were alive in 2025. Here is some of what King might write to us today:

Beloved Sisters and Brothers –

I greet you in the name of Christ, who came to earth to demonstrate God’s extreme love toward all humanity. In the past year, America has experienced another deeply divisive national election, which has shed additional light on the profound hurt and disappointment many Americans feel for different reasons. The division that America experiences today is similar to the racial, economic, and political division that I and others addressed at the height of the American Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 60s.

In April 1963, our work for peace and justice brought us to Birmingham, Alabama. You might recall that while in Birmingham peacefully protesting and marching for economic and racial equality in that city, I and several others were arrested and taken to the Birmingham City Jail.

Many white citizens deemed our actions to be extremist and radical. You might also recall that before and during our time in Birmingham, eight religious leaders insisted on gradual, more moderate approaches to addressing the racial and social injustices occurring in Birmingham. They asserted that mass civil rights protests in the streets would provoke violence. These eight white ministers released a public statement to the local press expressing their support for gradual progress and in hopes of discouraging violence in the streets of Birmingham.

My response to these eight religious leaders was what has come to be known as my Letter from Birmingham Jail. As a response to their claims that I and others were extremists, I asked: “Was not Jesus an extremist for love…?”    

I asked this in the context of a legacy of social and political extremism in America as seen in the 246-year institution of slavery, decades-long Jim Crow, and ongoing extremist violence directed toward black bodies in America. Some of the most haunting images of this legacy of extremism in America can be found at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice—what is appropriately known as the “Lynching Memorial.”

From the rafters of the Lynching Memorial hang the names of over 4000 African-American women, men, and children who were victims of lynching in ten American states across the South between the years 1870 and 1950. Today, social and political extremism continues. This is seen in the proliferation of hate-related activities throughout society. Etched in America’s collective memory are events that the nation witnessed at the United States Capitol in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021, wherewith rioting and insurrection, lives were lost, people were beaten and terrorized, government property was destroyed, elected officials' lives were threatened, and democracy and freedom were challenged.

The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, reports that in 2023 there were 1430 hate and antigovernment extremist groups identified in the United States, up from about 800 in 2008, and this number has continued to rise since the 2016 presidential election. The number of neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. has increased by over 22 percent since the 2017 U.S. presidential inauguration.

America, I close by reminding you that the question I posed to the eight religious leaders in my 1963 letter is still applicable to the church and world today. “Was not Jesus an extremist for love? The choice is the same as it was in 1963, whether you will be extremists of love or hate. I remind you of sentiments I shared in my 1957 sermon “Loving Your Enemies” that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.

“Was not Jesus an extremist for love? For those of you who believe that the answer to this question is “yes,” your outward response is to faithfully live out the Christian love ethic. This means obeying Jesus’ command to love your neighbors as yourselves and to love your enemies. This means likewise being extremists of love.

May God, who is love, bless and keep you in the days ahead,
Your brother, Martin

The Rev. Hunt is the author of the new book, Out of Mountains of Despair: A Black Theology of Hope.