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Allie Lowy
Ms. Melissa Kaplan
22 April 2015
AP Lang
Inaction is Obfuscation: Kings Indictment of White Church Leadership
The Sixties were a turbulent time of profound social, political, and cultural
changes throughout the U.S., one of which was the Civil Rights Movement. Spearheaded
by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., the movement employed nonviolent demonstrations
in an effort to bring an end to segregation and unjust barriers to African Americans
political participation. As African Americans peacefully protested restrictions on their
inalienable rights, the South became a hotbed of tension between black and white
communities. At the heart of these tensions was Birmingham, Alabama, where city
officials imprisoned King for his anti-segregation demonstrations. While incarcerated,
King came across a statement by eight white Alabama clergymen condemning his civil
disobedience. King responded by crafting an eloquent response letter, addressing the
clergys claims not only as a renowned Civil Rights activist but also as a fellow
representative of the Church. Through his criticism of the Church for merely reflecting
societal views instead of catalyzing change, his explanation of the interconnectedness of
faith and social justice, and his invocation of the sacred heritage of African Americans
who share a common destiny, King indicts the white Church leadership for their laxity
and encourages them to take action.
King rebukes Church leaders for defending the status quo instead of advocating
for change in an effort to encourage white Church leaders to take up the mantle of anti-

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segregation advocacy. King reminisces about a time when the Church was not only a
thermometer that recorded...popular opinion, [but] a thermostat that transformed the
mores of society" (40). King likens the Church's past to a tool that facilitates changes in
temperature of the air around it, in contrast to its current state, which bears resemblance
to an object that records temperature without altering it. By evoking images of the
Church's thermostatic past as opposed to its current passive state, King intimates that,
while the Church used to be a vehicle to shape the climate of opinion, it has transformed
into merely a reflection of the status quo. King criticizes the Church's tendency to hide
"behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows" (35) in the midst of racial
injustice. Because of the clergymen's desire to maintain their power, King argues, they
have lost sight of one of the fundamental responsibilities of the Church since biblical
times: upholding moral law. King evokes an image of the majestic, intricate tapestries of
colored glass that separate a place of worship from the outside world to shed light on how
the clergymen's complacency in their position of power has altered and obscured their
perception of the world around them, detaching them from society, and numbing the
Church to the plight of its followers right outside its glorious windows. King rebukes the
white clergymen for their passivity, positing that the Church's tendency to mirror the
status quo -- instead of defend moral code -- causes them to be imprisoned by the
"paralyzing chains of conformity" (43), immobilizing the Church as an advocate for
justice and, thus, stagnating social change. Through his indictment of the Church for its
tendency to mirror societal views instead of defending moral law, King encourages the
Church leadership to advocate against racial inequality.

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King criticizes the clergymen for their denial of the connection between social
issues and faith in order to remind them of their duty to advocate for social justice. King
derides the Church for concerning itself with "pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious
trivialities" (37) while it claims that "racial and economic injustice ... are social issues, in
which the gospel has no real concern" (37). King posits that racial inequality, among
other societal inequities, is of utmost concern to the Church. Grounding his claim in an
appeal to the Church leadership's piety, King renders any attempt by Church officials to
separate the social and religious realms (and only claim responsibility for the religious
realm) an "un-Biblical distinction" (37). Further, King proclaims that the "body of
Christ ... [has been] blemished and scarred" (39) by the White Church's passivity in the
face of social injustice. King extends his argument to claim that not only does a
separation between social justice and Christian faith contradict the Bible, but it brings
Christianity to shame and tarnishes the reputation of the Church, its forefathers, and its
supreme deity, Christ. King continues to emphasize the moral duty of the Church ***
marvels at the sheer beauty of the South, filled with beautiful Churches crowned by "lofty
spires pointed heavenward" (38). After bringing to light the religious fervor of the South,
King asks a series of rhetorical questions to chide Southerners for their passivity despite
their Christian faith, which obligates them to stand up against injustice. By asking "where
were [Christian southerners' voices] when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with
words of interposition and nullification" (38), King alludes to a speech by the Mississippi
governor in 1962 ascribing the fact that Mississippi has a large black population to its
policies of segregation, which the governor claimed is what African Americans love
about Mississippi. Ultimately, through his allusion to an infamous speech illogically

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defending the injustice of segregation, King shames Southern Christians for remaining
silent in the midst of injustice, despite their piety -- which binds them to fighting for
social justice. By logically establishing the connection between faith and social advocacy,
King ultimately condemns the Church leadership for not taking action against
segregation.
King invokes the shared American heritage of the African American people to
convey that they will ultimately fulfill a shared destiny: freedom. King explains that
"before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of
Independence across the pages of history, [the African American people] were here" (44)
and that, even before that, "before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, [they] were here"
(44). Both the Pilgrims establishing their own settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts -where they were free of religious persecution -- and Jefferson declaring the colonies'
freedom from Britain are historic instances of the founding fathers attaining freedom,
which established America as a nation marching under the banners of liberty and justice
for all. King not only emphasizes the length of the African American people's wait for the
equality they deserve, but also presents historic examples of Americans attaining their
freedom to invoke the American foundational value of freedom, claiming that since
African Americans, too, are Americans, they deserve to attain the "the goal of America,
[which] is freedom" (44). Because African Americans are Americans, King argues,
"[their] destiny is tied up with America's destiny" (44) and since America's destiny is
freedom, so too is the destiny of the African American people. King extends his argument
from calling on the clergymen's American pride to calling on their piety, holding that "the
eternal will of God [is] embodied in [African Americans'] echoing demands" (44). By

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claiming that discrimination against African Americans is not what God wants and is
contradictory to the gospel's teachings, King further lends legitimacy to his claim that
African Americans' freedom is ineluctable. King moves on to describe the perseverance
of the African American people through the "inexpressible cruelties of slavery" (44),
arguing that if African Americans can survive greater moral wrongs and crueler injustices
than the obstacles they are currently facing, "the opposition [they] now face will surely
fail" (44). African Americans' freedom under the banners of the land of free and home of
the brave, King holds, is inexorable, as they have been undeterred by great cruelties in
their quest for equality, and will continue to demand -- and ultimately attain -- their
rights. In sum, King argues that any attempt to thwart African Americans in their mission
to attain equality not only contradicts American values and goes against the will of God,
but will ultimately be futile because African Americans will inevitably reach their destiny
of freedom regardless of opposition.
By chiding white Church leadership for mirroring societal views instead of
defending moral law, explaining how their piety binds them to social justice issues, and
elucidating the inevitability of African Americans attaining their destiny of freedom, King
criticizes the clergymen for their passivity on the issue of segregation, urging them to
advocate against it. Just two years after King's letter was written, President Lyndon B.
Johnson signed a bill geared toward eradicating the barriers to African Americans'
political participation, and, today, a half-century later, an African American leads our
great nation. But despite the strides the U.S. has made to foster racial equality and
guarantee African Americans their inalienable rights, African Americans today still face
discrimination, and, in recent times, police brutality. While the American Civil Rights

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movement technically ended in the Sixties, the battle for freedom, equality and justice for
African Americans is far from won -- it is an ongoing struggle, and it is our duty to
respond to King's impassioned plea and to continue to take up the mantle against racial
inequality in contemporary America.