50 years after ‘Beyond Vietnam’: What’s changed?

Last updated on: April 4, 2017 at 12:55 pm by Amy Butler

50 years after ‘Beyond Vietnam’: What’s changed? 2017-04-04T12:55:02-04:00 Amy Butler

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

April 4, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” a speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered in the nave of The Riverside Church exactly one year to the day before his assassination. Our country will be marking the anniversaries of one of Dr. King’s more strident and urgent sermons and his murder under an administration endorsed by white supremacists. Let that sink in for a minute.

Within this context, it seems clear that the clarion call of “Beyond Vietnam” — it’s sharp, prophetic tone many historians believe signaled a downward turn in King’s popularity — is still too grating for our own ears. (Listen to the speech here.)

Every week as I stand in the pulpit of the storied Riverside Church where Dr. King called for an end to racism, poverty and militarism in America, I fight the temptation to despair. In 50 years, have we made no progress at all? In this place where the call to justice has gone out again and again it’s abundantly clear that our moral crisis is deeper than ever.

Lighted messages on the tower of The Riverside Church mark the 50th anniversary of the key address Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave at the church. (Photo/Alison Schopmeyer)

We don’t have separate water fountains anymore, but racial injustice races to the fore of our consciousness, never absent, only disguised, the cradle to prison pipeline rotting America from the inside out. In 1967, the United States was bombing one country. Today we are bombing seven. And today income disparity and poverty in our country are leaving 13 million American children hungry every day. What happens to a society steeped in perpetual racism, militarism, poverty? All the anxiety, confusion, guilt and fear become harder to name; muddled. And the cost of that spiritual impact is so deep, we cannot begin to know the ultimate price our humanity will pay.

Dr. King said 50 years ago, “We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls ‘enemy,’ for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.” This was certainly a call to justice for the time in which he lived, and now his words ring timeless as they truly call us to move beyond Vietnam to embrace our own prophetic task.

“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” voiced challenges fundamental to the human experience. On its 50th birthday it joins the ranks of timeless words for which people have been killed, speeches that we repeat over and over desperate to remember their truth and challenge: the Sermon on the Mount, the Gettysburg address, the Ballot or the Bullet. It’s a call that rings from the halls of history, inviting us to find our voices and the best expressions of who we are, and to move society forward.

And we have. In America, the murder rate is now at a 50-year low. Millennials are four times more likely to hold college degrees than their grandparents. There is now greater visibility in the workplace and politics for all minorities, including women, people of color, and LGBT people. In the last 50 years we’ve passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Title IX and nationwide marriage equality. “Beyond Vietnam” is not a sad testimony to the unchanging nature of injustice. Rather, these are iconic words that should be sealed in our memories, words that remind us where we were, help us remember how far we’ve come, and keep calling us toward a dream we share.

It has been 50 years since Dr. King asked us to move our nation beyond Vietnam toward a society and a world filled with peace and opportunity and flourishing for everyone. The problems we share now are different problems, but the task is the same. We are brothers and sisters to one another. We must keep working to create a world that is just and peace-filled, so that perhaps 50 years from now someone might repeat our own words and courageously do the prophetic work of that moment.

In the words of Dr. King, “Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 21, 2017

Lessons from St. Patrick's Day

Next Post

April 9, 2017 Everything Must Change: Protest

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Answering the Call Being the Church Curating Wisdom Laughing Out Loud Living in Relationship Practicing Discipleship Reclaiming Baptist Speaking from the Pulpit Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005

Search for:

50 years after ‘Beyond Vietnam’: What’s changed?

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

Which festival was celebrated with great joy after completing the wall?