Letter from Birmingham Jail

One of the readings assigned to us in my philosophy course, many years ago, was "Letter from Birmingham Jail" my Martin Luther King Jr. It is a fantastic read, not only relevant to the civil rights issues he was fighting in his day, but also to people everywhere: the oppressed, the opressor, those fighting oppression and those just standing by.

The letter was written to 8 clergymen from Alabama who had criticized King for coming to Alabama to peacefully protest the social injustices occuring there. They called his actions "unwise and untimely." You can read the full text of the letter here.

Here are just a few of the quotes that stood out to me:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. "

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."

"So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

I'm sure may who have read this letter, like me, have looked with disgust upon the clergymen who wrote the letter of disaproval to King. Who are these men, whom history has surely forgot? I did some research and wasn't able to find information about very many of them, save one: Joseph Aloysius Durick. At the time of the letter to King he was a catholic bishop in Birmingham. What happened to Mr. Durick after he got the response from Dr. King?...He changed Joseph Durick became an outspoken advocate for civil rights in the South. How did his congregation thank him? By branding him as a communist and a heretic.