"Nonconformity per se contains no saving value and may represent in some circumstances little more than a form of exhibitionism. Paul in the latter half of the text offers a formula for constructive nonconformity: 'Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.' Nonconformity is creative when it is controlled and directed by a transformed life and it is constructive when it embraces a new mental outlook. By opening our lives to God in Christ we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists and freed from the cold hardheartedness and self-righteousness so often characteristic of nonconformity....
"Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit. The transformed nonconformist, moreover, never yields to the passive sort of patience that is an excuse to do nothing. And this very transformation saves him from speaking irresponsible words that estrange without reconciling and from making hasty judgments that are blind to the necessity of social progress. He recognizes that social change will not come overnight, yet he works as though it is an imminent possibility."
P.17-18, "Transformed Nonconformist" STRENGTH TO LOVE, by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Fortress Press, Minneapolis MN: 1963, 2010)
Thursday, April 17, 2014
STRENGTH TO LOVE....EXCERPT
"Nonconformity per se contains no saving value and may represent in some circumstances little more than a form of exhibitionism. Paul in the latter half of the text offers a formula for constructive nonconformity: 'Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.' Nonconformity is creative when it is controlled and directed by a transformed life and it is constructive when it embraces a new mental outlook. By opening our lives to God in Christ we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists and freed from the cold hardheartedness and self-righteousness so often characteristic of nonconformity....
"Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit. The transformed nonconformist, moreover, never yields to the passive sort of patience that is an excuse to do nothing. And this very transformation saves him from speaking irresponsible words that estrange without reconciling and from making hasty judgments that are blind to the necessity of social progress. He recognizes that social change will not come overnight, yet he works as though it is an imminent possibility."
P.17-18, "Transformed Nonconformist" STRENGTH TO LOVE, by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Fortress Press, Minneapolis MN: 1963, 2010)