"A third way"
I will be reading Martin Luther King, Jr’s sermon collection, Strength to Love, across four weeks in January. If you would like to read along, you can purchase a copy here.
Go to schedule and see all notes.
Week 1: Chapters I-IV
“A Third Way”
One idea that emerges from this week’s reading is Martin Luther King, Jr.’s framework of a “third way.” This path is a robust alternative to politics as usual, but it comes at a cost.
In Strength to Love’s opening sermon, King contrasts toughmindedness and tenderheartedness, then concludes that nonviolent resistance takes the best and avoids the pitfalls of both.
A third way is open to our quest for freedom, namely nonviolent resistance, that combines toughmindedness and tenderheartedness and avoids the complacency and do-nothingness of the softminded and the violence and bitterness of the hardhearted. (19, my emphasis)
In “Transformed Nonconformist,” King invites listeners to reject both the brutal, white supremacist status quo and the “cold hardheartedness and self righteousness” of some nonconformists. Instead, he preaches loyalty to an eternal kingdom of love.
We are, paradoxically, in the world and yet not of the world. Living in the colony of time, we are ultimately responsible to the empire of eternity. (12)
Desmond Tutu, who was recently eulogized as a “radical moderate,” held similar convictions. Embodied by giants like King and Tutu, this path is not a political safe haven. Rather, it’s a faithful struggle. The responsibility exacts a toll, to which King calmly calls us in.
Honesty impels me to admit that transformed nonconformity, which is always costly and never altogether comfortable, may mean walking through the valley of the shadow of suffering, losing a job, or having a six-year-old daughter ask, “Daddy, why do you have to go to jail so much?” (28)
King’s “third way” is still relevant. Partisan enmity rages. We need more leaders who will take us beyond toxic politics, into the beloved community of King’s dream. We need guidance, to discern and find courage for what John Lewis famously called “good trouble.”
We also need to lead ourselves.
We must not misinterpret King’s third way as an excuse to hide in the middle. This caution is especially important for white-bodied folks (like myself), whose skin color makes hiding an option and privilege. To answer his call, we must risk stepping into the light, and we must make a choice.
We must make a choice. Will we continue to march to the drumbeat of conformity and respectability, or will we, listening to the beat of a more distant drum, move to its echoing sounds? (29)
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