Today I’d like to reflect on some excerpts from Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”:
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all”Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.
It seems to me that Dr. Martin Luther King would have naturally opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize the killing of unborn children. A law that degrades human personality by snuffing it out at it’s most earliest stage…it is one of the most unjust laws that ever could be.
Later in the letter Dr. King writes:
Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators”‘ But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.
Christians have a duty to fight to end the evil of infanticide–abortion and i believe that the legacy of Dr. King encourages us to do just that. We celebrate the birthday of this great man who relentlessly stood up with courage to the end the evil of segregation—legalized racial hatred. The abortion “industry” began as a movement to kill poor black babies and now does so, legally. Let us follow the example of Dr. Martin King in speaking out, in being God intoxicated nonviolent disturbers of the peace.