Alveda King: God’s Love Trumps Human Laws

During reflections and prayers for our nation and our world, in the midst of all the domestic and global upheaval, we need to remember that God’s love and natural law trumps human nature and common law. #GodsLoveMatters. 

“Leave your fatherless children behind. I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in Me. For thus says the Lord: They whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who shall go unpunished altogether? You will not go unpunished, but you will surely drink of it” (Jer. 49:11-12).

In the midst of Planned Parenthood scandals, Black Lives Matter furor, global religious wars and unrest, and so much turmoil everywhere, let’s turn to Acts 17:26—of one blood we are one human race, and as such should love each other as brothers and sisters. 

After reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s words below, there are links available for your benefit. For present-day relevance, include “persons” wherever “men” are noted.

“In the spirit of the founding fathers of our nation and in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, I would like to use as a subject from which to preach: The American Dream,” said Martin Luther King Jr. on July 4, 1965.

“It wouldn’t take us long to discover the substance of that dream. It is found in those majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, words lifted to cosmic proportions: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’ This is a dream. It’s a great dream.

“The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn’t say ‘some men,’ it says ‘all men.’ It doesn’t say ‘all white men,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes black men. It does not say ‘all Gentiles,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes Jews. It doesn’t say ‘all Protestants,’ it says “all men,” which includes Catholics. (Yes, sir) It doesn’t even say ‘all theists and believers,’ it says ‘all men,’ which includes humanists and agnostics.

“Then that dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from nor conferred by the state. In order to discover where they came from, it is necessary to move back behind the dim mist of eternity. They are God-given, gifts from His hands. Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality. The American dream reminds us, and we should think about it anew on this Independence Day, that every man is an heir of the legacy of dignity and worth.”

You might also enjoy this tribute to my Mother, Mrs. Naomi King. 

And finally, “Lest your heart grows faint, and you are afraid for the report that will be heard in the land—for the report will come one year, and after that in another year will come another report, and violence will be in the land, ruler against ruler” (Jer. 51:46).