Discussion Questions:
What are some of the sorrows that Martin Luther King Jr. says his people are facing in their struggle?
King says that physical death can be redemptive if it frees children from psychological death…what does this mean?
How does King’s Christian outlook relate to his views on suffering and death?
What does it mean when King says “The Arc of the Moral Universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”?
How does this attitude compare to King’s other speeches?
Why does King seem filled with so much hope, in spite of the difficulties?
Are you a patient person?
How can one learn patience?
What are some of the consequences of impatience?
2) The Drum Major Instinct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBiFnDuCJIU
Discussion Questions:
What
is ‘The Drum Major Instinct’?
Why
do you think so much is made of the evils of pride in the Bible and by theologians?
How
does this relate to King’s comments on the race issue?
In
what places do you seek to be first in your own life?
Do
you think Freud was correct, or was Adler, or was Frankl, as to the main
driving impulse of human life?
Do
you think children are really ‘little bundles of ego’?
In
what way does the Drum Major instinct help and hurt you personally? What has it
done for you
and where has it caused you problems?
Does
Jesus think that pride and ego is altogether evil?
What
is the new priority Jesus gives for the ego?
Compare
your list to King’s, what are the similarities, what are the differences?
3) Unfulfilled Dreams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpJMa7BldLc
Discussion Questions:
What
is King talking about when he talks about ‘building creative temples’?
(Discussion:
He’s talking about the meaning of life, the
quest to build a meaningful life or to do something meaningful and the
difficulties in doing that. David’s dream was to build a Temple Of God,
but he wasn’t able to (or rather God
didn’t let him) achieve it. In a sense every attempt to do something meaningful
is to try to ‘create’ a moment, or an event, or an object, in which God can
dwell. Like David, we face the fact that many of those temples may not be built
by us.)
Look
at your list, what creative temples are you trying to build with your life?
Is
it hard to accept that many of your dreams won’t come true?
What
dreams of MLK weren’t fulfilled?
(Discussion:
King’s life is a perfect example, ironically,
of the very point he’s trying to make. He was unable to achieve racial harmony
in his own lifetime, and even a generation later that work isn’t done. King
died without seeing his children grow up and ended up leaving much of the black
community without a leader when they most needed one. One suspects that King
already senses his life will be like Gandhi’s, like David’s…at least in this
respect. He’s explaining why this doesn’t leave him hopeless.)
What
does God say to David that gives King hope and why?
(Discussion:
He tells David that David is blessed for his desire to build the Temple. It is a sign of
God’s love in spite of our failings and His willingness to complete for us what
we must leave incomplete. God fills the holes in the tapestry of the human
life, He sees the attempt at making the tapestry as important in spite of the
holes.)
What
is this ‘fulfillment’ and ‘completion’ of human life, which is enacted by God,
called?
(Discussion:
King is talking about grace here. He says it explicitly at one point. Grace
is God responding to the ‘incompleteness’ of human life with undeserved love
and favor. God chooses to freely make us complete in spite of our own
weakness.)
Do
you spend much time wondering about what the purpose of your life is?
What
do you think it might be?
What
does King think is the main cause of the non-fulfillment of human life?
(Discussion:
King thinks that sin makes it impossible for
us to live a complete life. He talks about a ‘struggle’ in the heart of the
universe, a counterweight to the Will of God making it impossible for human
life to be complete on it’s own.)
King
lists several possible sources of this ‘struggle’: a god of light and a god of
dark, God and Satan, the id and the superego, illusion and reality, and God and
man. Which of these makes the most sense to you? Are some of them mutually
exclusive?
What
part of your own human nature do you see as a problem for you, what is your
consistent sin?
What
does King say is the real danger in life?
(Discussion:
King thinks that the real danger is to ‘be on the wrong road’, that is, to
have the total bent of your life to be in the wrong direction, to stop trying
to do the right thing. As long as you struggle to be a good person, you are on
‘the right road’ when that struggle ends, you have truly failed.)
What
difference does King thinks belief in God makes?
(Discussion: Belief in God does not
prevent us from having hard and trying times, it doesn’t make it possible to no
longer have to struggle to do the right thing, but it provides us with a
foundation even when things aren’t going well. King believes God will be with
us and give us strength and hope and that this makes the struggle worth it, in
spite of our many failures.)
Do
you think that God’s grace and forgiveness makes a difference in your life?
What
does King mean when he says we ‘can’t escape God’?
(Discussion:
If you believe in God, you know God is everywhere. To know God is also with
you in your struggles means you can confidently carry on the struggle to build
a meaningful and righteous life. It means that you can’t have your hope and
ultimate ground of meaning taken from you. It’s about confidence in the moral
life, a theme some of you dealt with in Sunday School.)
4) Mountaintop Speech- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixfwGLxRJU8
Discussion Questions
Do
you think you live in times as important as Dr. King’s
What
issues do we face that are monumentally important today?
In
what way does King’s religion inform his view of history?
(Discussion:
It is dominated by the Bible. King views the great moments of history in
primarily Biblical terms. He also sees the struggle that he is involved in as a
part of that same history, King sees the civil rights struggle in biblical and
Christian terms. It is, to him, like the exodus, and like Jesus struggle
against the evils of His day.)
Why
does King say he’d rather live in his day than any other?
(Discussion:
The problems that he faces are as exciting and important as any other faced
in history. The evil in the world have reached a tempo where temporary
solutions won’t work, they must be dealt with head on. The potential for good is
also higher than ever.)
Martin
Luther King Jr. has what some call a ‘historical’ view of the world, what might
that mean?
(Discussion:
King looks at the big picture, and sees himself as a part of the unfolding
of history in all it’s grandiosity. He feels the magnitude and importance of
what he’s doing but knows that big changes take time. He has a vision that
includes the Biblical past and the far future.)
Why
does King talk about the dangers that the people in the story of the GOOD
SAMARITAN faced?
(Discussion:
King recognizes the dangers that everyone who is struggling for civil
rights faces, he knows the difficulties and doesn’t sugar coat them. He shows
how a purely rational ethic always leaves out something important…there are
good reasons not to help the man on the road, and a reasonable and rational
person would ask the question ‘what might happen to me if I help’.
What
response does King say we should give to those in need?
(Discussion:
He suggests we put the concerns and fate of others first. He wants us not to
think about the danger to ourselves, but the dangers that face others if we
don’t act. He seeks to encourage us to put others first and grounds that
message in his religion. It’s a religious and not a rational response to the
needs of others.)
What
do you think the real dangers in your personal life are?
How
do you avoid those dangers?
What
are some reasons King is happy to be alive?
How
does that contrast with the overall tone of the speech?
Do
you ever take life for granted?
How
do we keep from doing this?
What
people in need do you encounter in your own life?
Do
you usually calculate the personal costs of any action you undertake?
Is
this the life Christ called you to?
Why
does King reference Moses’ situation at the end of his speech?
(Discussion:
King feels that there is some great danger around the corner for him. He’s
decided to ignore the danger and put those in need first, but he’s not letting
that deter him. He’s accepted that he may die soon but continues on in order to
inspire people. King feels like Moses, because he’s worked so hard and his
people have come so far that he knows that if he lives he may see a lot more of
his hopes come to fruition. King feels the tragedy of his own situation.
However, he’s decided accept that tragedy and do the work anyways.)
How does this
speech compare to past speeches we’ve studied of King’s?
(Discussion: It’s almost a continuation of ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ though in some ways it’s more hopeful. King has accepted he will pass with his dreams unfulfilled but confident that God has vouchsafed his reward and his people’s. King is looking at his struggle in a historical context and in that context he has hope, because he can see the hand of God there.)
(Discussion: It’s almost a continuation of ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ though in some ways it’s more hopeful. King has accepted he will pass with his dreams unfulfilled but confident that God has vouchsafed his reward and his people’s. King is looking at his struggle in a historical context and in that context he has hope, because he can see the hand of God there.)
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