I have a dream

Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. was America's greatest religious liberal. A biblical, progressive Christian. Many clergyman at the time labeled him as too liberal, an extremist. To cite Chip Berlet, 'if King was alive today, he would probably be under surveillance as a potential "terrorist"; just as he was spied on during the 1960s.'

King's thoughtful response to such attacks was:

'[T]he question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice — or will we be extremists for the cause of justice?'

King and the civil rights movement were not part of the religious right. Some who speak in King's remembrance today would have the world believe that gays and lesbians (black and white) have no right to draw on his magnificent legacy. They try to narrow that legacy, misquoting the Bible, denouncing efforts at understanding and solidarity between gays and African-Americans (and between gay and straight African-Americans). Yet King's vision of justice was open, expansive and unifying.

Revisionist clergy who want to keep King in the ghetto, women in the kitchen and gays in the closet need to just shut up. You do not speak for God or for King. Justice will roll down like waters, you wait and see.