Zachary Leibovit
16 November 2014
Period 7
Synthesis Essay
More Than Men For Others
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
—Galatians 3:2
Society neglects the ability for humans to see actual truths and purpose in their lives, which makes it easy for them to think about themselves and only want to fulfill their own personal desires. These personal desires are contrary to the teachings of Jesus, which includes loving your neighbor, compassion for others, and the desire to serve. Humans in the words of Pedro Arrupe must, “live not for themselves but for God and his Christ Following the teachings of Jesus” (Arrupe 1). Doing this makes one
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It is easy for humans to prefer order rather than justice because society covers the ability to see actual truths and purpose. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail explains how ones desire for order is truly contrary to the teachings of Jesus, “…who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice” (King 4). In order to live the paschal mystery humans must have the desire to have a positive peace or known as justice. Justice is the ability for a group of people to be able to recognize the problems in the world, and then be able to act on it. Brackley explains the importance of being able to recognize the need for justice, “…the centrality of justice not only reflects new insight into the faith; it also reflects a waking up to the world around us” (Brackley 2). Justice is being able to reflect and acknowledge the problems on what is going on in the world constantly. In order to truly act with justice, humans must be able to give up their own personal desires and recognize the need of justice in today’s world. In Pope John Paul II’s On Social Concern, he states, “The goal of peace, so desired by everyone, will certainly be achieved through the putting into effect of social and international justice, but also through the practice of the virtues which favor togetherness” (Paul II 4). The only way to achieve justice is for a group of individuals to unite under God, and to work together for a common purpose to help improve the world. Justice itself cannot be achieved with one
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s , “ Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King responds to the judgments of a group of clergymen , after King 's arrest, by writing a letter explaining why the clergymen 's judgments were wrong. In his letter, king brings very reasonable and valid points that challenge the judgments of the ministers. The main arguments that king makes would be the reason of his existence in Birmingham, white power structure and its racial injustice, and finally why negotiation has brought up impatience and little to no solutions. The overall structure of King’s letter was well organized and the letter delivered valid explanations as to why the clergymen 's judgments were wrong and why it is that action had to be taken in order to grasp the attention needed to settle the conflicts of racial injustice the black community in Birmingham was facing.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas K. Gandhi were civil rights activists who practiced a form of movement to gain equal rights amongst their nation. King and Gandhi were most important for their allegiance to nonviolence. King demonstrated his notion of nonviolence in his letter titled, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", and Gandhi in his writing, "from Non- Violent Resistance". The two are closely related and share common and distinct themes; both held considerably comparable belief toward nonviolence, laws, and religion.
Through the span of Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963) Martin Luther King Jr., makes stretched out implications to various logicians, among them Aquinas and Socrates. His correlation would appear to show that he imparts a liking to them. In any case, the clearness with which he makes his contentions and the commitment to a solitary start strikes most firmly of Kant. Similarly, as Kant 's artful culmination, Critique of Pure Reason, endeavored to totally overturn a formerly acknowledged method of thought, so likewise was King 's work gave to a solitary goal: the security of common noncompliance as a type of challenge with the end goal that the Civil Rights Movement could proceed in uncompromised frame. Notwithstanding this peculiarity of
The staple of societal thought, freedom, is the power to act, speak, or think as one wants without the concern of being oppressed (Webster). Freedom, is a unique element to the mixture of liberty across the United States. Martin Luther King Jr’s a “letter of Birmingham Jail,” and Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence both advocate the claim for freedom. Both of these historical figures make this apparent by arguing for the protest against tradition, a change across unjust laws, although they differ between the kinds of change to be enforced.
In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, he talks about the four basic steps of a nonviolent campaign, “the collection of facts..., negotiation, self-purification, and direct action.” Direct action is taken when the attempt to negotiate fails to reach the end goal. Through direct action, Dr. King hopes to create tension in the community that they are “forced to confront the issue.” There would not have been any need to create tension through direct action if the attempts to negotiate were not refused. He creates this tension by taking measures to show the community the evils of segregation through sit-ins, marches, bus boycotting, etc. The goal of these actions was to open the eyes of the community to realize the effect
Martin Luther King preached the realities of what justice truly is. Nearly 50 years later our world is still having trouble with these ideas. There is no doubt that Martin Luther King was an extremely virtuous man. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, had a Ph.D. in systematic theology, was a baptist minister, and was probably the most recognized person in the civil rights movement. He was assassinated in 1968. The incident as described by Thich Nhat Hanh; "I couldn 't believe it. I thought the American people had produced a king, but are not capable of preserving him".
Morals can be defined as concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior; agreeing with a standard of right behavior. If the country progresses in moral excellence, it will allow us to be stronger and if we can become a united nation we can work towards achieving material excellence. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was a civil rights activist who fought for the rights of minorities as well as the end of discrimination. Niccolo Machiavelli was a writer who took a different approach with his beliefs. Instead of him writing about morals he chose to educate rulers on how to be effective- how to maintain successfully maintain their power. While many in our society value economic progress more than ethical concerns, we should focus
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a very passionate and articulate man. In his I Have a Dream speech, and in his Letter From Birmingham Jail, he addressed his audience with great emotion and purpose. He was very effective in using those two appeals. His messages were powerful because of the two appeals in I Have a Dream, the two appeals in Letter From Birmingham Jail, and their similarities and differences.
Martin Luther King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” addresses the issue of individual civil rights. In the context of the racially segregated south, Martin Luther King argues that civil rights are not being protected for the power minority. An oppressed group has their civil rights unprotected and thus are marginalized; an oppressed individual does not have equal civil rights to an oppressed individual and it is this difference that creates the distinction between the oppressed and unoppressed. King mentions examples of how the black minority is being oppressed and not given equal civil rights, such as police brutality and unfair prosecution, racial humiliation, and restricted economic and social opportunities. In order to protect individual civil rights for all the oppressed group, which lacks equal civil rights, must strongly and unwaveringly pursue these rights. Like how the black civil rights movement pursued equal civil rights, an oppressed group must repeatedly actively pursue equality from their oppressors and thus restore individual civil rights. Laws that impede these rights are unjust according to King. An unjust law is an immoral law. King uses religious reasoning as well as objective reasoning in order to determine what is just versus unjust. In terms of religion, an unjust law is a law that corrupts the soul by preventing people from feeling as equals and thus goes against the religious idea that all people are equal under god. In terms of objective
An ultimate conflict of Americans throughout time has been how to fight injustices in an appropriate way with lasting long term affects. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”(1963), explained that after disappointment from failed negotiations, direct action now had to be taken. Dr King stated in the letter, “But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” It can be understood that when political aspects fail, whether between countries, states, or government offices, there is always the social relationship to fall back. During the civil rights movement Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used this to his advantage. The personal connection between
Martin Luther King, Jr. was imprisoned in Birmingham jail because of his contribution and participation in nonviolent demonstrations opposing the segregation championed by the southern leaders. The essay explores his longhand letter in response to civic statement of alarm and threats from the letter written by white religious leaders.
The mass demonstrations, featured in Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter happened in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama and were dedicated to protesting the racial segregation in the state. The letter written by King was the response to the criticism of his participation in the protest. In the letter, King explains the background of the mass protest and presents the facts that preceded the decision to organize one as well as gives justifications for the reasons to join the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. The central debate faced by King and analyzed in his letter comes down to one question: was it morally justified to participate in this campaign?
The scope of which one defines social justice must be widened in order for the church to effectively address. For the purpose of this paper social justice or a lack there of will be associated with any situation one finds their self in where love is not visible. It is evident in the world today that there is an utter lack of love, this is demonstrated through the burgeoning number of neglected and abandoned children, divorces, physical and sexual assaults, rapes, murders, suicides, victims of racism and sexism, and people suffering in poverty. It is indisputable that what the world needs most right now is a true understanding and application of love through the perspective of Christ, rather than the secular and shallow understanding that we have come to accept. The purpose of this paper is to prove that Jesus has given us clear guidance on how to love God, our self and others through His walk on this earth; submitting to His guidance in exuding true love is crucial in transforming our lives and the world as a whole, this is the true encapsulation of social
Jesus Christ sought to improve the individual, the component of society, and as result, his teaching ideally aims to advance the well-being of society as a whole. The four Gospels and the book of Acts thoroughly demonstrate the extensive sociological knowledge that was present in Jesus’ teaching. His message facilitates personal reform, rather than change in the social structure alone. Although Jesus establishes the church as a social institution, he does so, only after a number of individuals become his followers.
Conforming to the world brings shame, but standing with the righteous brings eternal glory. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5, He gives the world a path to follow, an outline of how to live commonly known as the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are puzzling to us. They are difficult to put together rationally and find the logic in them. God’s plans for our world and for our lives are not always logical to us, but He is God and does things for reasons we cannot understand. We can see through the Beatitudes and Beyond the Gates of Splendor that the Peacemaker is the Child of God who can rejoice when persecuted “for righteousness’ sake.” This type of persecution shows that the Peacemaker has been recognized as someone who has not conformed to the pattern of this world, and has lived a life worthy of their call of Christ Jesus which then allows them to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and be called children of God.