What In the World Were They Thinking?

What In the World Were They Thinking?

It is totally incomprehensible and incredible as to what the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Foundation and U.S. Government Officials were thinking when they scheduled the Dedication Ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial alongside the Tidal Basin in our nation’s Capital on Sunday, August 28, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.  It is apparent to any casual student of history why the date of August 28th was selected but at 10:00 a.m.? Are they that naïve or are they trying to send a disparaging and irreverent message to the largest faith expression in America?

Martin L. King, Jr. was first and foremost a Christian Pastor. Years before he rose to the helm of the Civil Rights Movement and became its driving force, he taught and preached on the significance and importance of gathering in houses of worship on Sunday morning to give thanks and praise to the Creator of all things. The Sunday morning worship experience synchronized his moral compass with his search for “justice that roll[ed] down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” In fact, it was in the context of the Sunday morning worship service that Dr. King found his strength and resolve as he chiseled, crafted and honed his message of freedom, justice and equality for all Americans. The mind of King would not want Christians to absent themselves from Sunday worship by displacing it with a dedication to an image of stone.

If he were alive today, Dr. King would have serious reservations about a disregard for the sacredness and importance of the worship hour. How does one schedule such a national event of monumental proportions at a time when it is in direct conflict with the most sacred hours of worship in the Christian Church? Not only is it insulting and disturbing but disingenuous and egregious on the part of those who made the decision to dedicate the national memorial at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday without prior consultation with the major religious leaders of the ecclesiastical shoot from which King sprouted. If that had been done, a mutually agreeable and respectable time would have resulted without harm or foul to anyone.  As the timing currently stands, I don’t think that even King would have shown up for his own party!

All those involved in the decision making process that led to the establishment of a 10:00  Dedication Ceremony on a Sunday morning need to search their hearts and minds, regroup and set a time that is more appropriate, propitious and sympathetic to the needs of tens of thousands of Christians in the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area who have a desire to gather in their houses of worship prior to descending upon the memorial site to pay tribute to one of their own and to honor the life, dream and legacy of a man whose Christian foundation enabled him to remain steadfast and unmoveable in embarking on a righteous path that changed the course of American life forever.

In light of the current economic crisis and escalating costs of public transportation as well as spiraling gas prices, just how many people can one reasonably expect to converge on our nation’s capital on a Sunday morning at a time that is traditionally known as the hottest and most humid month of the year? August 2011 in no way, shape or form has the same zeitgeist and sense of urgency that generated the gathering on a sweltering summer of August 1963. It is highly conceivable that the majority of those attending the Dedication Ceremony in 2011 will come from the Washington, DC region. Scheduling the dedication at a conflicting time could end up discouraging a lot of faithful Christian churchgoers from attending. Could there be a sinister plot to sabotage the event by concocting a subterfuge to minimize the participation? God forbid!

The Dedication Ceremony of a national memorial to a giant of a man at an unfeasible hour that would not include a vast number of Christians, especially within the Washington Metropolitan area, is insensitive, abhorrent, despicable and detestable and demonstrates a total disregard and disrespect for the faith of tens of millions of Americans. Dr. King’s thoughts, words, deeds and actions are inextricably linked to his Christian Faith.  The failure of organizers to realize and understand the indispensable linkage between King’s Christian pedigree as shaped in the crucible of the Sunday morning worship service and  his Christian belief system that served as his moral compass in “speaking truth to power” is both a gross oversight and inexcusable. Those values must not be in conflict but rather compliment each other.

One trusted colleague told me in response to my beef about reconsidering the timing of the event: “They have millions to execute the event and tons of celebs and VIP’s coming. Not going to happen.” In the end, maybe he is right… nothing will change. Things will still remain the same.  But, in any event, let the record show that this gross oversight will not "go gentl[y] into the good night. “

What in the world were they thinking?

+George Augustus Stallings, Jr. 

Archbishop and Founder

Imani Temple on Capitol Hill African-American Catholic Congregation

Washington, District of Columbia