Opinion

DAZE WORK: King read imaginary letter from Paul in 1960 Gobin visit

Monday, August 31, 2020

Sept. 5, 1960 was not your typical Labor Day Monday in Greencastle or anywhere else.

Soon-to-be racing legend A.J. Foyt was posting his first of 67 Indy Car victories with a win at DuQuion, Ill.

Cassius Clay -- not yet known as the legendary Muhammad Ali -- was beating the three-time European champ to win the Olympic light heavyweight boxing gold medal at the 1960 Games in Rome.

And thanks to Chubby Checker, America was twisting itself into knots in the midst of the latest dance craze.

In Greencastle, however, a historic event was unfolding at Gobin Methodist Church as Martin Luther King Jr. — not yet the household name he would be three years later after his “I Have Dream” speech decrying racism during the 1963 March on Washington — was delivering a speech to the School of the Prophets, an annual gathering of Indiana Methodists at DePauw University.

Through the wonders of YouTube, we are able to listen to that address here in 2020.

Starting slowly and decidedly less vocal than the style that became his trademark, King said he was honored to address the “very significant conference” at a “very significant school” but offered regrets that he needed to fly to Philadelphia immediately after his remarks to speak to the National Baptist Conference.

Using an imaginary letter from the Apostle Paul to the citizens of America as his hook, King began.

Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church on Sept. 5, 1960. The event will be memorialized with a plaque on the local Heritage Wall on the 60th anniversary of the speech.
Courtesy photo

“How this is possible, I do not know,” King obliged, noting the imaginary letter was almost 1,900 years after Paul’s last letter. “The important thing is that I can imagine the Apostle Paul writing a letter to American Christians in 1960 AD.”

He noted Americans’ “astounding and fascinating advances in the scientific realm,” carving out a highway in the stratosphere where it is now “possible in your world to eat breakfast in London and have lunch in New York City.”

With that acknowledgment of “dashing subways” and skyscrapers and jet planes came a warning.

“All of these things are marvelous, America. All of these things are wonderful,” he said, sounding more like the King we’re all accustomed to from his mid-1960s speeches, “but from afar I wonder whether your scientific progress has outrun your spiritual and moral progress.”

He cautioned that the “danger is you will allow your civilization to outrun your culture” and “let your mentality outdistance your morality.”

America, King reasoned in his 38-minute Gobin remarks, has developed neighborhoods but “failed to make it a brotherhood.”

King took aim at American capitalism as well.

“There is the danger of using your capitalism to the point of exploitation,” he said, adding that too many Americans are “more concerned about making a living than making a life.”

“The means by which you live,” he added, “outdistances the ends for which you live.”

King pointed out that one-tenth of one percent of the population of the U.S. controls some 40 percent of the wealth.

“So there are instances when you have taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes,” King said, rhyme ringing in the air.

“God never intended for one group to live in superfluous, inordinate wealth while others live in abject, deadening poverty,” he continued. “He wanted all of his children to have the basic necessities of life.”

The church itself was next for King’s scrutiny.

“So, American Christians, I must make it clear to you that God is not a Baptist, God is not a Methodist, God is not a Presbyterian, God is not an Episcopalian. God is bigger than all your denominations. If you are to be true witnesses of Jesus Christ, you must realize this.”

King then interjects race into the equation.

“I understand that you have a white church and you have a Negro church,” he says, voice now quivering a bit with emotion. ”Oh, how tragic that is. I understand that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, when you stand to sing ‘in Christ there is no east or west,’ you stand in the most segregated hour of America.

“We are all one in Christ Jesus,” King assures.

Reminding the audience that this is ostensibly a letter from the Apostle Paul, he concluded by saying, “And now comes the living of it.”

As the YouTube audio ends you can detect the quiet inside Gobin as if those words were still sinking in.

It has been 60 years since King gave his historic address in Greencastle, one of 2,000 speeches he reportedly delivered in his lifetime. Unveiling a plaque on the Heritage Wall along Vine Street in Greencastle at noon Saturday, Sept. 5, the Heritage Preservation Society of Putnam County will honor that event.

Imaginary or not, King’s letter from Paul nonetheless resonates as deeply today in the social climate of 2020 as it did 60 years ago.

And indeed, now comes the living of it.

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  • Excellent op ed, Eric! King's message could have been spoken today. Will we ever learn? I can only hope!

    -- Posted by vwhitaker11 on Tue, Sep 1, 2020, at 12:08 AM
  • I posted that video, Eric - glad to see/hear it echoing! - Ken Owen

    -- Posted by KenOwen on Tue, Sep 1, 2020, at 8:59 AM
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