Page 25 - Panama City Living Magazine

BOOK REVIEWGOSPEL OF FREEDOM: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’S LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL ANDTHE STRUGGLE THAT CHANGED A NATIONReviewed by Richard DoddRichard Dodd and his wife of 37 years are the proud parents of three children and two granddaughters who a ectionately call him “Pop.” Dodd is President of ReliantSouth Construction Group, a regional commercial contractor. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the LEAD Coalition. He is an Alignment Bay County Board Member, is involved with Bay District Schools Construction Academies, Cherry Street Elementary, Destiny Worship Center, Science Fair, and periodically teaches a six-week Construction Workers Basic Skills training course in partnership with Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, Gulf Coast State College, and the LEAD Coalition. See www.LeadABetterLife.org for more details.PHOTOGRAPHY BY BONNIE BRANT1963 was one of the most de ning years of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. Peaceful demonstrationsand a boycott of merchants were launched in Birmingham, Alabama to protest racial segregation and injus- tice. The ensuing violence and arrests changed our country forever. Jona- than Rieder's ne book, “Gospel of Freedom” (2013) describes in detail the events and the aftermath.After being jailed for leading an unlawful as- sembly, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous rebuttal “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” in response to a newspaper’s publication of a statement from eight moderate white clergymen who asserted that “. . . outside ag- itators are the problem . . . the boycott was unwise and untimely . . . illegal, extreme, and might precipitate violence.” The mindset of overzealous Birmingham authorities resulted in police brutalities that were soon front-page news around the nation. It was a tipping point toward awakening the masses about racial in- justice. King’s letter from the Birmingham jail articulated the plight and added momentum that ultimately led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.King’s writings teach us everyone has a duty to rally against injustice. He wrote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." His words resonate to this day, "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people,but for the appalling silence of the good peo- ple."Dr. King felt a great disappointment with the church. In a sermon during the same period he said "We as Christians are commanded to live di erently. We are called to be people of con- viction and not conformity ..." In his letter from jail, he implored the church to abandon the status quo and stand against injustice, writing “if the church of today does not recapture the sacri cial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring. . . and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning."Rieder’s book has had a tremendous impact on my life. I knew little about Martin Luther King Jr. or the civil rights struggle. His logic and rationale based on biblical principles struck a chord with me to become involved, hopefully to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. It is for this reason that I highly rec- ommend reading the “Gospel of Freedom” or at least read Dr. King’s letter.www.PanamaCityLiving.com • March - April 2018 • 25