On Martin Luther King Day, a congregation gathered at Riverside Church to recall a dream and anticipate its realization.
In an event called “Celebrating the King Legacy: Faith and American Politics in a Time of Change,” Barnard professor Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer and Riverside’s Rev. Dr. Brad Braxton engaged in a forum mediated by Union Theological Seminary president Rev. Dr. Serene Jones to commemorate the reverend who led America’s civil rights movement and to acknowledge the significance of Barack Obama’s presidency for religious communities.
King famously stepped up to the Riverside pulpit in 1967 to give one of his characteristically stirring speeches that blended sermon and activist cry, lifting souls up from their pews and out into march.
His subject of the moment was Vietnam, and in his speech he cast a preacher’s eye upon America’s role in the war. “We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers,” he said that April.
Evoking Dr. King’s vision for seeing the intersection of religion, civil rights, and national identity within a world of conflict, the ministers at Riverside decades later turned to the relationship between faith and politics in the dawning of Obama’s administration.
“There is one unmistakable religious link,” Braxton said. “The black church.” He explained that the black church has given Obama an “appreciation for religious nuance, something we’ve lacked during the last eight years of presidential politics,” eliciting the audience to erupt with applause.
The ministers stressed the need for both the Church and the Obama administration to be humble and open-minded as they called for Christians to keep politicians to their word.
“This is a crucial moment for people of faith,” Balmer said. “We must keep the integrity of faith and call President Obama to account.”
“It makes you inspect your faith,” said Marlene Melton, a casual congregant at Riverside Church. “On such a historic occasion, you have to do this.”
