I write this on the fortieth annual observance of Martin Luther King Day, when the country pauses to honor Dr. King’s memory and legacy. For me, the day is yet another opportunity to be fed by his extraordinary spiritual and intellectual genius. There are many statements, speeches, actions and prayers that capture his uniqueness and ongoing importance, but the one that stands out for me is a portion of a prayer that is often used as a benediction:
“Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.
Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power
that corrects anything that stands against love.”
That prayer portion has particular relevance – and urgency, these days, as we continue to witness reckless and abusive displays of power. Tariffs, deploying yet more ICE agents in Minneapolis, the extraction and arrest of Nicholas Maduro, the threat to invade Greenland. And on and on. Power that is completely divorced from any expression or demonstration of love.
President Trump falsely claims that he has received an overwhelming mandate to exercise power. And what we are discovering is that the power he claims, the power he wields (often illegally) is intoxicating – certainly to him and apparently to the various followers who urge him on.
Over the years I have observed that some groups and individuals within groups get caught up in these raw displays of and desire for power. They exercise the power because they can. If there is a goal, it is to accrue more power, an addiction that is hardly ever satisfied. Consequences of the use of power are secondary, if they appear at all. The desire for power becomes a life-denying lust.
Martin Luther King stood up to the unyielding power of racism, an egregious sin that stained the country. He not only exposed racism, but fought against it. With love. With nonviolence. With a passionate commitment to justice, which was paired with the unflinching desire to create the “beloved community.”
The love that King lifted up was not sentimental and anemic. It had its own power. A power for transformation. A power of exposing a truth that is hard to see. A power that was linked with justice – that stood as a sentry to identify and correct anything that stands against love.
So many people I talk to these days say they feel defeated by the naked displays of power that come out from the Administration with the rapidity of a firing AR-15. I am often among them. We cower, and feel helpless. There are two temptations that need to be identified and avoided when we find ourselves in this helpless, if not hopeless state. The first temptation is to respond to the violence with violence: the verbal violence of slurs and insults and threats; the physical violence of throwing things, be it a sandwich or a rock of firing a weapon.
The second temptation is to respond with sentimental and anemic love. There are moments when I repeat something that has been said many times over the years: “Why can’t we all just get along?” It may be a heartfelt offering, but I have discovered that it is tantamount to walking away. We don’t get along. We haven’t gotten along for as long as humans have taken up residence on this planet. Simply wishing for us to get along doesn’t make it so.
We have to work at getting along. As Dr. King brilliantly pointed out, the hope for getting along has to involve an existential marriage of power and love. Many of us are learning to do that. It is hard work, particularly when punishing displays of power are so relentless and disorienting.
Power alone cannot achieve justice, despite the many pronouncements coming out of the White House that power by itself is the ultimate value. We are struggling to find our footing in the wake of raw power. It is taking more time than many of us would like. We need to keep working to find our power, a power that needs to be – that must be – generated and nurtured by love. That is where and how true justice can be achieved.
