Sunday Sermon with Dr. King #2
My impetus for this blog series is multilayered: I enjoy researching (this happened by accident after 9 years of pursuing my PhD), I am Christian, and I am passionate about social justice. Because of these reasons, I have ventured to read, digest, and react to Strength to Love*.
“Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
~Romans 12:2
This sermon, “Transformed Nonconformist” is believed to have been written and preached in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954**. I appreciated the play on words from its title even more as I read through it. Dr. King begins with how difficult it is in our society NOT to conform. He even cites how in other areas, such as philosophy and psychology, they generally persuade us TO conform. In short, it feels good, or healthy, to be identified with the majority. However, he explains, at length, that “Christians have a mandate to be nonconformists” (p. 12). He thoroughly explains why the Apostle Paul wrote the Bible verse quoted above (Romans 12:2). We, as Christians, are ambassadors to heaven; it is our responsibility to represent Christ here on Earth. He continues to explain that Jesus Christ was “the world’s most dedicated nonconformist” (p. 13). Dr. King encourages his audience to be thermostats rather than thermometers because thermometers “record or register the temperature of majority opinion”, whereas thermostats “transform and regulate the temperature of society” (p. 14). However, in my opinion, I would agree that it takes so much more out of us humans to be thermostats instead of thermometers. Many of us even see transforming and regulating as the responsibility of just a few, special, select individuals and the thought of possibly being that individual scares us. However, Dr. King is calling for more of us to take this charge. He continues to cite examples of those who don’t stand up due to fear. For example, “Many sincere white people in the South privately oppose segregation and discrimination, but they are apprehensive lest they be publicly condemned” (p. 14).
Dr. King identifies how the church also tends to conform, “the church has harkened more to the authority of the world than to the authority of God” (p. 15). I would think many, religious and nonreligious, would agree with that statement. However, what does it mean to be a nonconformist? “Nonconformity is creative when it is controlled and directed by a transformed life and is constructive when it embraces a new mental outlook” (p. 17). Dr. King is referring to a life open to God in Christ for this transformation, with the renewing of the mind. Because there is a vast difference, but yet fine line between an transformed and untransformed nonconformist, Dr. King says this: “A reformer may be an untransformed nonconformist whose rebellion against the evils of society has left him annoyingly rigid and unreasonably impatient. Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit” (p.18). Untransformed means you still have the motivation but your delivery could go unheard by many, while being transformed brings the perfect combination of motivation and delivery together, yielding many listeners. Finally, Dr. King is honest when he says that the road of a nonconformist is difficult, wrought with valleys and obstacles. As I read that, I thought, yes, he sure knew that first-hand. Yet still, he ends with encouragement to continue to renew our minds to create change. I think I’ll keep on working on myself to inspire change in whatever ways I can - to transform and not conform.
*King, M. L. (1963). Strength to love. New York: Harper & Row.
**https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/transformed-nonconformist