January 18, 2010 | 5:55 pm

MLK’s prophetic legacy

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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The third Monday of January is more than just a chance to stay home and watch a little NBA while it pours rain—yes, even in Southern California—outside. This is, of course, the day with which we honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a legacy that really can’t be understated, but it’s also one so casually appreciated that I can’t imagine many people stop to really appreciate it often. I know I don’t.

Reporters try to to remind us of why this day matters, but, much like any routine holiday coverage, it’s difficult to find an inspiring way to tell the same story each year.

This might help. It’s a collection of a few of MLK’s quotes, appearing on the blog of a college friend of mine who was reviewing them for the Fuller Theological Seminary student newspaper:

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“Returning violence for violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars…Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Read the rest here.

My favorite MLK quote, which I hear whenever I listen to a good, old “Good Riddance” album, appears in the above video and after the jump:

“When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast with a scientific and technological abundance. We’ve learned to fly the air as birds, we’ve learned to swim the seas as fish, yet we haven’t learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters.”

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