大象传媒

Good Morning.
Civil or human rights in different contexts across the globe form the nub of many stories tackled on this programme on a daily basis. From Syria to South Africa, in Egypt and across the Middle East - and in the United States as well as here in Britain the yearning for freedom goes on in many communities.

As the legacy of Martin Luther King's theology comes into sharp focus today we are fully aware that anniversaries are not just only about what happened in the past.

I am now working in Newham, which has the highest population of black and minority ethnic residents in the UK. Multiculturalism and pluralism together provide a creative energy which makes it an exciting place to live. But, each and every day, questions about justice and prejudice as well as our shared responsibilities to each other in community are always bubbling just beneath the surface.

Of course, Martin Luther King spoke up for those who felt that their communities had reneged on a promise and that freedom was still far away.
And St Paul, who was clearly a great inspiration to him, makes it absolutely clear in Romans that this is all of our faults. We are, each of us, he writes, distinct - but the paradox is that there is no distinction. He goes on to explain that all have sinned, all have fallen short, and the quest is therefore to work towards a freedom born of reconciliation which can only be achieved through genuine sacrifice.

Reconciliation is chiefly the act of bringing or coming together. In terms of changing attitudes and breaking down the kind of barriers in communities we are focussing on today such reconciliation allows us to see what Hans Kung described as the "inalienable and untouchable dignity" of every human being regardless of their sex, age, race, skin, colour, language, religion, political view or their natural or social origin...

Show less