On MLK’s big idea

So as a theologian and as a leader of one of the great civil rights movements of all time, Martin Luther King has had a significant impact both here in the United States and around the world.

Martin Luther King was able to apply the Christian notion of love and connect it to the Gandhian method of non-violent resistance in a very powerful way. The way in which he brought these concepts together to inspire people to use non-violent resistance was very, very important. The idea that you can resist evil without violence, first and foremost; the idea that you can resist a system but still love individuals and treat them with respect and honour; the idea that evil must be resisted, it should never be normalised; and the idea that mass non-violent action can be a force for powerful change is a set of principles and a message that I think will endure the test of time.