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Jessica Hill / AP
A young woman wears a green and white bow, the colors of Sandy Hook Elementary School, in her hair with the initials of the victims names during an interfaith a sermon at Newtown Congregational Church on Sunday.
A former leader of one of the nation's most prominent liberal Protestant churches told residents still grieving one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history that Martin Luther King Jr.'s words of healing and nonviolence "are needed now more than ever."
The Rev. James A. Forbes Jr., the first black minister to lead New York's historic Riverside Church, spoke Sunday night at the Newtown Congregational Church in a service honoring King and the elementary school shooting victims.
About 300 residents filled the church for the community worship service, called For the Healing of Newtown, on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Forbes delivered a sermon calling for a transformation and healing of communities.
"The saddest face I ever saw on Martin Luther King was at the funeral of the four little girls slain in Birmingham, Ala.," he said. "We ask today, as King did then, 'Lord, what can come out of this that will honor those lost in this tragedy?'"
Twenty Sandy Hook Elementary School first-graders and six school officials died in the Newtown shooting last month. The gunman who attacked them had killed his mother at home before going to the school and later committed suicide.
Forbes' message of transformation was delivered to the Newtown community a day before the federal holiday honoring King's legacy and a little more than a month after the Dec. 14 school shooting.
The senior minister of the Newtown Congregational Church, the Rev. Matt Crebbin, welcomed the congregation and spoke of the long journey ahead.
"Though we are all interconnected, our destiny lies in our ability to be one, as a community and as a nation," he said. "Tonight we gather to heal and mend hearts."
See the civil rights leader in speeches and marches from Alabama to Washington.
As the congregation sang the hymn, "When Aimless Violence Takes Those We Love," many fought back tears and others simply wept.
Forbes told the congregation his message would be one of hope and healing.
With great passion, he spoke of his experiences during the civil rights movement and the struggles and challenges along the way. But, he said, one way to get encouragement is to recognize when progress is made.
"As a community, overcoming a tragedy will take time, but progress will be made," he said.
Forbes said that King believed in the power of community and faith and the need for good to come from tragedy. He stepped down from the pulpit to be closer to the congregation as he raised his voice to finalize his message.
"We have seen that violence can strike anywhere," Forbes bellowed. "Yes, King talked about violence, but he also talked about transformation and healing in the wake of violence."
He then asked people in the church to consider something: "What if history records what happened in Newtown and that leads to a new America?"
"Maybe if we listen to the Spirit, we as a town will be able to stay out of the depths of despair," he said. "If we listen to the Spirit, there will emerge a beacon of light that can lead an entire nation."
Crebbin said this was a fitting time for Forbes, who was leader of the Riverside Church on Sept. 11, 2001, but retired in 2007, to visit Newtown, which is about 60 miles northeast of New York City.
"He's been able to share his insight about grief through his experience with 9/11," Crebbin said. "In the midst of the grieving, we can't try to fix the grief. We need to help with the grieving. It won't be the same life."
Everyone stood to sing "We Shall Overcome" as the service ended. Forbes, founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, walked down into the congregation to take the hands of those sitting across the aisle from each other and connected the crowd into one.
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Beautiful.
What is beautiful is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The perfect message of hope and healing.
Sadly, this is still a country that denigrates wisdom, intelligence, and common sense...especially if it is uttered by a person of "color."
Which words are needed? MLK was a serial plagiarizer of both academic papers, sermons and speeches.
Martin Luther King Jr. took his “I Have a Dream Speech” from a Black Republican…
Without ever giving proper credit to that Republican.
Gaven Tradoux reported on the MLK Jr. penchant to plagiarize previously:
Never Stop-
We don't need your racist hate speech here.
Martin Luther King's Plagiarism
Four Things You Didn't Know About Martin Luther King
5 Great Men Who Built Their Careers on Plagiarism
Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King
Martin Luther King Jr Plagiarism Story
How Martin Luther King, Jr. Got Away With Plagiarism
Martin Luther King's Plagiarism - Yahoo!
On Martin Luther King's Plagiarism - History News Network
King's Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity, and Transformation
Academic Crisis - The Plagiarism of Martin Luther King, Jr.
A chronology of the discovery of King's plagiarism
Martin Luther King Jr. and prostitutes
The Dark Side Of Martin Luther King, Jr. and prostitution
FBI Recordings of Martin Luther King Beating White Hookers
Martin Luther King? What a Fraud?
Did Martin Luther King, Jr. embezzle
Martin Luther King Jr. Stole "I Have a Dream Speech ...
the martin luther king, jr., fbi file - LexisNexis pdf
Martin Luther King's FBI sex tape revisited, Part One of Two
Martin Luther King Jr. FBI Tapes
The FBI and Martin Luther King - David J. Garrow - The Atlantic
Martin Luther King, Jr. Part 2 of 2 - The Vault - FBI
True healing can only come from God. MLK was a baptist preacher, his wisdom was not his own but was from the Holy Spirit.
Thats the problem, we have no one like MLK Jr to lead us, there are no more Ghandi's, Mother Theresa's, etc, left.
Actually the problem is that there are not enough people in America that serve Jesus Christ and believe the Bible. The corruption and immorality tolerated by American society is killing our nation from within. But this is how all nations fail, and the founders knew this, also.
If you revere MLK, why not imitate him and become a sincere and devout Christian. Ghandi, btw, was an astute ascetic, but didn't lead anyone to a true relationship with God Almighty.
Sure we do. Every self serving politician in Washington.
King habitually plagiarized his academic papers and sermons, paid for prostitutes with Southern Christian Leadership Conference money, physically abused prostitutes and embezzled and\or misapplied substantial amounts of money contributed to the civil rights movement.
MLK Facts (with source listing and bibliography)
And much of the contained info has been acknowledged by King institutions and supporters. One example:
Modern day information systems and fact checking would have prevented King from receiving a doctorate.
Tell us how you really feel, UK-American. Please, don't hold back. Who are the "Career welfare baby-makers"?
If god was going to be involved in preventing murders, he's had about 2,000 years to get his act together...anybody that believes in a god is having trouble evolving out of the caves...each person is a god, and you don't have to wait 2,000 years to take responsibility for everything you create and control...
Taking responsibility for the consequences of your actions does not require you to have a god complex.
MLK was a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and actually had a concealed weapons permit.
MLK was a Republican. A Christian.
...a pro-life, anti-abortionist.
He would be called a "right-wing extremist" by the leaders of Obama's Democratic party.
Amen to that!!!
Yup.
MLK was just another dude out to make a buck...
I did not know the man but I can't help but think he would be embarrassed and disappointed by what he would see today.
He would be equally insulted by "white people" who steal his message as he would by "black people" who never bothered to take anything he said to heart. Want to know where MLK would be politically today look at Bill Cosby. Socially the two have an almost identical message, self help, education, respect for yourself and others, etc. And Bill Cosby is loathed by Liberals on the left and has been largely rejected by the black community.
Exactly where I was coming from.
MLK's words of healing are useless to a crazy person with a gun,,,,
That depends. They are healing if the crazy person gets the message before he goes too far. The problem with our society today is that he do nothing to prevent those "crazy people" from going too far. It is the problem with moral relativism that says that any behavior is basically fine. Well, the behavior of a crazy person needs realy attention but how can they get it if their behavior is protected by modern Liberalism that assumes everything is just fine
This tragety and that tragety have different root causes and therefore are not the same. Don't reach too far and don't confuse the public.
What I am wondering is "When and if the FBI files will be released to the public on MLK?" I am so tired of the lies a trickery of Washington politics that sometimes I just want to behave like a New york Taxi Driver. I am acquanted with a person who was privy to reading the file way back when and he said there was things in the file that would indicate he was not a saint or a savior, just another selfserving person motivated by greed and Glory lust.
I reserve my opinion for the time when we may be able to read the file, but knowing the history of politics, I would say the files went the way of Watergate and Enron.
It's been over 150 years since Republican President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by DemoKKKrat John Wilkes Booth in retaliation for the Republicans freeing the blacks from their DemoKKKrat slave owners.
It's been nearly 50 years since black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by DemoKKKrat James Earl Ray. Ray was a frothing Racist and follower of DemoKKKrat George Wallace.
It's been about 30 years since DemoKKKrat John Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate Republican President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan survived, and led the Republicans to create the MLK holiday.
His words arn't needed now: There in EFFECT now! 'Free at last, free at last: Thank God Allmighty (MY'S MONEYS' IS) FREE AT LAST' (the ORIGINAL speech)!!
Yeah, pray to your mythical god for healing, just don't ask him to stop the slaughter of innocent children, or people throught out the 20th century, with to major world wars, that slaughtered millions of innocent people, yeah, pray, that will do it.
I seriously doubt that Planned Parenthood is interested in anything God has to say on the subject.
Careful Vern, I was banished for bringing up (beep)! Are you my uncle?
There wouldn't be an America for you to bitch about without religion,
Back in pre-feudal Europe this sort of thing was commonplace but they usually took the women as concubines.
Get over it. @!$%# happens. Then you move on.
A tragedy caused by a whitey doesn't need this guy spouting.I'll take a few crazy kids over an entire culture of louts
god didn't prevent the Newtown massacre...so in the aftermath of that tragedy locals are channeling MLK to get god off his ass to do something about possible future school massacres...damn...good luck with that kind of thinking...