Del City, OK – Congressman Steve Russell (OK-5) offered the following statement in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -
“Since I first studied him in my public speaking classes in college, Dr. Martin Luther King has always been one of my heroes. As powerful as an orator as he was, he was an even greater example of Christian faith in action.
‘At times we may feel that we do not need God, but on the day when the storms of disappointment rage, the winds of disaster blow, and the tidal waves of grief beat against our lives, if we do not have a deep and patient faith, our emotional lives will be ripped to shreds. There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods rather than God. We have genuflected before the god of science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that science can never mitigate. We have worshiped the god of pleasure only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived. We have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of possible depressions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able. It is faith in him that we must rediscover. With this faith we can transform bleak and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of joy and bring new light into the dark caverns of pessimism.’(Dr. Martin Luther King - Strength to Love, p. 51)
“As we remember Dr. King today, let us be bold enough to take up his challenge.”
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