The Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell, who retired Dec. 31, 1999, as General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, was among convenors of the April 3-5, 1998, "Pilgrimage to Memphis," to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the 30th anniversary of his death.

For more information on the pilgrimage, write the Commemorative Commission Connecting Community c/o renee@conbro.com or at P.O. Box 3050, Memphis, TN 38173-3050

Click here or below to read a related article about the biblical roots of Dr. King's vision.

"For me, and for the world in which I work, which is the church, the major legacy that Dr. King left us is a spiritual one.   He took Scripture and made it live for us, and he challenged people to live their faith.  He did it himself.  He essentially died for what he believed. 

"Dr. King was a person of word and deed.  He showed us an incarnation of life where his words and his deeds were not separated as they are for so many people.  He was a martyr in the most profound Christian sense of that word. 

"And so, I think his legacy for us is that when you say you believe something, you have to stand up for it.  You have to act on it.  And you have to know that it could be very costly.  Fortunately, it isn't for everyone as costly as it was for him.

"Dr. King called people to be their best selves.  He believed that we are a people capable of living beyond hatred.  That we can be loving, caring people who can change our deep prejudices. 

"In that sense, I believe he offered us something miraculous.  He said to people, 'You can love.  It is possible.'  And I think that because he called us to do that from the Scriptures, it had an appeal it wouldn't have had if he had simply been a secular speaker.  'Love your neighbor.   Love yourself.  Act accordingly.'  The Scripture is not complicated.   It's just hard to live.  Dr. King said, 'We will love our enemies until in fact they no longer have any power.'  And that was just enormous.  Enormously powerful.

"One can never discount the fact that laws have to be changed.  And that sometimes the guard has to be called in as they were in Little Rock.  But essentially, Dr. King's message was that violence begets violence.  And, if you meet violence with violence, or hatred with hatred, then the cycle will never end.  The only thing that will break the cycle is love.

"I think that message is a spiritual message.  But Dr. King was no softie.   His methods were clearly confrontive, persuasive, tough.  He had demonstrations.  He made people uncomfortable.  He challenged people.  And he pushed very hard to have the laws changed.  He didn't just trust to the fact that people's hearts may be changed."