“And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I’m going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift that it has taken.<\/p>\n
God didn’t call America to do what she’s doing in the world now. (Preach it, preach it<\/em>) God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We\u2019ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.<\/p>\n But God has a way of even putting nations in their place. (Amen<\/em>) The God that I worship has a way of saying, “Don’t play with me.” (Yes<\/em>) He has a way of saying, as the God of the Old Testament used to say to the Hebrews, “Don\u2019t play with me, Israel. Don’t play with me, Babylon. (Yes<\/em>) Be still and know that I’m God. And if you don’t stop your reckless course, I’ll rise up and break the backbone of your power.” (Yes<\/em>) And that can happen to America. (Yes<\/em>) Every now and then I go back and read Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire<\/em>. And when I come and look at America, I say to myself, the parallels are frightening. And we have perverted the drum major instinct.”<\/p>\n — Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Drum Major Instinct” sermon<\/a> (4 February 1968)<\/p>\n