First, King said, the war in Vietnam was an "enemy of the poor." Second, the war was racist. Third, silence about the war undermines advocacy for nonviolence. Fourth, what is needed is not just a mission to end the war, or to end classism or racism; what is needed is a mission "to save the soul of America." Fifth, upon receiving the Nobel Prize for peace in 1964, King accepted a commission, as he saw it, from the whole world, a calling that took him "beyond national allegiances." Sixth, although he was a Christian and minister of Jesus Christ, Seventh, he was first and foremost a child of the living God, and as such, "called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation.” 

King was vilified on a national scale for this speech.  Black activists thought he had deserted them to get involved in the politics of a white war.  Hawks and anti-communist crusaders thought he had sold out the red white and blue for a red-tainted socialistic vision of America.  Those with wealth and power knew he was dangerous to them most of all, because wealth or class no longer cowed him, and the desire for power no longer motivated him.  His calling, King, had come to realize, was not a call to take a role of power within the Empire, but to take up the cause of the powerless, those outside the benefits and entitlements of Empire, to become a voice of the voiceless, the face of the faceless millions of outcasts of every race, class, and nationality. 

While enduring attacks from all sides, he coined the phrase, “the agony of vocation”.  It is a litmus test of faithfulness.  If the sufferings of outcasts do not move us to follow and serve the God of love, then my vocation has become pursuit of comfort and safety and power.

Our current church-struggle makes clear to me that we are confronting the decision between wanting and seeking power and security and comfort, and being willing to put ourselves and our own desire for power at risk by placing ourselves without qualification on the side of the outcasts, by being willing to embrace our outcast status once again…by being willing to become the church once again.  

For if we can but see that all of us are outcasts, then there can be no outcasts. If we no longer are motivated by power, then we are freed in the words of our baptismal covenant to live an extravagant hospitality that actually respects the dignity and full humanity of each person we meet.