Martin Luther King, Jr.   1929-1968

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“Why We Can’t Wait” is Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 testimony for “why the Negro* can wait no longer for civil rights.” The 160-page paperback with yellowed pages has been sitting on my book shelf for decades.    (Publ.:  Toronto, New American Library of Canada Ltd., July 1964)

A couple of weeks ago my hand was led to pick it out of its tightly squeezed place.  I read it that day and had two strong feelings: “déjà vu” – from my safe perch in Canada, I had been a distant witness to the civil rights struggle of the ‘60s; and, “we can’t wait” – it’s time now for the relationship between Indigenous and Settler Peoples in Canada to be transformed.   Far too much of what King described in the African-American situation in the United States of America (USA)  was comparable to the experience of Indigenous Peoples here in Canada. 

To be sure there are significant differences – especially in their origins - between the experience of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Black People in the USA. 

Indigenous Peoples in both Canada and USA were already present on Turtle Island when European explorers made initial contact followed by migrants settling on native lands. In Canada, the colonial powers simply stole the most precious possessions of Indigenous Peoples – their lands - and handed them over or sold them in large chunks to the newcomers. The theft disempowered and impoverished Indigenous Peoples, but enriched the colonizers.

African-Americans, on the other hand, were trafficked onto the “new world” by slavers who didn’t distinguish between commodities and human cargo.  Slave markets near the eastern seaboard offered Black humans for sale to land owners and others seeking cheap labour for financial gain. The economy of the USA relied hugely on the work carried out by Black slaves. 

The economies of both countries owe vast amounts to the respective subjugated peoples. Common to both Canada and USA is the virulent racism that deemed both Black and Indigenous Peoples inferior, less than human - savages, and “uncivilized”.  History will long call on especially Euro-Christian-North Americans to reflect, confess, and come to terms with their uncivilized and savage anti-human actions.

Emancipation Proclamation 1863 – Birmingham, Alabama 1963

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation gave legitimacy to and launched the hard, ongoing struggle for African-American people to become full citizens protected by the Constitution and by  Federal as well as State legislation. Soon after their defeat in the Civil War, segregationists launched their devious, anti-democratic plots to subvert the Proclamation and undermine the human rights of Blacks.

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A century later, “moderates” kept asking why King and the company of social activists couldn’t just wait out the Proclamation’s promises? A letter to King from eight fellow clergy espoused a gradualist approach to de-segregation, rebuking him for his “extremism” and “unwise and untimely” activism.   

In his courageous and thoughtful Letter from a Birmingham Jail (pp. 76-95) addressed the eight (and the world).   King rejects their tolerance of segregation and invokes fundamental values that demand action. 

Nothing less than a revolution - non-violent and peaceful – was required for the civil rights to transform the brutal heartland of American white supremacy and violently-enforced racial segregation.  After 100 years, there had been more than enough oppression and far too much waiting for conversions and saviours. 

Imperatives for Action

Various theological and moral imperatives, as well as the suffering of his people, demanded direct action by King and allies to rid the nation of this fundamental sin.

First, the Gospel of Jesus Christ compelled King to bring the gospel of freedom to Birmingham, Alabama just as the Apostle Paul of Tarsus carried this Gospel to the far corners of the Roman Empire. “Like Paul I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” (p.77)

Second, legislators’ laws must square with the law of God.  If they don’t, they must be resisted.  Citing St. Thomas Aquinas as authority, King observes that, “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” Hence, “All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority … [it] ends up relegating person to the status of things …. [Therefore,],… it is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.” (p. 82)

Third, if there is injustice in one area, then that serves as a threat to justice anywhere.  “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”   People of faith know that God created only one human family and all are related to all. When one group imposes its power and will – collectively, individually, and systemically - on another group, the injustice awakens the Spirit’s persistent call for resistance and action to end the sin and restore the Divine intention of abundant and just living for all.

Fourth, the violence of the unjust system must not be allowed to fester but be faithfully engaged and resisted with a four-step peaceful campaign. The steps include: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation with others, including adversaries; self-purification as acknowledgement of complicity in causing the injustice; and direct action. (p. 78)   Direct action might include sit-ins, marches, and, above all, a commitment to non-violence – e.g. to accept blows without retaliating; to endure unjust jailing.  It is the law of love that must overcome.

Fifth, people who abhor “resistance” and seek “order” above all else forget that “law and order” “exists for the purpose of establishing justice”.  On the other hand, peace or harmony based only on order fails to acknowledge and address the hidden tensions that are alive underneath the tranquil surface.  Peace must be rooted in justice exposing and remediating the injustices and the violence upon which segregation is built.  (p. 85)

Sixth, “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.” The yearning for freedom cannot remain stifled. Inevitably the freedom impulse manifests itself. King shared this yearning and acted upon it - peaceably.  Others might choose violence and bloodshed, but King rejected this way as unproductive of enduring peaceful co-existence. 

Some, including fellow clergy, labelled King as an extremist for the cause. King embraced the description and “gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love? ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully us you, and persecute you.’“ (p.87f.)  Resilient and courageous love is the “strong, persistent, and determined action” of non-violent revolutionaries to proclaim the divine Gospel of freedom for all who are oppressed. 

King understood that this couldn’t and shouldn't be put off.  There was no waiting for another generation to do what needed doing.  NOW is the right time for faithful action.  By word and deed he inspired and empowered Black Americans and White allies to engage in the non-violent action sparking the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. 

Christians who have read the Gospels’ witness to the Way of Jesus will assent to the Divine will for justice and understand King’s deeply rooted motivations and convictions in the quest for just peace.  But would they take the fourth step to join the action? 

King heard his colleagues hesitation and rationalizations and it led him to lament.  “In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church”, its social neglect, and its fear of being accused of not conforming to societal norms. (p. 91)

Moving to Action in Canada

King's lament jumped off the page into my conscience remembering myself to be a person of faith, a retired leader of the United Church, and a fervent and privileged (settler) citizen of Canada? 

Too long have we tolerated the apartheid society in which Indigenous Peoples are subjugated, while non-Indigenous Peoples harvest the Creator's abundant gifts of land and sea.  Where are the voices of faith calling for a comprehensive end to the racist and genocidal system which has far too long plagued Canadian society?

 Are the theological, ethical, and social imperatives any less salient here now than they were in the USA then (or now)?   Where are the visionary, charismatic leaders of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities calling all  to address the core issues undermining just and peaceful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians?   

Are currents assumptions, strategies, manipulations, rationalizations, ad hoc-ery, vested interests, and blinkered visions working together to delay the promise of an equitable two-row wampum society based on friendship and sharing in perpetuity? 

People of goodwill and justice can no longer tolerate the piecemeal pattern of waiting for things to happen here and there.  The fact finding efforts to disclose the pantheon of unjust arrangements have  been carried out ad nauseum and are accessible for all to absorb. Few people of goodwill doubt the urgency of seeking more just and equitable ways forward.

So with that understanding, now is the time for negotiating - serious conversation between   Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.   The topic?   What we can all contribute to a new justice-based, equitable society?   

A wild thought!   

Could the Crown – through Governor-General Mary Simon – convene representatives of Indigenous Peoples and representatives of Colonial Settler society to develop a  vision and a framework which might just become the foundations to bring justice and peace to this core relationship?    The Crown has its own problematics - for sure, but it is still the official partner in the treaties with Indigenous Peoples and, for Indigenous Peoples, the crucial symbolic authority beyond elected legislators.   For non-Indigenous Peoples, the Crown could be understood as the collective symbol of the entire nation in all it diversity.  I believe the Governor-General with all that she brings to the office can be a key person in ending our waiting.

I may be dreaming, but in 2026, the 150^th lamentable anniversary of the Indian Act, could we - all Canadians together - in our locales, symbolically and efficaciously burn that repudiated legislation that has perpetuated the subjugation of Indigenous Peoples, disturbed the peace of Canadian society with its horrors, and had as its purpose the genocidal assimilation of "Indians".  July 1^st, 2026 could be a great reason for all in Canada – Indigenous and non-Indigenous - to celebrate the passing of the old and the embracing of the framework for a renewing society. 

I think The United Church of Canada / L'eglise Unie du Canada could play a crucial role in the journey to a new Canada.   As a member of this denomination, I affirm our church’s self-purification processes awakened largely in the 1980s and reinforced in the Apologies of 1986 and 1998, and confirmed in  the  humbling but faithful participation in the Residential Schools Settlement processes.   I regard the ongoing effort of our General Council to re-define the relationship between the “Settler” church and the Indigenous church as both a sign of the quagmire that was created and as a sign of hope affirming the quest for a new way. 

I also take very seriously the whole Church’s less obvious, but very real, historic and ongoing participation in all aspects of the national regime of subjugating Indigenous Peoples.  This requires ongoing repentance and continuation of intentional acts of contrition and reparation by church folk and all Canadians.

But it is the larger societal framework that all Canadians of goodwill need urgently seek to renew.  I believe that the United Church could and should spark an interfaith movement involving the Canadian Council of Churches, Kairos – Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, other Christian churches and organizations, along with Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and other faith organizations.   The collaboration and common voice of faith communities could become a powerful sign for hope and reconciliation.  The movement's goal would be to undergird the powers-that-be in their pursuit of that post-Indian Act societal framework. 

The nation as a whole and the United Church  have long and tested experiences of working with people of goodwill and faith in seeking justice and peace for Canada and beyond.   Now is the time to maximize this experience and rally voices for a renewed way of being a just and peaceful society.

As M.L.King proclaimed and I believe, the “revolution” can’t wait any longer.  The voices of Indigenous Peoples and their allies in the quest for justice need to be heard and honoured.  The Crown’s governments – federal and provincial – need to take seriously the treaties with Indigenous Peoples, the inherent rights which transcend the laws of the land, and the various moral imperatives which require a “reconciliation” effecting the “two-row wampum” vision of ancestors.

Now is the time for revolutionary action – peaceful, non-violent, respectful, imaginative, innovative, humble, and creative, but also determined and persistent - to end what should never have been and to embrace what all Canadians long for and the Creator intends.   We can’t wait!

*Ed. Note: M.L.King used the word term “the Negro” in general use in the 1960s.  After the civil rights revolutions “African American” or "Black people" became respectful usage. In this post I will use “African-Americans” and “Blacks” respecting the evolution of language to usage reflective of a commitment to greater justice.