..somehow i had forgotten...

...how much Martin Luther King talked about God/Jesus/the Church right alongside those often quoted statements of Justice/Love/Nonviolence.

This is the actual context of one of my favorite quotes of his... I enlarged the part of the quote I remembered hearing... (Its from a sermon "Transformed Nonconformist" included in the book Strength to Love)

We need to recapture the gospel glow of the early Christians who were nonconformist in the truest sense of the word and refused to shape their witness according to the mundane patterns of the world. Willingly they sacrificed fame, fortune, and life itself in behalf of a cause they knew to be right. Quantitatively small, they were qualitatively giants. Their powerful gospel put an end to such barbaric evils as infanticide and bloody gladiatorial contests...
Gradually, however, the church became so entrenched in wealth and prestige that it began to dilute the strong demands of the gospel and to conform to the ways of the world. And ever since, the church has been a weak and ineffectual trumpet making uncertain sounds. If the church of Jesus Christ is to regain once more its power, message and authentic ring, it must conform only to the demands of the gospel. The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace, and brotherhood.

Its a slightly different message... full of a wider Truth, but also much stricter.

And in honor of the great man slain, here's another quote (full of hope)

“When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” — Martin Luther King Jr.