This Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, I am spending some time reading Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or A Nightmare by James Cone.

In it, he talks about the motto of the AME church: "God our Father, Christ our Redeemer, Man our Brother" and that the AME bishops in 1896 said "When these sentiments are universal in theory and practice then the mission of the distinct colored organization will cease."

In 1960, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke on Meet the Press saying

“I think it is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies that at eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours if not the most segregated hours in Christian America”.

For this Martin Luther King, Jr. day, perhaps we can combine the two to say one of the shameful tragedies of our nation is that sentiment that all men and women are our brothers and sisters is still not yet universal in theory and practice.