Mark's Blog

In anyone’s list of great American speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is among the very best.  As I thought about great modern speeches, I thought about Franklin Roosevelt’s “The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself,” delivered early in the Depression that brought America to dusty knees.

I thought about John Kennedy’s “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You” speech, delivered when a country was afraid it might be losing its place in the world to Communism.

Then, in a very different time, Ronald Reagan lifted a nation’s broken heart after the Challenger disaster in just about four minutes of carefully planned rhetoric, including the final words about the ill-fated astronauts who “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God.”  He also is created practically with the fall of the Berlin Wall with his “Tear Down This Wall” speech.

I wonder if we will ever have another speech of this caliber by an American statesman?  Bill Clinton was a great speaker, but both his most famous as well most notorious speeches seem to all deal with infidelity.  Both Presidents Bush could occasionally produce a reasonable sound bite, but I don’t believe either will make the rhetorical Hall of Fame.

President Obama has great moments!  His eloquence is apparent, but history will judge if his words and ideas inspire future generations as great speeches do!

Of all of these, I believe Dr. King’s is the one that will last the longest. His words are not pretentious; the metaphors are simple, but the power of his rhetoric stirs people to tears even now, some forty-eight years after that day in Washington D.C., on the mall.

If you just think about each of the speeches above, some commonalities are strikingly obvious:

1              The address is unashamedly bipartisan—universal. King does not talk only to or about African-Americans. He talks about “all of God’s children!” Kennedy talks to “my fellow Americans.”  Strident, partisan rhetoric may capture the votes of the masses, but the words have no lasting power.

2.            The words are all meant to bring people together, to unite people behind great ideals! Freedom, universal needs, human rights, these have been ideas that have inspired great work and great words since men could speak. Petty people have petty ideas. Great people rise above pettiness.

3.            Lofty language carries lofty ideas. Sherrylee and I visited the JFK Presidential Library in Boston last year. I remember clearly reading the instructions that JFK gave to his speech writers for his inauguration. He asked for brevity, he asked for simplicity of ideas, but he also asked for memorable language.

We do not live in an age that appreciates lofty language. In fact, perhaps the opposite is true. We are suspicious of rhetoric and we don’t understand metaphor.  Brief attention spans, 24-hour news cycles, and information overload have made extraneous words obsolete!  But are the right words ever unnecessary??

President Reagan could have closed his Challenger remarks by saying, “We are all saddened by their death!” instead of quoting the poetic lines about touching the face of God, but would anyone have remembered it?

President Kennedy could have said, “Don’t expect government handouts; get busy and accomplish your own goals and we’ll all be better off!—but who would remember what he said?

Dr. King could have argued legally the case for civil rights, or simply scathed white Americans for lynching the civil rights of Black Americans. Instead he found rhythm and poetry that lives on!

They all chose lofty words, inspiring words, words that were delivered to bring people together, words that captured people’s imaginations with images they understood.

I have a dream that we can talk civilly to each other in public, that we will expect our leaders to do the same, that we will vote out abusive rhetoric in politics.

I have a dream that we will allow sublime language back into our churches to lift our spirits, to inspire us, to unite us, to help us imagine God, to help us hear His Spirit.

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God!”

We once made the acquaintance of a young Greek girl named Mary. She was a wonderful person, but unchurched, so we gave her a copy of the New Testament in Modern Greek. When we gave it to her, we opened it to the Gospel of John and asked her to read these first verses. As she did, she began to cry. She said, she had never read anything so beautiful!

She did go to church with us, but then we lost contact, so I don’t know if the beautiful words became saving words for her or not. I have no doubt, however, that salvation is beautiful, that it is lofty! After all—The Word IS God!