Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi, or to the National Liberation Front. And I come this morning to my pulpit to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. And so this morning, I speak to you on this issue, because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?' Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. At the heart of their concerns, this query has often loomed large and loud: 'Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. Many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. Yes, we must stand, and we must speak.have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam. The truth must be told, and I say that those who are seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes the war in Vietnam is a fool or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers is a person that has taken a stand against the best in our tradition. But something is happening, and people are not going to be silenced. It's a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent. Now, of course, one of the difficulties in speaking out today grows the fact that there are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. This reveals that millions have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism, to the high grounds of firm dissent, based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. And even those millions who do support the war half-hearted, confused, and doubt-ridden. Additional millions cannot bring themselves around to support it. Polls reveal that almost fifteen million Americans explicitly oppose the war in Vietnam. And we must rejoice as well, for in all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war, by the American people. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we're always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal. 'Ye shall know the truth,' says Jesus, 'and the truth shall set you free.' Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. I preach to you today on the war in Vietnam because my conscience leaves me with no other choice. I'm using as a subject from which to preach, 'Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam.' Now, let me make it clear in the beginning, that I see this war as an unjust, evil, and futile war. The sermon which I am preaching this morning in a sense is not the usual kind of sermon, but it is a sermon and an important subject, nevertheless, because the issue that I will be discussing today is one of the most controversial issues confronting our nation.

Truth forever on the scaffold meaning