Dr. Martin Luther King at Sophienkirche Berlin, Sept. 13, 1964Professor of Religious Studies, Author, PhotographerDon Michael Hudson

Dr. Martin Luther King at Sophienkirche Berlin, Sept. 13, 1964

Christina and I were walking in Berlin Mitte early Sunday morning on our way to tour the underground in East Berlin. We were wandering the streets looking for a good cappuccino and German pastry. We stumbled upon this church–Sophienkirche. The front is bullet-riddled–I think–and it has stood for centuries. The church is German Evangelical and stood during the years of Soviet-Communist rule and remained holding worship services. Then we saw the poster that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had preached here and held lectures. MLK insisted on speaking to the Christians living in East Berlin, GDR, Sept. 13, 1964. Everything about his visit was communicated by word-of-mouth. So here was a Christian minister hated and slandered by multitudes of American Christians speaking to Christians persecuted and oppressed by the Stasi and the GDR. The church is next door to the oldest Jewish cemetery in Berlin, and across the street is an Islamic center.

“Martin Luther King was the first preacher and civil rights activist who came to the GDR.”

His message?

“No man-made barrier can erase the fact that God’s children live on both sides of the Wall.”

“Where people break down the walls of hostility that separate them from their brethren, there it is that Christ completes his ministry of reconciliation.”

May all walls come down.

But beware if you tell the truth to a world full of people hating the other(s).