Tepid Inaction

In the April 2013 issue, it was disconcerting to see the juxtaposition of Wesley Granberg-Michaelson’s well-intentioned but tepid “Breaking the Impasse” with the two articles on Martin Luther King Jr. The title of the statement by Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A., “We Dare Not Postpone Action,” perfectly captures what we need to do now for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King reserved his greatest disappointment for moderates with their “go slow” mantra. When Granberg-Michaelson writes of “small but vocal minorities with uncompromising positions at one end or another of the spectrum,” he falls into the trap of false equivalency, just as moderates did 50 years ago when they equated white violence with black protest.

Rev. Tim Vivian
Bakersfield, California