Reflections on Inauguration Day and MLK Day
As we begin this next chapter, may we be inspired by the life and legacy of Dr. King, a Baptist minister who led a broad and diverse coalition of freedom fighters in a long — and unfinished — cause for justice, equity and dignity for all of God’s children.
I write with a heavy and resolute heart on this January 20, 2025. Eight years ago today, Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. At the time, I was living in Washington, D.C., less than three miles from the White House. I also was in my first month on the job as executive director of BJC.
Much has changed in the past eight years: for the world, for the country, for BJC and for me, personally. And yet, we will again today witness an inauguration of Donald Trump, this time as the 47th President of the United States. Given the promises made by President-elect Trump over the course of the campaign, the people he has tapped to lead in his administration, and the immunity granted to him by the U.S. Supreme Court, we know that these next four years are not just a repeat of history. We know that much more is at stake for American democracy and for vulnerable communities.
When President-elect Trump takes the oath of office in just a few hours, I will be on my way to the nation’s capital. I am not going because of the inaugural festivities, but instead I am traveling to meet in person with the BJC team as we continue our work in D.C. and across the country for faith freedom for all. I will also be meeting with faith leaders who are coming to town from their communities as we prepare for our continued ministry for justice. Our time together will be for strategy and for spiritual grounding.
Today is also the day set aside for us, as a nation, to pause and remember the remarkable life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Given the racism and injustice of many of the policies that President-elect Trump has put forward, including a cruel mass deportation plan, it feels like an affront to Dr. King’s legacy to have President-elect Trump take the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda, at the opposite end of the National Mall from where Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. It is a painful reminder that Dr. King’s dream is still not reality.
Twenty years ago, when I was a first-year associate at a law firm, a partner at my firm circulated the text of Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on MLK Day. Since then, I’ve made it my custom to read the letter to mark the holiday each year. In re-reading it this year, I am struck by how challenging, encouraging and applicable his words are to the moment we find ourselves in today.
Dr. King was writing to a Christian audience — specifically responding to white moderates who were urging him to slow down in his use of nonviolent direct action to challenge unjust segregation laws. I think his writing should be required reading for white Christians today.
As we prepare for an onslaught of discriminatory policies, many of which will be cloaked in the language of Christian nationalism, we can learn from our past and from Dr. King’s prophetic witness about speaking truth to power and acting in faithful resistance to unjust systems. We can remember that apathy and compliance to wrongs makes us complicit in wrongdoing. We can reclaim the zeal of early Christians who upset the status quo in the model of Jesus, who came to disrupt the powerful and preached that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Over the next four years, all of us will have opportunities to stand with the oppressed, the marginalized and the most vulnerable to harm. As we begin this next chapter, may we be inspired by the life and legacy of Dr. King, a Baptist minister who led a broad and diverse coalition of freedom fighters in a long — and unfinished — cause for justice, equity and dignity for all of God’s children.
