Calvary Baptist Church and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church welcomed faith leaders and parishioners from Bridghampton to Montauk on Sunday for this year’s interfaith celebration of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — his life, his teachings, his message.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism were represented at St. Luke’s in East Hampton for a program called “We Are the World!” Faith leaders from nine different places of worship spoke, with the music of a choir and a selection of poems read by local students.
“Islam is of the view that all humans are equal, and it does not allow discrimination based on sex, race, origin, religion, and so on,” Dr. Asma Rashid of the Islamic Center of the Hamptons in Bridgehampton said, emphasizing instead “it’s really what we do on earth in terms of deeds, how people perceive us” that matters, thus reflecting the spirit of Dr. King.
Rabbi Joshua Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons spoke of the civil rights activism of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was a friend of Dr. King’s and marched with him from Selma to Birmingham, Ala.
“He saw the injustices being brought upon American citizens,” Mr. Franklin said, “the same kind he saw in Nazi Germany, and he stood up for what he believed in to fight injustices that he saw right here in our country.”
Mr. Franklin noted one of the rabbi’s teachings, that “the opposite of good is not evil, the opposite of good is indifference,” adding, “Let’s reject indifference.”
A few speakers remarked how the celebration of Dr. King’s birthday on Monday coincided with the swearing-in of Donald Trump for his second term as president.
“We are at this moment a divided and polarized nation,” the Rev. Cecily Broderick of Christ Church in Sag Harbor said, “and I wonder if celebrating Dr. King and the inauguration at the same time gives us an opportunity to recommit ourselves to being a beloved community.”
In such a community, one has to “commit yourself to listen when you speak to someone else for understanding. . . . If we in our interactions with others lay a groundwork for good will,” she said, “then even if no one agrees with us, we have not been dragged out of the beloved community, and we have preserved it.”
