"Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew, 18:20)
SFTS Lodge Altar
In our first Conversations in Theosophy of 2026, we honored the memory of the great Bodhisattva Dr. Martin Lither King, Jr., sharing readings from his "Strength of Love" sermons and discussing the relevance of their message in this time of trial and tribulation.
Published in 1963, "Strength of Love" is a collection of sermons which he started writing during a fourteen day jail sentence during protests in Albany, Georgia (July 1962) and finished before launching protests in Birmingham, Alabama (early 1963).
- King worried that the force of his spoken words would not make the transition to the printed page and wrote in the book’s preface that his reservations had “grown out of the fact that a sermon is not an essay to be read but a discourse to be heard. It should be a convincing appeal to a listening congregation ...” - The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University
In our circle's ensuing dialogue, the striking resonance of the sermon's message with the Theosophical Society's Three Avowed Objects was highlighted.
- To form a nucleus of universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
- To encourage the comparative study of religion, philosophy and science.
- To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.
Here are three short video clips from the presentation, interspersed with quotes from the text.
- There is little hope for us in our personal or collective lives until we become tough minded enough to rise about the shackles of half-truth and legends. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of soft minded. A nation of soft minded men is purchasing its own spiritual death through an installment plan. - MLK, Jr., "Strength of Love," 1963.
- Jesus reminds in a striking way that the good life demand combining the toughness of th serpent with the tenderness of the dove. To have serpent-like qualities devoid of dove-like qualities is to be passionless, mean and selfish. To have dove like qualities without serpent like qualities is to be sentimental, aimless, and empty. We must combine in our characters antithesis strongly marked. - MLK, Jr., "Strength of Love," 1963
- There is another way which combines tough mindnes with tender heartedness. It is tough minded enough to resist evil. It is tender hearted to resist it with love. It avoid the complacency and the do-nothingism of the soft minded and the violengoog_23981734ce and bitterness of the hard hearted - MLK, Jr., "Strength of Love," 1963
