A new documentary on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gives viewers a deeper understanding of the faith that shaped his ministry and led him to embrace the Civil Rights Movement as a calling from God.
“When Faith Calls,” a six-part docuseries produced by The King Center, was screened Thursday evening at The Carter Center during a program hosted by journalist Soledad O’Brien. A public release date for the documentary has not been announced.
Rather than solely recounting the history of the Civil Rights Movement, the documentary offers a look at the spiritual foundation of King’s ministry and calling to serve, and his willingness to lay down his life in the pursuit of justice and the recognition of a shared humanity.
A panel discussion before the screening featured King Center CEO Rev. Dr. Bernice A. King, Dr. Alveda C. King, Ambassador Andrew Young, Isaac N. Farris Jr., Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson, Dr. Susannah Heschel, Rev. Dr. Robert M. Franklin, historian Dr. Lewis V. Baldwin and moderator Dr. Vonnetta L. West.
The event itself became a calling to consider what faith requires in moments of injustice. Throughout the discussion and the documentary, speakers returned to the idea that faith is not only a matter of personal belief but a commitment expressed through service, courage and action.
Bernice King said her father’s “agape love” shaped his commitment to nonviolence.
“Faith was not separated from his work,” she told the audience. “It was the foundation of it … His belief in moral courage could transform individuals, communities and nations. It gave him the strength to continue even in the face of hatred, violence, threats and tremendous personal sacrifices.”
Baldwin, professor emeritus of religious studies at Vanderbilt University, said the late civil rights leader’s faith was never centered on his own well-being but on serving others.
“We are not seeing much of this today,” Baldwin said. “It is not enough to simply honor Dr. King. We need to reclaim the idea of faith as a call to action and a call to service.”
The film also highlights the thousands of men and women who were committed to nonviolence along with King.
The documentary recounts the training young civil rights activists received before participating in lunch-counter sit-ins and other demonstrations. They were taught to withstand verbal abuse, humiliation and physical attacks without retaliating. In one reflection of a lunch-counter sit-in, a young woman’s hair was set on fire by a white attacker. As another activist moved to extinguish the flames, she stopped him, saying, “Do not interfere with my suffering.”
Each of the documentary’s six episodes runs 18 minutes. The titles are “It Has to Call You;” “Taking Up the Cross;” “Who Is Their God?;” “A Love That Forgives;” “Speaking Truth to Power;” and “Love in Action.”
Bishop William J. Barber II closed the evening in prayer, asking that people “not only remember Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King in celebration,” but that, in today’s political turbulence, they take up “the baton” with a renewed commitment to faith, justice and loving those who live on the margins of society.
“Let us have the courage to believe that even our enemies can change if they can hear through you,” Barber prayed. “…[Help us] to organize and activate and march even to the polls in every single state …for your politics are far greater than any single political candidate.”
Barber called it a “divine summons.”
“Let us call everybody to the table of democracy and vote for the vision of love and justice…” he said.
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