Thanks to Elizabeth Thorpe for sharing the following excerpt from a sermon given by MLK on being "maladjusted". Truly words to live by for people of faith!
"There are certain technical words within every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is the word 'maladjusted.' Certainly we all want to live the well adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But I must honestly say to you tonight my friends that there are some things in our world, there are some things in our nation to which I’m proud to be maladjusted, to which I call upon all men of goodwill to be maladjusted until the good society is realized. I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism and the self defeating effects of physical violence.
And I say to you that I am absolutely convinced that maybe the world is in need for the formation of a new organization: 'The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment' -- men and women who will be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day would cry out in words that echo across the centuries: 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream;' as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery would etch across the pages of history words lifted to cosmic proportions: 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;' as maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth that said to the men and women of his day: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.' And through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice."
And I say to you that I am absolutely convinced that maybe the world is in need for the formation of a new organization: 'The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment' -- men and women who will be as maladjusted as the prophet Amos who in the midst of the injustices of his day would cry out in words that echo across the centuries: 'Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream;' as maladjusted as Abraham Lincoln who had the vision to see that this nation could not survive half slave and half free; as maladjusted as Thomas Jefferson who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery would etch across the pages of history words lifted to cosmic proportions: 'We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness;' as maladjusted as Jesus of Nazareth that said to the men and women of his day: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.' And through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood, 1965
