Clergy of different races, faiths honor King's call for justice

Fifty-one years after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the chairman of the Arlington Heights-based Illinois Commission on Diversity and Human Relations called on clergy of all religious institutions in the Northwest suburbs to take the lead in making civil rights and social justice a societal priority.

"We just felt there was a need to get people of faith involved," the Rev. Clyde Brooks said before a service Thursday to commemorate King and his message at Destiny Church in Hoffman Estates. "We're supposed to carry the moral baton."

Ahead of the service, local religious leaders of various faiths and ethnicities gathered to discuss the roles they should play in overcoming different forms of injustice.

Even among Christian churches there is too wide a gap between whites and black in the suburbs, Brooks said. And religious leaders often don't stand up for justice the way they should for fear of losing members and money or appearing too political, he added.

But Brooks praised the Rev. Peter Warmanen, lead pastor of Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights, as a white clergyman who should be a model for religious leaders of all faiths and colors. Warmanen hosted last year's commemoration service for King at his own church and facilitated this year's at Destiny Church.

Warmanen fondly recalled the unscripted end of last year's service as worshippers gathered in a circle as they sang the words "We Need Each Other."

He reminded this year's participants that King wanted to be remembered as a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.

"Fifty-one years after Dr. King's death, we continue to march to his beat," he said.

Rabbi Taron Tachman of Beth Tikvah Congregation in Hoffman Estates said Jewish people and his congregation in particular have a history of dedication to social justice in the United States, particularly after feelings of helplessness during the Holocaust.

Beth Tikvah's founding rabbi, Hillel Gamoran, accepted King's invitation for religious leaders to join in the second voting rights march in Selma, Alabama in 1965, Tachman said. And the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover is meant to be much more than just a celebration of one's own release from oppression, he added.

"Because you were oppressed, you have a responsibility to help others who are oppressed," Tachman said.