The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. strived to do both. In his sermon, \u201cA Tough Mind and a Tender Heart,\u201d<\/a> King acknowledges, \u201cIt is pretty difficult to imagine a single person having the characteristics of the serpent and the dove simultaneously; but this is what Jesus expects.\u201d He continues, \u201cWe must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove. In other words, Jesus is saying that individual life at its best requires the possession of a tough mind and a tender heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n King warns us of the ways we are susceptible to \u201csoft\u201d mindedness, observing that \u201cVery few people realize that even our authentic channels of information: the press, the platform and the pulpit, in many instances, do not give us objective and unbiased truth.\u201d We are subjected to propaganda and faulty rhetoric, the sort that deepens fundamentalism, racism, nationalism and all other \u201cisms\u201d which champion the desires of the privileged over the needs of the oppressed. It is the tough mind that counters falsehood and fearmongering with critical analysis and wise discernment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I like to think that I have a tough mind; I live so often in my head. Yet my mind is a messy place \u2014 often overburdened and overstimulated. Could King have imagined the barrage of information and misinformation served to us now morning, noon and night? Do I have the mental capacity and<\/em> the time available to develop a well-informed opinion on anything, let alone take a stand? Who is trustworthy? Where are my own blind spots? Everything urgently needs my attention. Some strike at the heels of the oppressors, only to get crushed. I don\u2019t like biting the antagonists; sometimes it\u2019s a trap. Instead I watch dog videos as an escape. My mind is not going soft, I argue against my guilt, it\u2019s just sedated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet we are humans who have not yet fully realized our God nature.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n King cautions against maintaining a tough mind at the expense of our tender hearts, lamenting that a hard-hearted person \u201cis too cold to have affection for another and too self-centered to have joy in another\u2019s joy and sorrow in another\u2019s sorrow.\u201d Examining my own emotional state and holding emotional space for others, I would suggest that many hearts that seem hardened are actually just numbed. They seek a respite from the pain they experience when witnessing or contemplating others\u2019 pain. Such a phenomenon is often referred to by the misnomer \u201ccompassion fatigue\u201d and is more accurately described as \u201cempathic distress<\/a>.\u201d Unalleviated, it can result in helplessness, hopelessness and eventual withdrawal from those who need our care. The dove is caught between claws or in a net; motionless, paralyzed.<\/p>\n\n\n What is the way forward for this entangled and unlikely couple, the serpent and the dove? The tender compassion of our God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus, who with the eyes of a dove, showed that he was moved with pity for the hungry crowds. Jesus, the tender hearted, could have handed over his own meager provisions, leaving himself, his disciples and the majority of those gathered with worsening hunger pains. Together they could perhaps have perished. Instead, deftly as a serpent, Jesus magnified the tenderheartedness of a child\u2019s offering, and the multitudes were fed, perhaps through an awakening of their own hearts, of their own generosity, of their new found sense of connection to an emerging community of believers. (John 6:1-14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, Jesus embodies God\u2019s nature, which King describes as a \u201ccreative synthesis of love and justice,\u201d illuminating a path to freedom that is \u201ctough minded enough to resist evil\u201d and \u201ctender hearted enough to resist it with love and nonviolence.\u201d Yet we are humans who have not yet fully realized our God nature. We struggle to envision the integration of our serpent and dove selves. For now let us imagine them as companions, working in unison for the good of the whole, and ask those who have led the way to intercede for us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sun of Justice, form us in your compassion<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the name of Love.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., pray that we remain of tough mind and tender heart<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Until all are free.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"martin-luther-king-junior-stone-carving-woman-peace-sign\"](\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/maria-oswalt-ZOwmHn7_7JY-unsplash-1-680x1024.jpg\")
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