Building Beloved Community for Such a Time as This

Opinion

by

Perspectives

Special to United Methodist Insight | January 21, 2026 

Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai Address to McKendree University, Lebanon, Illinois, at the Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award Celebration.

Friends, my topic today is Building Beloved Community for Such a Time as This. I lift this topic in honor of McKendree’s MLK Humanitarian Award recipients and in recognition that this week, all over the country, we celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  As you know, Dr. King popularized the concept of Beloved Community. I draw today from his writings, his teaching and his activism for social change.

I also draw from ancient sources, namely the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. In particular, I draw from the story of Queen Esther. Many of you know this story. A queen named Vashti was deposed from the throne for standing up to the king. She was one of the “she-roes” of the Bible in her own right. But so was Esther. Because Esther became the next queen. And when officials in the king’s palace planned a genocide against the Jews, Esther’s uncle Mordecai urged her to advocate on behalf of her people. He warned her that to keep silent would be deadly. This is what Mordecai told Esther,

“For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish…Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” Esther 4: 14-15 (NRSV)

Esther responded to Mordecai’s call and used her position to advocate for her people “for just such a time as this.” Perhaps we, too, have come to our places of leadership for such a time as this. Therefore, I begin this address with a question that is as relevant to us today as it was in Esther’s time or in Dr. King’s time: What time is it?

We are at a time of rapid social change. AI is ascendant. And though it offers great possibilities for human progress, it also poses challenges. What will happen if AI replaces middle and working-class jobs? What will happen when work, which is so central to human survival and dignity, is more precarious than it already is?  

Already, I imagine, AI is impacting all of our lives in both positive and disruptive ways. Any seniors among us, who are job hunting, have already discovered that often AI is doing initial screenings instead of a real person in a human resources department.  And, as job seekers, you are having to figure out key words to include in your resumes so that you are not automatically excluded.

I raise these issues about the job market, but there is an even more fundamental question about AI. Namely, how is it impacting our relationships? People are talking about AI therapists and people falling in love with their AI companions. What will our society become when we no longer know how to relate to one another as human beings?

And friends, AI is not the only technology that is driving change and disruption. Social media, which was supposed to bring us together, is instead driving us apart. Algorithms are the wizards behind the curtain, ginning up fear, increasing polarization, driving extremism, all for the sake of clicks.

These changes in technology—not to mention climate change and global migration—are having a dramatic impact on us all. And, it has not been that long since a global pandemic, which killed millions and profoundly isolated us from one another, left us reeling. We also have experienced a loss of trust in institutions and in one another. Indeed, that loss of trust is so profound that often we cannot agree on what is real.

All of this is destabilizing. And, when this kind of destabilization becomes rampant in a society, historians tell us what happens. Societies become more vulnerable to authoritarian forms of government and to authoritarian leaders. Thus, we are seeing the breakdown, worldwide, of democratic systems and norms, and a global rise in authoritarianism and its associated violence. Authoritarianism, as you know, is a system in which power and authority are concentrated in the hands of a few, systems of accountability are perverted, democratic norms and civil liberties are weakened, and the rule of law is diminished or destroyed.   

The United Methodist Council of Bishops recently released a resource called “Building Beloved Community: the Courage to Love in the Face of Tyranny.” This is how that resource describes these dynamics:

“Authoritarian movements typically offer a simplistic narrative about a nation’s history, identify scapegoats to blame for present conditions, and propose a path forward that often depends on the marginalization and suppression of certain people, policies, and ideas. These narratives may bear little resemblance to reality, but they provide the psychological comfort of certainty in uncertain times.”[1]

That is why I pose the question, “What time is it?” Because I believe that it is time we urgently work to build beloved community as an antidote to the extremism and fear growing around us.

So, what do I mean by beloved community? What did King mean?

Dr. King was a theologian and a Baptist minister. He was a student of the Bible. And he knew what many of us know about the Bible – that the word “love” is repeated hundreds of times. Indeed, love is talked about as the very essence of the identity of God. As the Council of Bishops resource notes,

“The concept of beloved community emerges from the deepest insights of Christian faith about the nature of God and God’s intentions for creation. If God is love, as 1 John 4:8 declares, then communities that reflect God’s character must be organized around love rather than power, around mutual care rather than individual advantage, around justice that lifts up the vulnerable rather than systems that protect the privileged.”[2]

Beloved community is based in the identity of God, but it is also based on the idea that God calls people into relationships of love. That first relationship is with the divine. Then we are called into loving relationships with each other.  As both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures say, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul. And your neighbor as yourself.”[3]  

The love of God is inextricably woven into the love of neighbor. We cannot love God without loving our neighbor. The Bible goes on to command love for the stranger and even of enemies. Such calls to love are based on Scripture’s understanding of the nature of human beings as made in the image of God and beloved by God. Thus, all people are of sacred worth. All people are to be valued and treated with dignity. We must reject ideas about the superiority of one group of people over another because of race, ethnicity, gender or gender identity. Indeed, the Scripture tells us, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for we are all one in Christ Jesus,” (Galatians 3:28).

Friends, I realize that I am speaking from the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures. Christianity is my tradition. But I do not suppose that everyone in this room is Christian, Jewish or even religious. Still, the call to love is intrinsic to every faith and goes beyond faith traditions. Indeed, the call and the impulse to love are the most basic signifiers of our humanity. The ability and commitment to love is intrinsic to a healthy community. The commitment to building communities based in love is the highest of human callings.

Dr. King knew this. Thus, he based his movement, not on trying to gin up hatred, but by promoting nonviolent direct action rooted in beloved community. This is what Dr. King said about his methods,

“The end (the goal of nonviolent direct action) is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.”[4]  

King modeled his movement on nonviolence. For him, nonviolence was based in Jesus’ call to love even your enemy. Thus, King devoted himself to loving those who persecuted him, even when they turned hoses and dogs on him and his followers.

Now, make no mistake, Dr. King was not passive. He was active in his search for justice. He spoke out, he organized, and he marched. But in doing so, he sought reconciliation over retribution, mutual respect over winning, forgiveness over bitterness, love over hatred. Dr. King sought beloved community.

And today, in these times in which we find ourselves, we are called to continue Dr. King’s legacy by building beloved community. And as we honor the awardees today, we recognize that what they have done is an expression of this highest calling—to love and to build communities of love.

Indeed, they have done this by mentoring young people. They have provided welcoming spaces for students and practiced radical hospitality, not asking who anyone is or what they believe or where they are from as some requirement for admission. They have opened the doors of this community in hospitality and love. They have recognized the humanity and sacred worth of all. They have declared, through their service, that building beloved community is the animating value of their lives.  They have nurtured and built beloved community and so have extended the legacy of Dr. King.

May we do what they have done and even more. In fact, I want to end by suggesting some of the ways that we might continue Dr. King’s legacy, and the legacy of our awardees, by building beloved community in the context of the current crisis in this country.

  • Let us cross boundaries to help those who are different.
  • Let us build networks of support and solidarity with marginalized communities such as People of Color, immigrants and refugees, the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, and others.
  • Let us follow Jesus’ example and welcome the stranger and the immigrant. Let us follow the highest commandment to love and serve our neighbors.
  • Let us use our voices, while we still can, to defend fairness, justice and the rule of law for ourselves and our neighbors.
  • And now I am going to suggest something really radical. Let us read books. Let’s put down the social media and stop feeding the algorithms that are driving the polarization in our country.
  • Let us read books, because when we read books, we train ourselves to think critically and are not as easily swayed by propaganda and misinformation.
  • Specifically, let us read literature. When we read literature, we learn how to empathize and feel and be in solidarity with people of different places, times and experiences.
  • Let us read history. When we read history, we can see the signs of what is happening right in front of us, put current events into historical context, and hear voices from the past that can teach us what to do.  
  •  Let us read theology and philosophy. When we read philosophy and theology, we understand concepts of the divine and of the human condition and are not as easily swayed by ideologies built on power and hate.
  • And dare I say, let us even read the Scriptures. Because when we read Holy Scripture for ourselves, we can reclaim what the Scriptures really say, especially about love.
  • And finally, let us pray, for our country and the world, for our civil institutions and those who support them, for our young people, especially our students, and for those all over the world who refuse to be silent.

Now I want to end by sharing one last quote from the book, "Building Beloved Community": The Courage to Love in the Face of Tyranny. Please hear these words of hope:

“In our current global context, where the forces of division seem strong and the challenges overwhelming, the work of building beloved community becomes itself a form of witness to the possibility of transformation. It demonstrates that another way is possible, that communities can be organized around love rather than fear, that diversity can be a source of strength rather than division, that the dream of beloved community can become concrete reality through the faithful work of those who refuse to accept hatred and division as the final word about human possibility.”[5]

Friends, another way is possible. The way of love. The way of Beloved Community.  May it be so. Thank you.

[1] Building Beloved Community: The Courage to Love in the Face of Tyranny, The United Methodist Council of Bishops, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2025, p. 12

[2] Ibid., p. 148

[3] See Leviticus 19:18 and Matthew 22: 36-40

[4] Ibid., p.96

[5] Ibid. p. 154

Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai is resident episopal leaders of the Iowa Conference of The United Methodist Church, and shares oversight of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference with Bishop David A. Bard of Michigan Conference. This article is republished from the Iowa Conference website.