Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look and an ever-changing culture through the lens of

Unchanging Truth.

With the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Back in 2009, Chuck Colson partnered with Dr. Robert George and Dr. Timothy George

to develop a statement, a robust defense of life, marriage and religious liberty.

It was called the Manhattan Declaration, a statement of Christian conscience.

In it, the authors made a bold statement, quote,

there's no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than

the one offered by Martin Luther King Jr. in his letter from a Birmingham jail.

Although there have been recent revelations about Dr. King that seemed a point to significant

moral failings on his part, his explanation and a letter from a Birmingham jail about

the nature of law, about what constitutes an unjust law, and how we should respond to

unjust laws is a masterpiece of applied theology.

So today on Martin Luther King Day, here's Chuck Colson with a commentary about Dr. King

and his letter from a Birmingham jail.

It was originally aired in January of 2000.

Here's Chuck.

A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God.

An unjust law is out of harmony with the moral law.

It was with these very words in his memorable letter from the Birmingham jail that Martin

Luther King Jr. threw down the gauntlet in his great civil rights crusade.

King refused to obey what he regarded as an immoral law that did not square with the

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