Disgust precedes change, a pastor said Sunday at an event honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Get disgusted," the Rev. Christopher Swims told the crowd of about 200 people at Greater Dimension Ministries' 27th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration Program. "You have to get disgusted before you can really, truly make a change.

"See the problem. Be disgusted. Be horrified that our children are being locked up, that there are atrocities still. See the problem, become the solution."

Swims, senior pastor of Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Carbondale, Illinois, said change starts with people working in their communities.

"It starts with me," he said. "It starts with us, with our city, with our neighbors."

Odarion Morris performs a praise dance Sunday during the 27th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration Program at Greater Dimension Ministries in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

Swims said people easily could make a long list of all that is wrong in the community and in the world, but it is necessary for each person to find a problem and to be part of the solution.

"It is not up to the people we elect into office to make the difference. It is up to each and every one of us to lay the seed, to start to change what's wrong into what's right," he said.

Swims opened with a retelling of the story of the Biblical figure Nehemiah, central figure to the Book of Nehemiah, which tells the story of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

"One cannot talk about Dr. King without talking about his God," he said. "He was a great minister before he was called to the purpose we know him for today. And Dr. King knew well the story of Nehemiah, a faithful man, an ordinary man, who hears the walls of Jerusalem have burned, and his people are living in disgrace. He begins to pray, he acknowledges his people have not always done right, and he asks God for a solution. What he did not know is that God's answer would be that he, Nehemiah, would be the answer for his own question."

The story of Nehemiah just as well could be the story of each of us, Swims said.

"This is how we will honor Dr. King and all that he did," he said. "Ask yourself, 'What can I do?'"

The annual celebration's program included speakers, singers and celebratory dances. Attendees were encouraged to participate, and many did.

Organizer Debra Mitchell-Braxton, speaking from a pulpit bearing a flag picturing King, reminded attendees King began his ministry with visits to prisons and those who most needed to be uplifted.

"He wanted for us what God wanted for us," she said. "He wanted us to live in love with each other."

She said the celebration of King's birthday honored him and his work, but the official holiday was to recognize all the people of every ethnicity and background who fought alongside him and continue to work for peace.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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