Liberty holds 'Celebrate Unity' event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day ...

Liberty University honored the legacy of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 20 by hosting “Celebrate Unity: A Reflection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

The event, hosted by the LU One’s Opportunity & Enrichment Office, welcomed students, faculty, and staff to the Montview Alumni Ballroom to remember the inspirational work of King and how his dream and vision is still alive today.

Following an introduction by Associate Director of the Office of Opportunity and Enrichment Walter Virgil and an opening prayer by John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Professor Dr. David Wheeler, Liberty’s multiethnic gospel choir LU Praise took the stage and led the audience in singing “This is the Day” and “You are Worthy of it All.”

Following worship, five students representing LU One’s diverse community recited Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Deam” speech. A video was shown featuring many student leaders and resident assistants from around campus encouraging the audience to make a difference and ignite change in their communities.

Virgil then welcomed Senior Pastor of Waymaker Church John Dupin on stage to deliver the main message. Dupin began by reflecting on two pictures hanging in his office. One picture is a Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.” The other is a 1962 picture of evangelist Billy Graham standing beside King.

“These two men forged a spiritual friendship at the height of both of their influence in American culture,” he said. “That picture in 1962 really captures that moment.”

Dupin said their friendship evolved into a spiritual friendship, and that friendship and the study of God moved Graham from “indifference to activation.” Dupin emphasized that Jesus exhorted us to unity in the spirit in John 17.

“Jesus prayed in that moment that we as people, the people who claim to know the spirit, people who claim to be walking the way and the truth and the life, that we would be united,” Dupin said. “We would be united in love. We would be united in service. We would be united and that our ethnicity would take a second tier to that, that our culture and our socioeconomic status and all those things in between will take a second to the first — and that is we are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.”

“We know that what Dr. King was saying is the same thing here, and it is only that spirit that can truly, ultimately, bring racial unity, biblical unity,” he added. “Mature followers of Jesus cannot justify racism in our theology.”

Dupin told a personal story of when he met an African American woman and asked her what the key to racial unity was, and she answered, “friendship.” At the time, Dupin realized he had no African American friends, and he prayed fervently that the Lord would bring more friends into his life so he could practice unity. Three months later, Dupin said he met Virgil at a scheduled lunch that ended up lasting three hours. Dupin asked Virgil at the end of the lunch if he wanted to be friends, and that question began a close, spiritual friendship that continues today and has led to other opportunities.

“Practicing spiritual friendship is the antidote to prejudice,” Dupin said. “And prayer is the greatest introduction. Why? Because proximity offers trust. When we get together, like right now, trust starts to form. Trust builds friendship and friendship binds us spiritually. … All of a sudden you start finding out even though they may have different stories, different cultures, and different ethnicities, they still go through the same struggles. They’re praying about the same thing. They want the same things.”

Dupin referred to David and Jonathan in the Bible as an example of a close, spiritual friendship and how they were “one in spirit.”

“(David) had different friends, different relationships, but never like this. Never one in spirit,” he said. “What does that mean? It means mutual respect. It means mutual sharpening. A friend who will call you up, call you out, and call you forward.”

Dupin closed by exhorting the audience to pursue friendships with people different from them.

“What would happen if we just started making friends with people who are different from us? All of a sudden, we find ourselves in rooms we never thought we’d be in, making friends with people we never thought we would, and we prioritize things differently,” he said.

LU Praise followed Dupin’s sermon with their powerful rendition of “Total Praise,” and Liberty President Dondi E. Costin closed with prayer. Before dismissing the crowd, in the spirit of the holiday, a national day of service, Virgil encouraged the students to register for Liberty’s annual Serve Lynchburg event on April 26, hosted by LU Serve, which provides opportunities for students to serve in the Lynchburg area.

“When we talked about forging friendships, there’s no better way to do that than to serve together,” Virgil said. “On April 26, there are going be a multitude of opportunities for you to find the space and place you can serve in. Take advantage of this so we can show forth our commitment to living out the legacy of Dr. King but also as we continue to charge forward in allowing our community to see what unified champions for the Lord are prepared to do.”