Performed by the Swedish Radiochoir and KMH Kammarkör at St Jacobs kyrka in Stockholm on april 11 2014. Conducted by Philip Faber.

This piece is written as a dedication to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and as a reminder of the things he said. The text comes from a sermon called “But if not” that Dr. King gave at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on November 5, 1967.  He tells a story from the book of Daniel where the three Israelites, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, prisoners of the mighty king Nebuchadnezzar is commanded to bow before a golden image. They refuse, saying that even if their own god should abandon them they will not give in to evil.

Dr. King goes on and explains that these men practiced civil disobedience, which is one of the main tools in pacifist movements such as Gandhi’s cause for an independent India, and Dr. Kings own fight for civil rights in America. He also makes a reference to Nazi-Germany in the clause that human laws sometimes are out of harmony with a higher, moral law, hence calling for actions of civil disobedience.

But the most important point and the main essence of the 23-minute sermon is, in my opinion, best described in this passage:

 “Religion is not a bargaining experience. It is not a commercial relationship. [  ]…If you're doing right merely to keep from going to something that traditional theology has called hell then you aren't doing right. If you do right merely to go to a condition that theologians have called heaven, you aren't doing right. If you are doing right to avoid pain and to achieve happiness and pleasure then you aren't doing right. Ultimately you must do right because it's right to do right. And you got to say "But if not." You must love ultimately because it's lovely to love. You must be just because it's right to be just. You must be honest because it's right to be honest… [  ]… Think of love. Think of friendship. These things are not based on “if”, but they are based on “though”.




But If Not - Dubbelkör

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