Excerpts: - Testimony of Mr. Roger Klaus, the Speeches of MOTHER DIVINE
and of Professor Leonard Primiano, Cabrini College.

Given Sunday, January 19th, 2003 in Recognition of Martin Luther King Day.

Plus the Story of Joseph Isaac King.



A group of brothers. Left to right:
LaVe re Belstrom, Leon Jeter, Graham Wescott, Roger Klaus,
.Aaron Enaharo, Hans Mahaska, James Hope and Murad Romanoff.

A group of brothers. Roger Klaus is 4th from the left

Roger Klaus:

 

 

 

I would like to say that FATHER DIVINE went through thirty-two lynch-mobs long before Martin Luther King was born. The honor that is being bestowed to Martin Luther King we know is really honor going to FATHER; even though the people don't know that FATHER was the Inspirer.

It is FATHER'S Spirit being carried on in other bodies as a part of the Kingdom of GOD. We all make up the Kingdom of GOD. And it is good to be here around the Body of GOD. This is the body of GOD. Like Paul said, in Chapter 12, each component makes up the Kingdom of Heaven...

So Martin Luther King, is worthy of the honor. We know that it was GOD in him that caused him to be recognized and caused the world to know that the unity of man is the ultimate. Like the Young man from Russia was saying tonight, that he did not know that people could live like this. He had never seen it.

This is what FATHER has done. It is not any goodness on our part. What FATHER has done is the cause of the expression here tonight. There is nothing greater than the Spirit that unites you in Righteousness; it's the key. As MOTHER said; as each of us lives a Righteous life according to our ability; we don't know the far-reaching effects it will bring. We know what FATHER did as a sample and example for us.

I thank you FATHER and MOTHER for it.

 

Professor Leonard Primiano

I was very much struck by FATHER'S Message, and MOTHER speaking about Righteousness. It is a word that I have to define to my students.. . . . It is considered that one needs to be made righteous in the sight of GOD. MOTHER brought up the point of being Righteous in the present..

There is such a thing as a righteous person, a good person.... This is the meaning I find that people don't know. In your every-day activities, you don't cheat people You don't think about self but as to how you can serve other people. You are still living what FATHER wanted you to live. (Sanctioned)

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King's Day. FATHER must be remembered for His enormous achievement, His boldness and His reflection of that in all of you, in continuing the fight against race-hatred .... (Dr. Primiano, addresses the guest- students from other parts of the world;) America is for all religions; and the Peace Mission is the climax of that.... even if you are not a member of the Peace Mission ... I always get something out of FATHER'S Message.

 

MOTHER DIVINE:

Peace FATHER, I think that is wonderful because the way society is now-a-days, they hardly think about what the true meaning of a Holiday is. So many take it as a time to go and do some of the things they want to do. They don't take the time to put into practice what they are honoring on that day. . . .

MOTHER DIVINE

 

 

 

 

It would be wonderful if that day (Martin Luther King Day) was really made sacred by demonstrating; finding a way to demonstrate, what his dream was. We thank You FATHER that in Your Teaching You have used "Demonstration" as a great teaching method. We were drawn by FATHER'S Spirit from many different walks of life and brought together; and we really learned by this great demonstration. We learned that we were all human beings and we were not to call each other hyphenated Americans of any kind. But, however, we did learn that we were supposed to demonstrate hyphenated-Americans by looking to see that we integrate. We would say "Enact the Bill."(meaning enact The Bill of Rights)

Everyone was told to "Enact the Bill" to demonstrate integration. The Rosebuds really prayed that there would be more who would come, that they could "Enact the Bill". FATHER'S Spirit brought them. And we slept together and worked together and did all these things and it was a great demonstration. When we drove down the streets, it was said. "There goes FATHER DIVINE'S Followers"-for we were Enacting the Bill."

We really thank You FATHER for these wonderful demonstrations; and we think it would be wonderful to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, because they really did go through a lot as the Spirit led them in those days, and to demonstrate it is really needed. FATHER really went to great extremes to demonstrate the abundance and equality ... That's why He liked to say that Ms. Peaceful was My bed-mate. Ms. Peaceful was just as dark as I was light. That was so wonderful, We really thank You FATHER. We cannot Honor You enough. The Greatest Honor we can give You is to really know deep down in our hearts that You are Almighty GOD, and that it is Your Great condescension to come and be with us and to be our Great Teacher and to lead us out of darkness into this Glorious Light. Thank You FATHER.

The service concluded with the following two songs:

We are Proud of Our FATHER for the Work He has done. - For accomplishments so great they could come from no other one. - They're above criticism and the whole world can see - They're the superlative works of GOD Almighty - For HE's working a work such as only GOD can - For the power HE displays wasn't given to man - The People come from near and far - And behold they stand in awe - I mean we're proud of our FATHER DIVINE.
You cannot live safely unless you live together. Unity is the way. - You cannot live safely unless you live together. Unity is the way. - Unity, unity. Unity, unity. Unity is the way.



The following is the story of Mr. Joseph Isaac King, Possibly the Great Uncle of Dr. Martin Luther King
(This testimony is secondhand, unverified, and depends on memories of a conversation more than 20 years before)

Joseph Isaac King was a believer and follower of the teaching of FATHER DIVINE.

Roger Klaus stated that Martin Luther King was aware of FATHER DIVINE'S Teaching and in order to establish this as fact, Mr. Eli Diana and Mr. Hezekiah Craig were asked for more information.. These two brothers live in California and for a time they, lived in the same home with Brother Joseph Isaac King who was a great uncle of Martin Luther King. The following was their response.

Joseph Isaac King, from what he told us, was born in 1870 in the house of Robert E. Lee. In fact at his burial in Los Angeles in the late seventies (Joseph King died of a heart attack ), some of the descendants of R. E. Lee, came to the funeral. This shows that the family where he had been raised as a boy never lost contact with him for over a hundred years. .The tie must have been very strong.

As a young man he worked in the coal mines around Birmingham, Alabama, and this is where, one day, coming out of the mine, in 1903, he saw FATHER for the first time. Even though FATHER kept a meek and insignificant appearance, King was strongly attracted, and he told us that the Message FATHER was giving then was consistent to what He kept telling us up to the sixties. He knew about MOTHER DIVINE in the First Body at the turn of the Century. King said that when he met FATHER for the first time, FATHER was wearing a little beard.

In 1906 he went to look at the devastation in San Francisco and he told me that he was with FATHER at the time.

The brothers questioned if we here in Philadelphia had a record of FATHER DIVINE being in San Francisco in 1906. We have no record of that but it is quite possible and even probable because at that time the Holy Ghost descended on California and FATHER would be there stirring things up.

Joseph used to voluntarily enlist for a period of time in the Army, to take a rest from the coal mines. The last time he did it, the first World War broke up. He must have been in such good shape that they never checked on his age. And so he was shipped to France, and the only memory he would talk about was: "Too many dead".

At the Divine Lorraine Hotel, in the fifties, on one Anniversary, while with a group of followers from California and passing in front of FATHER and MOTHER, he caught FATHER'S attention and FATHER kept looking at him in recognition.

King, with his stories that covered a full century, was 108 when he passed. . I wish I could have talked with him more, but by then the only place I saw him was at the Church Banquets on sundays. He had seen lots of changes in this country, and remembered Philadelphia when there were cobble stone streets and fields, and horses and buggies. Television fascinated him.

From Mr. Melchisedec who lived with him, we know his fortune, coming from real estate, surpassed at the time, one million dollars. And he received a substantial income of some twenty thousand dollars a month from rented apartment buildings he owned in Saint Louis and Chicago. He had purposely not raised the rent since the forties, and the grateful tenants took care of their own repairs and painting.

Looking at his bank book, he would tell Hezekiah right at the little table in the kitchen here where we are now, "Your money can make more money than you can,"- meaning the interest. His son,- and his grand sons, or great grand sons whom he brought to the Church on one occasion, inherited the estate. He had made some contributions to the Church, and to Martin Luther King as well, who was a relative of his and with whom he shared a striking resemblance. When Martin Luther King came to Los Angeles, in the sixties, he went personally to see Mr. King in his apartment on the West side.

Joseph Isaac King drove a station wagon up to his last days, and the Department of Motor Vehicles could not understand how he could pass the test without eyeglasses. FATHER blessed him with longevity and good health. Hezekiah recalls seeing him, on one of the paint jobs he helped him with, carrying two wooden ladders on his shoulder- and he was about one hundred years old then ! He was a very good physical specimen and in his youth must have had the strength of two men. He lived with Hezekiah at our brother's quarters, on 37th Drive, for some two years. Roger met him there. He loved to testify at the Church.

Thanking FATHER and MOTHER, we send our Peace and Love to All.

Eli / Hezekiah

Peace Philip,

If verified, this complementary information, especially about Martin Luther King's visit to Mr. King in L. A., would authenticate some relationship.

Mr. King, in his later years, contrary to Mr. Job Patience who was very sweet and of about the same age, seemed to have become more headstrong, and this probably affected his heart. And he had been married three times too,- as he told Hezekiah- his first wife being Anglo-Saxon, which at that time was unheard of.

Anyway, all this gives all those who are living the Life more courage and determination, seeing the Love FATHER has blessed us with. What HE did for one, HE can do for All, and more.

Thanking FATHER and MOTHER Dear. Peace Philip - Elie

P. S.- Forgot to mention King told us FATHER saved his life while being trapped in a mine after a gas explosion. All the other miners were killed. Unconscious for a while he managed to crawl through the debris up to the surface and was pulled out, unhurt,- the only survivor.

Peace, E and H

********************

I lived with Mr. Joseph Isaac King and 3 or 4 other brothers under FATHER DIVINE'S
Peace Mission at 1137 W. 37th Drive, Los Angeles, California
from late 1964 to April of 1967

Mr. Roger Klaus submitted this additional information about Joseph Isaac King.

I lived with Mr. King and 3 or 4 other brothers under FATHER DIVINE'S Peace Mission at 1137 W. 37th Drive, Los Angeles, California from late 1964 to April of 1967.

Mr. Joseph King, who claimed to be the great uncle of Martin Luther King, was, to the best of my knowledge, the oldest licensed driver in Los Angeles and an only survivor of a coal mine collapse that killed 120 men. His stories of his discovering FATHER'S Deity were fascinating. He was unable to keep it to himself and was abused by disbelievers when he continually voiced his conviction.

According to Mr. King, his mother was a slave under Robert E. Lee, and he told of a tent that was in the Lee household which George Washington used. The tent is now at the Valley Forge Visitors Center (Provenance unverified).

Although Mr. Kings education was limited, his life experiences were full of wisdom that came out in his sometimes humorous recollections such as "I was growed up before they had sidewalks."

Mr. King was the only person I knew of that could give an eyewitness account of FATHER'S activities in the early 1900's. I regret not having written down the many "matter of fact" stories that were in front of me while living with Mr. King. FATHER obviously touched his heart deeply and blessed him to a long fruitful life.

He liked to debate and challenge whatever whatsoever was current or past. He was very independent but liked me because I would avoid argument but simply listen to his point of view i.e. such as when man walked on the moon Mr. King didn't believe the television coverage. "That's made up stuff." But he readily recognized the miracles FATHER worked daily.

When I moved to Philadelphia in 1967 Mr. King was still climbing 40 foot ladders and painting exterior buildings with a 6 inch brush at a very good speed using oil based enamel. Roger Klaus

The Civil Rights Movements of that era were truly the Work of GOD and the Work goes on until that Perfect Day when the Dream is fulfilled.