1992

Difficulties

Songs of Love and Justice Song Collection

"Difficulties" is the second of four movements from Adolphus Hailstork's Songs of Love and Justice with text by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is an excerpt from “Loving Your Enemies”, a sermon delivered at the Detroit Council of Churches’ Noon Lenten Services, March 7, 1961.

Listen

“Difficulties” (from “Songs of Love and Justice”)

Deborah Selig, soprano; Jeffrey Sykes, piano2:48

Adolphus Hailstork

Composer

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Poet(s)/Writer(s)

2022

Date

Irvine, California

Location

This recording was part of a 1pm concert ("Fires of Justice") on Friday, October 14, 2022 during the 25th Anniversary African American Art Song Alliance Conference. The concert venue was Winifred Smith Hall at the University of California, Irvine.

Text

It is difficult to like some people.
Like is sentimental.
It is difficult to like someone bombing your home,
It is difficult to like somebody threat’ning your children!

It is so difficult,
so difficult to like some people
difficult to like some people.
Like is sentimental.

But Jesus says: “Love them”
But Jesus says: “Love, love them,”
For love is greater than like.