Hard Questions, Heart Answers: Sermons and Speeches (PB) (1997)

Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King, is an ordained minister, an attorney, and one of this country's most admired speakers. As this remarkable collection of her sermons and speeches makes clear, she shares with her father a rare gift for oratory and the wisdom and compassion to inspire others.

The collection begins with words designed to "disturb the comfortable." Tackling such controversial subjects as our disaffected youth, gun control, and the death penalty, King paints a compelling picture of the spiritual decay and deep-seated racism that infects our society. In the second part of the book, a selection of sermons focusing on "comforting the disturbed," King's belief in the power of faith to restore our communities, morally and spiritually, rings forth. The church, she asserts, must return to its helping and healing mission, and each of us, looking into our hearts, must put aside our differences and remember that each human life is precious.