June 30, 2026 | Moments Almanac | Alberta
Share Your Thoughts June 30: When Darkness Couldn't Silence the Music Two moments. Forty years apart. On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler launched the Night of the Long Knives, proving how easily evil can disguise itself as order. Forty years later, on June 30, 1974, Alberta Williams King—the mother of Martin Luther King Jr.—sat at the organ of Ebenezer Baptist Church, playing The Lord's Prayer, when a gunman opened fire. These tragedies were separated by continents, generations, and scale, yet bo...
June 30: When Darkness Couldn't Silence the Music
Two moments. Forty years apart.
On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler launched the Night of the Long Knives, proving how easily evil can disguise itself as order.
Forty years later, on June 30, 1974, Alberta Williams King—the mother of Martin Luther King Jr.—sat at the organ of Ebenezer Baptist Church, playing The Lord's Prayer, when a gunman opened fire.
These tragedies were separated by continents, generations, and scale, yet both reveal the same ancient temptation: to forget that every human being bears the image of God.
Today's Moments Almanac reflects on history's darkest moments, the hope found in Genesis 1:27, the wisdom of W. H. Auden, and the Gospel's answer to the endless cycle of hatred.
Because the darkness may interrupt the music...
...but it cannot silence the Kingdom.
Welcome to Moments Almanac, a time for us to remember the people, places, and events that leave fingerprints on the soul. Today is June 30th, 2026, and I want to remind us of two moments, 40 years apart. One in Germany, one in Georgia. Both remind us what happens when people stop seeing the image of God in one another. On June 30th, 1934, Hitler began what history remembers as the night of long knives. Over the next several days, political rivals, even former allies, were arrested and executed without trial. One man was killing simply because the officials confused him with someone else. Afterward, the German government declared the killings legal. What had once been murder became by decree an act of the state. It is one of history's sobering reminders that evil rarely announces itself as evil. It often comes dressed as order. Forty years later, june thirtieth, nineteen seventy four, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Alberta Williams King sat at the organ. She was playing the Lord's Prayer. She had already buried her son Martin Luther King junior six years earlier. As the congregation worshiped, a gunman stood, shouted that he was taking over the service, and opened fire. Alberta King was killed at the organ, so was Deacon Edward Boykin. She died while leading God's people in prayer. These stories are vastly different in scale. One was organized by the government, the other was carried out by a single man, but beneath both is the same ancient lie that another life can be discarded. Scripture tells a different story though. So God created man in his own image, male and female he created them Genesis one twenty seven. Every person bears the image of God. Whenever we forget that, through hatred, violence, prejudice, or pride, we step on to the same dangerous road that began with Cain. WH Auden wrote these words Those to whom evil is done do evil in return. Well left to ourselves, history seems to agree. But God. God interrupts the cycle. He answers hatred with a cross. He answers death with resurrection. He answers injustice with a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Even on that terrible Sunday in Atlanta, the final word was not the sound of gunfire. It was the sound of prayer that had already begun. The darkness interrupted the music, it could not silence the kingdom. Every person still bears the image of God, every prayer still rises before his throne, and one day every act of injustice will answer to the king whose kingdom has no end. Until then, may we never lose sight of the image of God in those around us, and may the prayers we offer today outlive every darkness that surrounds them. That's today's Moments Almanac. Until tomorrow, take care. Notice the scattered moments, and share the grace.
