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The appeal of Martin Luther King, Jr. reaches far and wide
from the intellectual to the school child to the church
member. King was born in Georgia, and got a Ph.D. in systemic
theology at Boston University. He became America's premier
civil rights leader. King had a keen understanding of power:
raw political power and spiritual power. He knew that people
who had ill-begotten social and political powers would not
give up their cruel domains easily. King also had no
hesitation to use the word evil. He taught that
segregation is an evil. King's leadership and inspiration
continue to speak to us today in sermons such as "The
American Dream " and "Rediscovering Lost
Values."
After September
11th, it was reported that church attendance increased. Many
people seemed to be returning to traditional spiritual beliefs
for guidance and comfort. Martin Luther King, Jr. seems never
to have relinquished his spirituality despite suffering
injustices which might have caused others to lose faith. He
was a man familiar with the consequences of hatred. King knew
the hatred of the Ku Klux Klan and the corrupt segments of the
legal system in the South. "I've seen too much hate to
want to hate myself; hate is too great a burden to bear."
King had a
skillful way of maintaining separation of church and state
while at the same time using the one to reinforce the other.
He described the Declaration of Independence as having
"cosmic proportions." He firmly believed that all
people were endowed by God with certain rights, that the
American government guaranteed those rights, and that America
was chosen by God to be a keeper of those rights for humanity.
A state religion, whether Baptist or Islamic or any variation
thereof, would probably have been as intolerable as racism
for King.
"God's
black children are as significant as his white children."
For King, this is a self-evident truth of equality as stated
in the Declaration of Independence. If King were with us now,
would he not also bring the message that Muslim women and
girls are equal to Muslim men and boys? Would he not condemn
their maltreatment and advocate for them as a helpless
minority?
There is an
important quotation which I think could be misinterpreted, so
I will include it and offer an opinion. "But now more
than ever before, America is challenged to realize its dream,
for the shape of the world today does not permit our nation
the luxury of an anemic democracy. And the price that America
must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro and other
minority groups is the price of its own destruction. For the
hour is late. And the clock of destiny is ticking out. We
must act now before it is too late."
The above could
not possibly have been a prophesy of September 11th because
King was, in fact, successful in procuring significantly
greater levels of equality for blacks. The
"destruction" of which King spoke had to refer to an
internal moral and democratic decay; not to an attack by a
foreign group. King had a dream, and that dream continues its
process of fulfillment for all minorities.
King was a
realist but not a pessimist. He had a spirituality that
accepted suffering but with the promise of brighter days ahead.
"You see, the founding fathers were really influenced by
the Bible. The whole concept of the imago dei, as it is
expressed in Latin, the 'image of God,' is the idea that all
men have something within them that God injected. Not that
they have substantial unity with God, but that every man has a
capacity to have fellowship with God. And this gives him an
uniqueness, it gives him worth, it gives him dignity. And we
must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in
the image of God."
"We will
know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and
to respect the dignity and worth of every man." Although
King may have warned of destruction, he seems to have been
looking forward to brotherhood.
King strongly
felt that America had lost some of its fundamental and
historic values. "The great problem facing modern man is
that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the
spiritual ends for which we live." He felt that
Americans had not done this intentionally, but haphazardly in
day-to-day practical living. "It wasn't a conscious
process. You see, we didn't grow up and say, 'Now, goodbye
God, we're going to leave you now.' The materialism in
America has been an unconscious thing."
He found it
necessary to go back to our founding documents and the eternal
spiritual values that gave America its uniqueness. King did
not disapprove of wealth or technological advancement, but
considered these as harmful when used as
"substitutes" for a genuine spiritual life.
"Go out and
be assured that God is going to last forever. Storms might
come and go. Our great skyscraping buildings will come and
go. Our beautiful automobiles will come and go, but God will
be here." The survivors of September 11th who can relate
to and identify with King's outlook will perhaps rebuild with
old values given deeper appreciation. After September 11th,
it is as though the entire nation has become a minority: the
only modern nation in the world to experience such a massive
attack. In our grief, we are equal. (Written 09/16/02: bibliography available.)
Until we meet
again....... .......stay sane.
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