Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
I thought there was a very good article on the faith of Reverend Martin Luther King on national review today.
Please see it here:
King’s Media Makeover
The key points I took from the article were:
1) King was very much a Reverend in terms of being a man dedicated to Christ
2) The left (and it servant the secular media) by their nature try to de-emphasize that fact
3) The comparison between King (a Christian) and Malcolm X (A Muslim) are compelling, though when you think about the two religions also predictable
The Reverend King:
King received an undergraduate degree in Bible studies; today that would be called a divinity degree. His Ph.D. was in theology, giving him the preferred secular title of Doctor. Like all men (and all Christians) King had his faults; but he was a man seeking the straight and narrow path described by his Lord.
“The Bible wasn’t some strange old book that didn’t have relevance in the modern world. It was God’s word. It was a book that was — and always will be — relevant because it expresses eternal principles and eternal truths.” – Lee Habeeb, National Review (Jan 2016)
King expressed his faith in his speeches which often included biblical and religious references. He used his faith to further the social justice cause. That’s great, but it wasn’t just some secular ideal of justice he was seeking. The social justice he worked and died for was something he saw as the will of God and the work God had placed him on this Earth to do.
Today, any mention of God or religion in the furtherance of social or political causes brings immediate condemnation and cries for separation of church and state. Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and others are hated and marginalized because of their faith. Yet they don’t hold a candle to King when it comes to interjecting faith into their cause. Meanwhile the media (the tormentors of the faithful) doesn’t have this problem with Doctor King; because they completely ignore and whitewash God out of King’s character. Ironically, this would be the worst insult one could inflict upon a true Christian.
Many of Kings speeches contained biblical references. His famous speech “A Knock at Midnight” quoted the parable from Luke 11:5–6
Luke: 11: 5-6 Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him”?
King explained the meaning of the parable but expanded upon it…
“Although this parable is concerned with the power of persistent prayer, it may also serve as a basis for our thought concerning many contemporary problems and the role of the church in grappling with them. It is midnight in the parable; it is also midnight in our world, and the darkness is so deep that we can hardly see which way to turn.” — Reverend Martin Luther King
What I find interesting is in the middle of the speech where King explains exactly how we find ourselves in the dark at midnight…
“Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. For modern man, absolute right and wrong are a matter of what the majority is doing. Right and wrong are relative to likes and dislikes and the customs of a particular community. We have unconsciously applied Einstein’s theory of relativity, which properly described the physical universe, to the moral and ethical realm. . . . This mentality has brought a tragic breakdown of moral standards, and the midnight of moral degeneration deepens.” — Reverend Martin Luther King
THAT could have been written yesterday. It perfectly defines the moral relativism and decay our society half a century later.
In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” King explained the source of rightfulness of his cause…
“We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.” — Reverend Martin Luther King
Did you hear that. King described the “heritage” of this nation as “sacred” and tied it to the will of God. Both (God and our American heritage) demanded social justice be heard.
Today, these would be words of sacrilege to the left… But don’t worry; the left never hears them. Doctor Martin Luther King was a great man who fought for a liberal cause. Reverend Martin Luther King? Never existed.
“How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” — Reverend Martin Luther King
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” — Reverend Martin Luther King (I Have a Dream Speech)
“And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” — Reverend Martin Luther King (The final words of the last public speech he gave)
The Secular Leftist Media:
Then there is the Main Stream Media… the secular media that harbors such hatred for God, Christ, and traditional moral values. What are they to do with a hero of the left that was in fact a man of God? Answer: They re-brand him; they recreate the secular hero from bits and pieces of the man, sifting out the parts they don’t like; much as they do the opposite to founding fathers and conservatives they hate.
What would be the media’s reaction today if someone like Mike Huckabee said the words King uttered concerning lost principles, and absolute right and wrong being a matter of majorities likes, dislikes, and costumes; applying relativity to the moral and ethical realm; resulting in a tragic breakdown of moral standards, and a deepening midnight of moral degeneration?
Answer: The howls of indignation and condemnation would reverberate in the halls of the New York Times, the Washington Post, et. al… How dare such a man try and impose his backward, archaic moral code upon a “free” society that so values the separation of church and state. Such a man should stick to the pulpit and keep his barbarous ideas there where they belong and out of the public arena.
As for these ideas coming from the man Doctor Marin Luther King, the media simply resolves the problem the same way the take care of any bit of history, or facts they don’t like; they cover it up and rewrite it to their lacking. The use the omission of information and when necessary outright misinformation to produce the narrative that will best serve them (and the public).
Lee Habeeb, the author of the original National Review article, challenged his readers not to take his word for it; but to read and watch the mainstream media and see if they could find references to the “Reverend” or any references to his faith. So I searched ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC for “Martin Luther King”… on Marking Luther King Day no less. I was surprised at exactly how little there was out there. Mostly there were picture tributes (which was rather lazy if you ask me). There was one article on ABC that had the “Rev” title in the link to an article, but once there it was not to be found. The article itself was a piece of crap saying that King had body guards with guns and even got a gun permit (after a bomb attack) but he never carried a gun and surely would have come around on gun control. Everything else was just a few puff pieces with no mention of his faith…
And THIS is the state of journalism in our society today.
The left is in a totalitarian mindset today; and the two things dictators get rid of first are God and guns (from those they would rule).
Christ vs Mohammad:
A really eye opening aspect of faith of King was the corresponding faith of Malcolm X. The contrast surprised me when it really shouldn’t have. In fact the contrast in the faith, actions, and lives of the two men is a perfect microcosm of the Christianity and Islam.
“King also invoked God’s mercy in his speeches. And nonviolence was his methodology. Peaceful protests, he thought, were the most effective way to stir the conscience of a nation.” — Lee Habeeb (January 2016, National Review)
Guess who didn’t exactly agree with this approach? Guess who would have burned the whole thing down and subjugated America under Islamic (fascist) law?
“The same old slave master today has negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms, 20th-century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent. That’s Tom making you nonviolent. — Malcolm X (Calling King an Uncle Tom)
“A revolution is bloody. Revolution is hostile. Revolution knows no compromise. Revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way. And you sit around here like a knot on a wall saying, “I’m going to love these folks no matter how much they hate me.” No, you need a revolution.” — Malcolm X
“Whoever heard a revolution where they lock arms . . . singing “We Shall Overcome”? Just tell me. You don’t do that in a revolution. You don’t do any singing; you’re too busy swinging.” — Malcolm X
The contrast in these two men is perfect in exposing the contrast between the two religions; the difference between the heads of those religions; and finally the fruits those two faiths produce in the world.
Conclusion:
Like the original author of this column, I have to ask myself what would king have to say about the current problems we face as a nation (especially the black community)? Fatherlessness? Crime? Drug Abuse? Abortion? Leftist Fascism? Movements Built on Lies (Black Lives Matter)?
King was a leftist (though I doubt so left as many today); but he undoubtedly saw government as the instrument for social change. He believed in the redistribution of wealth to help the poor which he cared deeply about. He and I would have disagreed on much; maybe not so much on the goals than on the best means by which to achieve them.
But I believe that we would have agreed upon the fundamental truth that all things are possible through Christ.
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