King's Biblical Backbone

[Don_1967]

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) - While most Americans tend to focus on Martin Luther King's civil rights movement, some religious leaders are remembering a forgotten aspect of his legacy.

They say little attention is given to the fact that the backbone for his movement was rooted in the bible.

Dr. Joseph Crockett, Director of Research at the American Bible Society says "the bible was a basic part of his formation and his development." He says King quotes Scripture and makes biblical references in his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail.

And he says the Southern Christian Leadership Conference stated its purpose as to "save the soul of America."

Crockett says the messages from Martin Luther King are just as relevant now -- especially those that espouse love. He says "in the midst of war and rumors of war, peace is still a better prescription for advancing human kind."

[muntrv]

1. MLK is unlike many of today's "religious leaders" who preach the hatred

aspect of the Bible.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

2. Peace to you all.

Remember the dream. Live the dream. Be the dream.

[Az]

3. King's UU connection

This is an unverified story. I sometimes attend Unitarian Universalist churches. The first church of Detroit has some history with King. When he was first setting out on his quest to change the world he was pondering the means by which to best achieve his dream. As I heard it he considered associating with the UU church initially as it was by far one of the most progressive institutions around in the day (still is). But without the gravitas of doctrine King found that he would not be able to leverage his message as readily.

It is for this reason he turned to the more conventional religions in order to use their claims of moral authority to reinforce his message. It was more a tactical descision than one of faith.

Or at least that is what I have heard mentioned in the halls of the First UU Church in Detroit.

[Evoman]

4. Martin Luther King was an atheist. He was just pretending to be a Christian

so that people would pay attention to his civil rights message. I mean...who's going to take an atheist seriously if he had campaigned for civil rights without god? The black religious majority would have looked for another leader, and the white people would have pointed to his atheism as a source of evil.

Okay, I'm completely making this up. But I figured, religious people claim Einstein and Darwin so much as their own, why not steal one of the theist heroes?

Evoman

[trotsky]

5. Yes, King's beliefs had a foundation in the bible.

But then, so did the beliefs of those he struggled against.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. It must also be remembered...

That all of the racism and hatred against which Dr. King fought was equally based in the Bible. I think this is why the religious basis for his efforts is largely overlooked: it would force an examination of the religious basis for the targes of his efforts, which few Christians are willing to do.

The funny (as in strange, not ha-ha) thing about religious writings is that they can be interpreted to show both the very worst and the very best of human kind.

[okasha]

8. Strange, how many societies over how many thousands of years

have managed to produce racism and slavery without the Bible. Both of those institutions are cultural and economic, not religious, structures based on a distinction between the "haves" and the "have-nots," the privileged and the unprivileged. This is not to say that there are not passages in the Bible which can be taken to excuse or gloss over slavery, but it's an exaggeration, at the very least, to say that they're "based" in the Bible.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. And many societies over many thousands of years

Have managed to exemplify noble virtues of inclusion and fellowship without the Bible. That is not relevant to the topic.

The bigots who supported slavery and racism in the United States were self-described Christians. The trappings of the KKK and other racist organizations were the trappings of Christianity. The rhetoric used to excuse, endorse and support this bigotry was derived from the Bible. The language used to express this bigotry was the language of the Christian preacher. While there were no doubt exceptions, they were very few and far between: antipaty towards people of color in the United States has been almost exclusively a Christian phenomenon, cloaked in Christian piety and expressed as Christian dogma from God Almighty.

THIS is what Dr. King fought. Not racism in Japan. Not the economics of slavery in ancient Rome. Not class warfare in Czarist Russia.

My point is not to denegrate Christianity or Christians. But it must be pointed out that, as firmly as Dr. King worked from Christian Scriptures, so too did the bigots he opposed. I believe that is why Dr. King's religious basis is so often overlooked: few Christians are willing to admit or investigate how their Good News has been used for evil ends.

[okasha]

10. A difference of terms, but an important one

The rhetoric used to excuse, endorse and support this bigotry was derived from the Bible.

There's no question that you're right about that, and it's still being done in some quarters. But saying that those things are "based" in the Bible is something quite different, though perhaps subtly so. While there is plenty of ethnic and religious xenophobia to be found in the Bible--all that "smiting" of Midianites, Edomites, Moabites, etc.--there's very little prejudice on the basis of skin color. The Queen of Sheba is regarded as a heroine in both Testaments, the woman speaker of the Song of Songs is African, and Acts makes clear that Africans were among the first Christians.

Incidentally, I have to wonder who's doing all this "overlooking" of Dr. King's religious basis. Just offhand, I can't think of anything I've read about him--much less anything I've seen of his speaking on film--that doesn't put that religious basis front and center.

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. A difference of verb-preposition agreement only

The bigots derive their bigotry from the Bible. Their bigotry is derived from the Bible.

The bigots base their bigotry on the Bible. Their bigotry is based on the Bible.

The difference is trivially semantic; the underlying structure and meaning is identical.

[okasha]

12. Not the semantic difference I was talking about.

Here's a comparable example: the writers of the Constitution declined either to outlaw slavery or to enfranchise women. It would be accurate to say that some excused slavery or second-class status for women by appealing to the Contsititution's failure to recognize their equal rights. It would not be accurate to say that slavery/racism or women's second-class status was basedin the Constitution, which simply took its current social structures for granted.

[kwassa]

13. I think you are wrong ....

This is just like many of the debates about the evil of religion around here, all the great misdeeds claimed in its name, supposedly. The bigotry already exists, and the Bible is used to rationalize it after the fact. Someone hates someone else, and tries to justify by finding a friendly Bible passage. The Bible is of course long and complex enough that a phrase taken out of context can appear to justify almost anything.

This does not mean that this hatred or bigotry is based on or derived from the Bible; it's source might be quite elsewhere. The Bible has certainly been used as a rationale many times to justify bad behavior, but this does not make it the source, per se.

[trotsky]

14. Wouldn't the same reasoning be applied to good things?

I.e., charitable behavior or altruism already exists, and the bible is used to rationalize it?

Or...

The bible has certainly been used as a rationale many times to justify good behavior, but this does not make it the source, per se.

[kwassa]

15. The essential teaching of the Bible is good behavior

It is all about the righteous life.

[trotsky]

16. Plenty of Christians disagree with you.

Sorry.

[BurtWorm]

7. You have to meet people where they are to lead them out of the darkness.

:shrug: