(This article was originally published for The Village Church.)
Today, the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, people will wax eloquent about him, quote him to be relevant, or use images of him for the sake of displaying their level of “wokeness”. However, upon a closer analysis of our posts, we’ll see that we’re prone to craft the prettier, uncolored parts of his philosophies to paint a bland picture of civil rights that dare not fill in the white spaces of our societal canvas. In fact, most Christian Americans are unwilling to allow King’s Dream bear any real social responsibility on their conscience when challenged to put his words into action.
And if we’re honest, we often don’t fair any better as Christian Americans when challenged to put the sovereign King, the anointed Jesus’, commandments into action. We just as easily try making his words palatable enough to allow us to hold on to our finances and possessions, while ignoring people living on the margins of our society.
This happens when we consider ourselves just as much American as Christian. When we equate Americanism with Christianity, the unfiltered collection of Yeshua’s and Dr. King’s teachings are sure to offend us. If our American patriotism has never been offended by King’s philosophy of Christian love and equality, we’ve probably never really heard the real King—Martin Luther nor Yeshua.
The troubling reality we as Christians must reconcile is that if we’ve never been, or aren’t regularly, offended by the Jewish King’s commandments, nor the Black Dr. King’s implications of the gospel, we’ve probably been fed a sanitized and whitewashed version of both Kings. We do not need to run from their truths, but should embrace the freedom found in them. Jesus is the truth (John 8:32; John 14:6), and Dr. King believed “that freedom is the bonus you receive for telling the truth.”
So for Christians and churches who admire Dr. King’s efforts and achievements, and desire to see economically and racially harmonized churches, we must listen to these truths. We must not patronize MLK, nor Christ the King’s admonishments, accepting the congenial parts but disregarding the convicting.
Fortunately, many of Dr. King’s corrections, instructive implications of the gospel, and encouragements are just as relevant for us today as the day he was murdered. Christians who admire Dr. King’s efforts and achievements, and desire to see economically and racially harmonized churches, should consider listening to these truths.
“But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”
Though he was nonviolent, Martin Luther King, Jr. had enough empathy and compassion to understand the anger and frustrations of people who riot, or revolt. It is a tension many today still feel. In line with Dr. King, The Kerner Report, as well as many other sociological studies, concluded that revolts aren’t isolated incidents. They are direct results of the “intolerable conditions that exist in our society.” These conditions remain intolerable (as we will see), because a large group of Americans continue to stop their ears from hearing
Who wasn’t hearing? The group King called “more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity”—a group often often unwilling to engage in these dialogues: American Christians who were more concerned about American conservatism than Christian justice and mercy.
Many Americans often shake their heads when they watch the Baltimore, Ferguson, and Charlotte revolts, but still fail to acknowledge the intolerable conditions King warned about. We readily accept his Christian philosophy of nonviolence as the arguably better methodology for achieving peace and unity, yet we still ignore what we could be doing to improve the living conditions of the marginalized to prevent future riots. We want people to stop complaining about about their conditions, but fail to lift a finger to remove the canopy of oppression, all in the name of “opportunity”.
But King did not fail to call out this American hypocrisy, and neither did King Jesus shy away from bringing attention to the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders of his time on earth. When the Pharisees confronted him about his disciples breaking the traditions of the elders, Christ did not hesitate to point out how they break God’s commandments to uphold their traditions (Matthew 15:1–9). In a similar way, this should make us consider how we may be aligning ourselves politically, socially, and religiously to conserve American traditions that resist Christ’s commandment to, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).
“We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” (I Have a Dream speech given at “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”)
If we closely considered the implications of these words, they are sure to offend every Christian conservative capitalist fiber in each of us.
King observed racial imbalances and divisions could not be fixed without greater economic sacrifice and equality. His observation was only a part of a broader gospel principle to empty ourselves of everything in exchange for the riches of Christ the King. While the greater need is for mankind to empty ourselves of any spiritual riches to be reconciled to God through Christ, attempting to separate Christ’s call to empty ourselves spiritually, and sometimes economically, can be unhelpful. When we try teasing the two apart we get either an empty prosperity gospel, preaching promises of riches with no effectual change of the heart or a heartless gospel that fails to see the possibilities of greater human flourishing when money and governmental systems are radically used as efficient resources to encourage, support and free systematically oppressed peoples. Though King Jesus was no activist nor government official, we witness him compassionately meeting some needs of the economically and spiritually poor during his earthly ministry.
This is indeed a pressing matter that can be addressed by the gospel. In an analysis of how the “I Have a Dream” speech has been misremembered and is misunderstood, Gary Younge discovered King’s dream remains a distant reality:
“Black unemployment is (currently) almost double that of whites; the percentage of black children living in poverty is almost triple that of whites; black male life expectancy in Washington, DC, is lower than in the Gaza Strip; one in three black boys born in 2001 stands a lifetime risk of going to prison; more black men were disenfranchised in 2004 because they were felons than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment ostensibly secured their right to vote.” (Younge, 2016)
Even more debilitating is since 2000, African Americans were the only group that showed little-to-no progress in homeownership, unemployment and incarceration in 50 years. Lauren Victoria Burke discovered through the Economic Policy Institute that:
“Blacks are 6.4 times more likely than whites to be jailed or imprisoned. Homeownership rates…remained unchanged for African Americans, over the last 50 years. Black homeownership is about 40 percent, which is 30 percent behind the rate for whites,” and “the average income for an African American household was $39,490 in 2017, a decrease from $41,363 in 2000. (Burke, 2018)
Bearing these facts in mind, in tandem with both King Jesus and King Jr.’s admonitions to view this topic through an economic lens, we might consider more deeply how we each, as Christian Americans, have potentially contributed to these “insufficient funds of opportunity,” whether explicitly or implicitly, and might begin the long task of making a real difference.
For those who believe they celebrate the whole of Dr. King’s legacy, but disregard both these statistics and the economically disadvantaged, demanding instead the disadvantaged pull themselves up by their bootstraps, consider King’s admonition on this matter: “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” (“The Other America” Speech)
King pushed back against the still common idea that being poor is only a matter of effort; that the economically marginalized have restrained themselves to such a way of life. King understood, as should we, the near impossibility of obtaining success stems from a long, ongoing system of oppression that has maintained its damaging effects on generations. Having analyzed this system, King, Jr. provided this commentary:
“While America refused to do anything for the black man at that point, during that very period, the nation, through an act of Congress, was giving away millions of acres of land in the west and the mid-west, which meant that it was willing to under gird its white peasants from Europe with an economic floor. Not only did they give the land, they built land grant colleges for them to learn how to farm…Well that appears to me to be a kind of socialism for the rich and rugged hard individualistic capitalism for the poor.” (“The Other America” Speech)
We can encourage economic wisdom and independence, but we can also provide resources and help build better, socially relevant environments that cultivate success. Before we critique the poor’s economic despondence and subsequent way of life, we should first consider how we can help meet the needs of the poor, as God’s people. And isn’t it better to do this now rather than waiting on the next generation?
“We want all of our rights, we want them here, and we want them now.” (Speech at the Great March on Detroit)
“Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability, it comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. And so we must always help time and realize that the time is always right to do right.” (“The Other America” Speech)
We know what is right. We know we must preach the gospel. We know Christ the King will come back and restore all things when his name is spread across the globe. And we know that we have an obligation as Christ’s ambassadors to spread the gospel, because it will not happen without our beautiful feet running and spreading the good news (2 Corinthians 5:20; Romans 10:15).
We also have no problem observing how Christ miraculously fed the multitudes. We unashamedly shake our heads at the disciples who told Yeshua to send the crowds away to get food. We take hold of these messages, pack up our bags and our Bibles, and travel overseas to provide relief while preaching the gospel.
But when Dr. King preaches the implications of that message for us here, in our American neighborhoods, it becomes problematic and offensive. We’ll drive past our economically disadvantaged brothers and sisters to get to an airport, board a plane, and fly across the world to give aid and preach the same gospel to people elsewhere. This is not a condemnation of global missions, but a consideration of how we can be applying Dr. King’s vision better than simply quoting him.
King understood that Christ cares about our physical and spiritual welfare, and believed a true understanding of Christ’s compassion should compel us to use our ministerial resources and governmental influence to push for economic and social change out of a heart of gratefulness. Yet in 2018, 50 years after Dr. King’s assassination, it still offends many of us. If our hearts have been effectually changed by the salvation of Christ, we will be pressed to effect change as a result—both in the fight for the oppressed and in spreading the good news of the gospel.
How should we respond to these gospel offenses? Should we respond with fragility? Should we leave these issues matters of the past, willfully ignoring the current effects of our systemic injustices for the sake of our comfort?
Some Americans, perhaps even some Christians, may feel it is unnecessary to continue analyzing, discussing, or even engaging the multifaceted economic and racial problems to which Dr. King brought attention. Scoffing at this call to action can result in overlooking opportunities for more faithful missional living. By humbling ourselves, sacrificing comfort and selfish desire, we can create opportunities to display the beauty of the gospel. This could include intentionally living in the lower-income neighborhood rather than the affluent one, or supporting disenfranchised peoples with our resources, time, or finances, or maybe even joining a congregation where the majority of the people who attend regularly do not look like you. To suggest such is uncomfortable and possibly offensive. But, when we more closely investigate how much of King’s philosophy—as it pertains to valuing human flourishing and equality—fits with the grand scheme of the gospel, we will find courage to do away with the way we’ve sanitized the dreams of both Dr. King and Christ the King and live in such a way to make Jesus look more valuable than anything we could attain on earth. While we can in no way equate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to our penultimate King Yeshua, we should ask ourselves how picking up the mantle and moving in a gospel-centered way can honor MLK’s dream and legacy more than just one day of posting quotes on social media.
In humility, we can take the offending words of both Kings and let them drive us toward lasting change in our world. But even if our world never changes, nor if Dr. King’s dream for America never becomes a reality, we can faithfully serve with joy, because we serve a most glorious King—Jesus—who rules over an everlasting kingdom.
