Jan 19, 2009
Taming Our Radicals: Christians and Martin Luther King
It’s easy to praise Martin Luther King with forty years to cushion us from his message, methods, and goals. We see his results, admire his legacy, and revere him for his courage and commitment to justice.
The Christian elements of the civil rights movement is certainly a mixed bag. Some Christians used the Bible to support segregation such as the folks at Bob Jones University (by the way, did you know that school wasn’t desegregated until the 1990’s?).
Other Christians urged for desegregation, but didn’t resort to protests, sit-ins, marches, and civil disobedience in the face of unjust laws. Billy Graham fits into this category, as he refused to preach to segregated audiences, even removing ropes that would have kept whites and blacks separate. However, he was uneasy with breaking the law, even if the laws were unjust.
And then you have the legacy of Martin Luther King, a Christian minister who struggled for equality. Remember, in his day he was perceived by many as radical and too extreme. He was urged to be patient, to wait this out. His civil disobedience was perceived as potentially dangerous.
While we do well to honor King, we should remember that his methods were deemed too radical and his dreams too grandiose. If we desire to honor him today, we should start asking, “What should we be dreaming and what should we do to make these dreams a reality?”
I’m reminded of Christian activist Shane Claiborn who wrote in Jesus for President that he and a group of Christians protested the military industrial complex of the United States by meditating on the stations of the cross within the property of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, and thereafter in a prison cell for trespassing.
Is it too bold to dream of a nation that spreads health, education, and peace rather than arms, nationalism, and war? Is it too dangerous to challenge our government’s reliance on military spending? Is it too radical to preach the Gospel with prisoners while challenging the prison-industrial complex and our laws that do little to rehabilitate? Should we not ask one of the world’s wealthiest nations to reconsider it’s spending practices, even in the midst of a recession?
Today’s struggles may be perceived as radical and too far-reaching, but will they seem common sense forty years from now?
[...] Taming Our Radicals: Christians and Martin Luther King by Ed Cyzewski [...]
False. Bob Jones University admitted its first black student in 1971. Not to say the school didn’t do a lot of things badly with regards to race, but let’s be fair.
You’re right to call on Christians to at least think about the proper methods of protest. More than that, to call them to care about making the world around them more just. Sometimes we get our heads all wrapped up in this “I’m just a pilgrim” mentality and forget that this world does matter, and we are accountable for what we do with it. Bravo!
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Thanks Becca for you contribution. yea, the pilgrim thing needs some qualifiers.
As far as the “false” thing you mentioned, I’m basing that on a Fresh Air interview with Dan Gilgoff who wrote a book about all of this, so I need some more data on this. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7713549 . Perhaps Bob Jones lost the lawsuit in 1971 (which is what riled up the religious right to begin with according to Gilgoff), but the school was not officially integrated until the 90′s? I’m not sure. I took notes on this interview, so I know I heard him correctly, but perhaps there are some details we’re missing here.
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