The Good
Since today is MLK day allow me to start out with some quotes by the good Dr. King:
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”
That quote should be taken into account by those who are always seeking questions instead of searching for answers.
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
Insert a reading of Romans 13 and 1 Peter 3 here. The key phrase of that quote is “willingly accepts the penalty.” There may come a time in America when Christians have to willingly accept the penalty of imprisonment or death for seeking to provide Biblical answers to a lost and dying world.
And of course we must include the famous:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Something that obviously wasn’t done in the last election as people voted primarily for a president primarily because of the color of his skin and not because of the content of his character (which is being revealed to be not as high and lofty as his speeches more and more each week). This motive was revealed by the amount of celebration that we elected our first Black president, as opposed to celebrating who he was and how he would lead (U.S. Grant for example was elected because of his leadership and personality, not because of his race) But when race becomes the driving issue, those who live and die by the issue must keep the color of skin at the forefront. As believers we have been adopted into a family made up of all tribes, tongues and nations. We are not being conformed into the image of the Caucasian American nor the dark skinned African but into the image of Christ! It’s in this likeness that we can celebrate the differences and we rejoice in the unity we have in Christ.
The bad and/or ugly
From Richard Rohr, (via this blog):
“Empires are actually relieved to have terrorists to shoot at and Barabbas figures loose on the streets. Types like Jesus, Martin Luther King and Gandhi make difficult enemies for empires. They cannot be used or co-opted.”
I’ll let you decide whether this is a bad quote or simply an “ugly” quote that needs to be restated. But here are my observations:
1. In the case of Barabbas, it wasn’t the “Empire” that wished Barabbas to be loosed to the streets. Rather it was the self-righteous of the day who desired to put an end to this person intolerantly proclaimed himself as the only way to salvation – and thereby threatened their own religious system/power. The quote might have been better if he left Barabbas out.
2. Martin Luther King and Gandhi are both incredible men, but neither should be used in comparison to the incarnate Son of God. King died for a just cause, Christ died for this undeserving sinner. Despite popular demagoguery, Christ was not a community organizer.
3. “They cannot be used or co-opted.” Maybe not in their person, but the all three are being used for a variety motives. King and Gandhi are being used by all sorts of people to prop up all sorts of agendas that look nothing like the agenda they were driving (note again the last election). And Jesus Christ is being compared to King and Gandhi.
So, the point of the quote, which I believe is that those who non-violently seek to advance the cause of justice, is well heeded and can be seen to have some success throughout history (not going into the success some wars have had in history…that’s another topic). But the quote itself dances into what I believe are some dangerous grounds in stereotyping/demonizing the role of government and making a comparison between a Holy Savior and sinful men.
Coming up next, a review of the book “Adopted for Life” by Russell Moore.
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