Monday, January 15, 2018
MLK Day THIS year....
It's MLK day. I have been thinking about Dr. King's teaching and legacy a lot lately. In part, that is because I need to get ready to speak in Memphis as part of the 50th anniversary of his death there in April (more details here).
It's not just that, though.
It has been a hard year in this country in terms of race. President Trump has (often subtly) stoked his base with racial offense since the primaries, but now he seems to have gotten to the point where reasonable people are publicly and somberly concluding that he is a racist.
At the same time, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been turned into a secular moderate in much of the public imagination. That image hides two deep truths. One is that his faith had everything to do with his passion and his project. Christianity should, if it is true, drive us from hate, bias, and racial oppression. Over and over, he articulated that.
The second falsehood that sometimes we seem to want to believe is that he was a popular, let's-all-get-along type of guy. He was deeply unpopular with much of America, who seethed with anger at what he wanted and how he sought that change. He was right and they were wrong-- but often it is being right, in a way that implies moral judgment, that makes people the most angry. His solutions were radical at the time, in the places he sought them. His Letter from Birmingham Jail expresses his frustration with those who wanted him, in real time, to go slower and to be more moderate.
The truth, right now, is troubling.
It's not just that, though.
It has been a hard year in this country in terms of race. President Trump has (often subtly) stoked his base with racial offense since the primaries, but now he seems to have gotten to the point where reasonable people are publicly and somberly concluding that he is a racist.
At the same time, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been turned into a secular moderate in much of the public imagination. That image hides two deep truths. One is that his faith had everything to do with his passion and his project. Christianity should, if it is true, drive us from hate, bias, and racial oppression. Over and over, he articulated that.
The second falsehood that sometimes we seem to want to believe is that he was a popular, let's-all-get-along type of guy. He was deeply unpopular with much of America, who seethed with anger at what he wanted and how he sought that change. He was right and they were wrong-- but often it is being right, in a way that implies moral judgment, that makes people the most angry. His solutions were radical at the time, in the places he sought them. His Letter from Birmingham Jail expresses his frustration with those who wanted him, in real time, to go slower and to be more moderate.
The truth, right now, is troubling.
