MLK Reaction

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister. It would therefore make sense that his speeches contain many religious overtones and Biblical allusions. From quoting scripture, to using images of fire and hell, his speeches are as much a plea to religious values as they are to moral concerns.


Even in “I Have a Dream,” a speech that fights for the equality all ethnicities, the biblical allusions are obvious. From referencing “God’s Children” to directly quoting scripture “… until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,” one gets the distinct feel
that this speech is a sermon.


At the time, this might have been a good thing – people regularly attended church and believed in god. He might have intended to link his cause to God’s cause and thereby get more people to support his cause. Maybe, being a Bible man, he just wanted to proselytize. Whatever the reason, he inextricably linked the fight for freedom with religion.


And it worked. Segregation came to a screeching halt, and America has more or less become the dream that Martin Luther King hoped for. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. He got dozens of schools, bus stops, buildings, and streets named after him. He even got something that no president has ever gotten, a national holiday. He has become immortalized as only a few Americans, like Washington and Jefferson have.


If the ends justify the means, than there is no doubt the Martin Luther King is a holy man. But if the means by which the goals are attained do matter, I think Martin Luther King is not the hero we all make him out to be.


He plucked a tender string in all of America. He knew that Americans were religious and used it against them. Even though the cause for which he fought was noble, even though he gave his life for the rights of others, even though he improved the lives of countless people, including mine, he used religion to attain his goals. Consider what others have done using the same religious tactic as MLK of playing to the religious values of America: rape victims were denied abortions; stem cell research that could help people like Michael J. Fox has been greatly hindered; gays have been denied the constitutional right to marriage; the entire Middle East crisis.


Martin Luther King was a great man. I wouldn’t argue otherwise. All I’m saying is that if his cause was so great, his motives so pure, his argument so sound, why couldn’t he leave religion out of it?