Martin Luther King, Jr: Theologian

One of the great failings of my theological life is an ignorance regarding the religious perspectives of the Black community in America. It’s no secret that African Americans are the most religiously observant, and the most Biblically committed demographic in America, yet in my own life, steeped in Christianity, the church, and theological training, I have rarely given consideration to the perspectives of Black religious thinkers.

Why have I ignored the perspective of my Black brothers and sisters?

1. My direct experience was white, evangelical, and protestant. More than that, since my dad was a pastor and I went to a school run by our church, I had the idea that our perspective was the right one. I was unwilling to give much consideration to the perspectives of anyone in any other church.
2. I was specifically taught in different contexts that Black preachers like Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and perhaps Dr. King himself were somehow invalid as preachers/pastors because of their admixture of Christian faith with “politics.”
3. I personally believed that racism didn’t really exist anymore. Slavery and Jim Crow were in the past. Every Black person who came to our church and school (there weren’t many of them) proved that racism was behind us. In my young mind, racism didn’t “exist” as much as it was “perceived.” It only existed insofar as a person felt prejudiced against another or felt overly sensitive to the actions of another.
4. Finally, I didn’t pay attention to the theological thinking of African Americans because they were uneducated and wrong. It wasn’t just that my tradition was right. I believed the doctrinal thinking coming out of the Black church was theologically inept. Whether it was over the definition of the gospel, the importance of liberation, the meaning of the cross, the methods of preaching and worship, or even the doctrine of the Trinity, it was reinforced to me that the Black church was misled, immature, and in many ways just wrong.

Nevertheless, in the past 10 years or so, I’ve intentionally decided to change my mind. I’ve invested in relationships with Black pastors, I’ve read books and done research into the unique perspectives on theology coming from the Black experience, and most recently, I’ve become enamored with the teaching of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Much has been said about his personal failings, and I’m not going to defend him as a moral exemplar, but I nevertheless want to honor his passionate commitment to the doctrine and way of Jesus. I probably disagree with him on the doctrine of atonement and other matters of theological precision, but his advancement of Jesus as the model for living, his incessant hope in the ongoing work of God, and his inexplicable hope in the eventual transformation of his “white brothers” inspire me.

Recently, I’ve been reading The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone. James Cone is a key figure in what scholars call Liberation Theology and I have been trained to think of that framework as a heresy against the gospel. But I’m reading the work for myself to see if my training told me the whole story (spoiler alert, it has not).

Chapter 3 of his book focuses on Dr. King, and it contains a number of quotations from him. Now, considering that many of my readers are coming from white evangelical traditions, it’s likely that Dr. King’s sermons are as unfamiliar to you as they are to me, so here are a few quotations from the book that are certainly eye-opening.

… it may mean walking through the valley of the shadow of suffering…. Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear.

I can’t be neutral on this [anti-war, anti-poverty]… The word of God is upon me, it’s like fire shut up in my bones…. It may hurt me, but when I took up the cross I recognized its meaning…. It is not something that you wear. The cross is something that you bear and ultimately that you die on.

There are some who still find the cross a stumbling block, and others consider it foolishness, but I am more convinced than ever before that it is the power of God unto social and individual salvation…. The suffering and agonizing moments through which I have passed over the last few years have also drawn me closer to God. More than ever before I am convinced of the reality of a personal God.

Whether you agree with every point of King’s doctrine, or whether you agree with his methods of activism, you cannot deny his commitment to the Word of God and the cross of Jesus. That’s what drove him. That’s what empowered him.

And that can be motivating to you and me too!

If you have ever felt that the world is against you…

If you have ever felt that you are losing ground to your enemies…

If you have ever felt the temptation to push back or fight back…

Consider the teaching of Christ exemplified in the words of Dr. King:

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. — Luke 6:35-36 NIV

When the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed in 1963 and those four little girls lost their lives, King’s commitment to the love of Christ didn’t waver. In a profound act of faith, he exhorted his hearers to keep living the life of Christ no matter what. In his “Eulogy for the Martyred Children” he said these words:

So in spite of the darkness of this hour we must not despair. We must not become bitter; nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. We must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided of them can learn to respect the dignity and worth of human personality.

Or, as Jesus would say: Love your enemies.