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Reflections
on MLK As I enjoyed my day off for the MLK holiday, I paused to reflect on Dr. King and the gifts he gave all of us. He forced the U.S. to work harder to live up to the values espoused in our founding documents of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. That made him a great American. However, his true greatness, that made him a hero for the entire world, was that he was the last great Christian prophet. He was the last man to lead a political movement that was shamelessly based on the values espoused by Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God.
Dr. King taught us that non-violent civil disobedience could change the world. He challenged us to live up to the ideals that we claim to believe in. He opposed war, racism, sexism, violence and poverty. He was the last leader of a political movement that made being Christian relevant to public policy. He made human rights a moral issue. Who among us think war and poverty are good for humanity, much less the planet? Yet we seem prepared to accept both for the rest of history given how we conduct our relations with each other. Dr. King challenged us to face our fear and still do the right thing and confront all aggressors yet act with compassion and love for each other. Of course, he was killed for his effectiveness in living out his Christian values in the public arena. Dr. King did not believe in a vengeful, warrior God.
Today, being Christian is virtually irrelevant to public policy. Listening to our current national leaders, you would think Jesus would promote war. By definition, war spawns rape, torture, murder, child abuse, mental illness, spying, environmental degradation, poverty, and situational ethics, because these are all part and parcel of war. That includes our false wars such as the "war on drugs," the "war on poverty," the "war on terrorism," and the "war on crime." Today, being Christian seems to mean that you accept a capitalist model that requires the existence of poverty. That poverty is needed to create fear, doubt and desperation. That fear, doubt and desperation motivates us to act in our perceived immediate self interest rather than in our expressed values. That fear, doubt and desperation will cause us to believe anything if we think it will make us safer, even if the belief is irrational and immoral. That poverty also insures that a percentage of people will think war is the only way to get justice. If the most important thing we get out of Christianity is that we can be personally saved if we accept Jesus Christ, that is a personal matter with no relevance to public life. If our faith doesn't motive us to aspire to the "better angels of our nature," then we should keep our faith to ourselves. You don't have to be a Christian to be compassionate, thoughtful, humanitarian, forgiving or moral. You don't have to be Christian to work for human rights and justice. You don't have to be a Christian to be humble. Dr. King reminded us that it is not good enough not to be as bad as Hitler or Stalin. Just because we didn't bomb the people in New Orleans doesn't mean we are ready to demand the rest of the world model themselves on us. As long as we fall short of our ideals and values, we still have work to do. Dr. King set the standard for our conscience. Charles Dalton of Eugene is a program manager at EWEB and a longtime community civil rights leader.
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