Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist pastor and civil rights leader who had a significant role in ending legal segregation in America. The culture in which King grew up was one of legalized segregation between blacks and whites. For over 30 years, King advocated equality for all people regardless of the color of their skin. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed, outlawing racial discrimination. In 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while supporting a strike of city workers. His impact and legacy for positive social change in our communities is, without a doubt, enormously important and glorifying to God.
For many teens in America, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is just a day when you don't have to go to school and some businesses might close because it's a federal holiday. But let's take a moment to figure out who Martin Luther King Jr. was, what he believed, and why he was honored with a national observance day.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist pastor and civil rights leader who had a significant role in ending legal segregation in America. He was born Michael King, Jr., but in 1934, his father changed his name to Martin Luther King, in honor of the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther.
King came from a long line of church pastors, as both his father and grandfather pastored the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The culture in which King grew up was one of legalized segregation in the South—separation between whites and blacks permeated all areas of life, including schools, restaurants, and transportation.
In 1953, King married Coretta Scott and later became a Pastor to the congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Two years later, after attending schools in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, he earned a doctorate in systematic theology.
In 1955, an African American lady named Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This was unheard of at that time, as blacks were legally supposed to give up their seats to white passengers and move to the back due to the racist legislation of segregation.
When Parks was arrested, civil rights advocates decided to boycott the bus system, and they chose Martin Luther King, Jr. to be their leader and voice. The boycott lasted a little more than a year. Throughout this time, King faced many threats, but he persevered and eventually the transit system was legally desegregated.
Following this victory, King organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and began to speak on race-related issues throughout the country. He was arrested about 30 times for his civil rights involvement, but his message was one of non-violence, which he drew from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.
During one of his arrests, he penned a letter which would become known as the "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" (1963), and its significance in politics continues to this day.
On August 29, 1963, King led an assembly of more than 200,000 people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. and gave his most famous speech: "I Have a Dream." In this speech, King dreams of a day when people are "not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." The following year, the Civil Rights Act was passed and signed into law. This authorized the federal government to enforce desegregation, and racial discrimination in public places and in employment was outlawed. King's dream was becoming a reality.
In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. went to Memphis, Tennessee to support a strike of city workers and was tragically assassinated at his hotel by a sniper. To honor his important legacy, a national holiday was declared in 1983 so that the third Monday in January would be Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In Washington D.C., there's a national memorial dedicated to him in West Potomac Park. Today, his niece Alveda King continues in the footsteps of her uncle by being a voice for Christ in politics.
One thing to be aware of when reading works by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is that his theology was rooted in a "social gospel" system. In the social gospel, foundational Bible doctrines like sin, salvation, heaven, and Hell are minimized in favor of addressing social issues such as poverty, racial injustice, poor education, and crime.
The solution to these social problems is often found in government intervention or people-initiated solutions. A social gospel is one that promotes social concerns as the fundamental problem in society, rather seeing these problems as a symptom of spiritual brokenness that is ultimately solved in Jesus our Savior.
The social gospel promotes the idea that if we do things like feed enough people, educate enough children, and end all racism, then we will have attained true freedom. While those are worthwhile and noble causes, salvation from the eternal punishment of sin is, at the root, our greatest problem. And the solution to that problem is the Savior who is found only in the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, while some of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s biblical orthodoxy may be in doubt, his impact on treating all people, regardless of the color of their skin, as equal, valuable, and imago dei (made in the image of God) is, without a doubt, enormously important and glorifying to God.
He is a cross pendant.
He is engraved with a unique Number.
He will mail it out from Jerusalem.
He will be sent to your Side.
Emmanuel
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