Martin Luther King Day - 2007

Today is the official day set aside to honor, someone who I think is one of the greatest Americans in our country's history, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Washington State Governor, Christine Gregoire issued a statement honor King. Gregoire states, "

King called on us to live up to the ideals that we claim to value as Americans ... His vision encompassed ... all people in need and he taught us many lessons - the continuing struggle for justice, nonviolence, the need to change the status quo, the importance of spiritual foundations
and the contributions of diversity."

Gregoire continues on, quoting The Letter from the Birmingham Jail (which I consider one of the top 5 documents in our nations history):

"Human progress ... comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God."

Yet, what many miss (and I suspect by Gregoire's actions she does too) is that King didn't just say spiritual foundations were important, he grounded the civil rights movement on spiritual - and more precisely Judeo-Christian - foundations. In fact, the civil rights movement would not have been possible apart from its Judeo-Christian foundation.

For example, how do you define a just and an unjust law. Here's how King define them:

"A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in the eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality (i.e. the dignity and worth of man who is made in the image of God) is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust."[1]

What does King mean by the human personaility? Here's his views from The Ethical Demands of Integration:

"Every human being has etched in his personality the indelible stamp of the Creator.[2]

"This idea of the dignity and worth of human personality is expressed eloquently and unequivocally in the Declaration of Independence. ‘All men,’ it says, ‘are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness.’"[3]

How many legislators forty years later, would create just laws based on how they uplift the image of God that is stamped on each human being?

King recognized that man’s dignity derives from the Creator’s design and a law that does not also recognize the Creator's design is unjust. One’s character, not their skin color, reveals God’s image.

People want to say they honor the man but what they will not tell you, probably because they do not know it themselves, that they do not actually hold his view.

The next time someone quotes or extolls Martin Luther King or say they are continuing in the steps of the civil rights movement, quote King's definition of just and unjust laws (without telling them you are quoting King) and watch the reaction. Then ask them what they think of Dr. King.

You'll be astonished at how many say they honor the man's name but reject the very views that made the man's name one to honor.


[1] Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from the Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963, Reprinted in "A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.", edited by James M. Washington, First HarperCollins, 1986. The phrase in brackets "[i.e. the dignity and worth of man who is made in the image of God] is King’s definition of the term "human personality" from "The Ethical Demands of Integration, pp. 118-119.
[2] Ibid., "The Ethical Demands of Integration," pp. 118-119.
[3] Ibid., p. 119.