Martin Luther King Jr.: Blessedly Human

I just came back from a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in West Covina held at City Hall and organized by the San Gabriel Valley NAACP. Because of the chance of rain, it was apparently moved from the Civic Center lawn to City Hall's covered first-floor promenade. They screened Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the 1963 March on Washington as it was originally broadcast on television, and it's still moving nearly 50 years later to hear the passion in his voice and see the look of determination on his face.

In recent years I have been concerned about how Dr. King is being turned into an icon of mythical proportions as time goes by. It is easy to focus on the words "I Have a Dream" and forget the context of that famous speech and the condition of America when it was delivered in Washington, DC in 1963. We rightly laud Dr. King for his courageous stand in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, but sometimes forget that his home was firebombed in response and his family's life was endangered.

Even worse, now that MLK Day is a national holiday, retailers are now starting to commercialize it the same way they've done Christmas, Valentine's Day and the others. On the radio I've heard tire centers and department stores promote MLK sales and discounts as if it were Labor Day. A food vendor at the civic center promenade was selling pulled pork Bar-B-Q sandwiches "in honor of MLK day", which I found demeaning and offensive because it was stereotyping so-called "black food" the same way corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day stereotypes Irish food.

What I have admired about Dr. King is that he was remarkably human--dare I say blessedly human. Thanks to his letters, television appearances, and filmed speeches during his lifetime, we can see and appreciate the humanity behind the message and the cause. MLK is not a godlike icon perfect in every way; he is a fellow human being with the same emotions, beliefs and doubts as you and I do.

And because he was human, there are some things Dr. King spoke about and supported that I struggle with as a follower of Christ and as an American citizen. He opposed the Vietnam War and was sympathetic to Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. While he said that "communism forgets that life is individual" and that "capitalism forgets that life is social", he envisioned a society that synthesized the best qualities of both systems, which to me sounds like socialism. He supported the rights of labor union members, and I believe he would support the Occupy Wall Street movement, which in my opinion is an angry but confused force that doesn't know what to stand for and has allowed violent fringes within its ranks.

On the other hand, Dr. King steadfastly supported the nation of Israel and its right to exist, which may anger Palestinians and Arabs who see him as a hero for freedom and independence. Ten days before he was assassinated in 1968, Dr. King said the following at the annual meeting of the Rabbinical Assembly:

Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs. Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a reality.
(Source: I. L. Kenen, Israel's Defense Line, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, NY: 1981, 266.)

Dr. King's life and convictions, however we may agree or disagree with some parts of it, were all a reflection of his faith in Jesus Christ. First and foremost, he was a minister of the gospel. And like other black pastors and ministers of his day, he believed that the natural tendency of man was toward corruption, death and destruction. Such belief was founded on that God says about mankind in the Bible and confirmed by the racism and injustice against blacks in the South, which many evangelicals say was "satanically inspired" and to which I agree. Putting the love of Christ in practice through nonviolent means, he was also in many ways an antiwar activist as well as a formidable force for racial equality. He was much a liberal in many areas as he was a conservative in others. Dr. King, like you and me, was a human being, and it bothers me that political partisans and radical activists hijack and claim Dr. King as supporting their cause.

As an American of Mexican descent and more importantly as a Christian, I am personally grateful and indebted to Martin Luther King Jr. for what he did for racial equality, justice and reconciliation. It was all driven, motivated and inspired by his love and obedience to Jesus Christ, in whom there is no black or white, Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free, rich or poor, for we are all brothers and sisters in Him. And because he was a human being and not a faultless icon, Dr. King inspires me to look beyond my own sinful past and go forward in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ and putting it into practice.

"All men are brothers because they are brothers of a common father."
(from sermon "The Drum Major Instinct", Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, February 4, 1968)