Martin Luther King Day - A Commentary

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement

Commentary by George Nielsen, January 21, 2013

In the U.S.A. we have established a special commemorative day to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the third Monday of January each year, and designated it as a national holiday.   On the Sunday closest to that day, each year, I also make remarks at church addressing the topic of civil rights, racism, and also to give honor and recognition to the two leaders who were most prominent in the movement to overcome racial discrimination in our country during the 1960’s – Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King Jr.   

This year, that Sunday is January 20^th, which is also a commemorative day – Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.   It is appropriate that these special days are so close to each other, since they both are related to civil rights.  They are set aside as special days to recognize the equality of people regardless of race and the humanity of people and their right to life, including the preborn children in the womb and the infirm elderly.  Martin Luther King Day also is observed by some people as a day of service, where they do special tasks to help others.

I have been making special remarks or commentary about Dr. King in Church or chapel services for more than 12 years.   Prior to 2011, those comments where made to adult listeners only.   Since 2011, I have also been able to make my remarks to preteen children too.   Now I consider the preteen and young teen listeners to be my primary audience, and try to speak at their level.   My remarks provide a more in-depth look at Dr. King and the civil rights movement, compared to what these students would receive in their classes at public schools.  

Dr. King is remembered for his leadership of the civil rights movement during the era of the 1950’s and 60’s, prior to his death by assassination in 1968.    Dr. King and other Christian ministers founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (“SCLC”) in 1957.   With the goal of redeeming ‘‘the soul of America’’ through nonviolent resistance, the ministers who organized SCLC released a manifesto.  In the manifesto they called upon white southerners to “realize that the treatment of Negroes is a basic spiritual problem.… Far too many have silently stood by”. In addition, they encouraged black Americans “to seek justice and reject all injustice” and to dedicate themselves to the principle of nonviolence “no matter how great the provocation.”   (M.L. King Papers 4:104-5. Stanford University)   

At the time of Dr. King’s prominence as the leader of SCLC, and even now about fifty years afterward, he is criticized for various things that he did both as a leader of the civil rights and racial equality movement and in his personal life.    I also have been criticized, in the Church, for speaking out and giving recognition to Dr. King for his leadership.    But I press on, annually, in January, to do so.    I don’t give honor and recognition to Dr. King out of some idealized picture of him as being perfect.   I have never said he was perfect.  I have said that he was called.    

He was called by Jesus Christ to serve as a leader of a movement to bring about racial equality in the USA.   Dr. King did what he was called to do, starting the process of getting equality and ending racial discrimination.   Some of the notable, tangible results of Dr. King’s efforts were the passing of two major new federal laws, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.   The phrase “redeeming the soul of America” meant that these Christian leaders were seeking to call out America, saying we had failed on one of the God-ordained principles recorded in our Declaration of Independence – that all men are created equal and are endowed by God Almighty with irrevocable, unalienable rights.    They wanted to penetrate a hardened or indifferent public conscience in our country, and end the oppression or discrimination that they were enduring.

Jesus went about in the land of Israel during His ministry here on the earth, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and doing good, healing the sick.    The handout paper that has been studied in our Sunday School class during the past two weeks explained that the Gospel of the Kingdom has two parts – Salvation and the Kingdom.    Justice, and social action to overcome and stop injustice, are part of the Gospel of the Kingdom.   Jesus taught us to pray a petition to the Father, saying “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”    Ministry work to achieve justice and action taken against injustice, pushing back the darkness of evil, are doing the Father’s will on the earth, so that the Kingdom can come, and be realized/actualized in one more area where satan had been in control.

The word I prophesied from the pulpit back in 2007 was that “Jesus said, ‘That’s enough’, and then He raised up Dr. King as His leading spokesman, and the SCLC as a group of ‘mighty men’ allied with Dr. King in this movement.”    Dr. King fulfilled his part in the calling that Jesus gave, to end racism and bring about racial equality.    He should be recognized for his leadership.   Jesus should be praised and given glory by His people in the Church.   He has and still is moving, in the USA, to cleanse and heal our land of this unrighteousness.    He is awakening the conscience of the Church to realize that the movement against discrimination needs to progress further, and to include more efforts on behalf of the people of the Native American Indian tribes.    □□

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Headquartered in Atlanta, SCLC is now a nationwide organization with chapters and affiliates located throughout the United States. It continues its commitment to nonviolent action to achieve social, economic, and political justice and is focused on issues such as racial profiling, police brutality, hate crimes, and discrimination. 

The class handout titled “The Gospel of the Kingdom” can be viewed online.   (Click HERE to link to a copy of the Handout.)