“I don’t understand. We have a day honoring Martin Luther King but he didn’t even work here.”

Michael Scott

When we acknowledge this day, we cannot ignore:

– The basis for the method and principles that Dr. King promoted.
– The issues extend beyond a particular race or time.

With so much talk about the way we view the scriptures in this post-modern context, i.e. inerrant, literal, authoritative, etc., we have a leader who actually thought Jesus said to love our enemies, and…this will be crazy to hear, that Jesus really meant that. And not only was Jesus serious, but he expected his followers to take him…dare I say literally. (This week I almost caught the bloodcurdling heresy virus by reading this blog, but I stopped before I became infected). Nathan you aren’t gay right? It was the most peculiar thing, there I was watching Brokeback Mountain, and by the end of the movie I was gay.

So this guy Jesus had disciples who violently resisted their deaths? Okay, maybe not. But thousands of Christians violently resisted the Roman Empire during the first couple centuries? No. What’s the deal? You mean they took Jesus literally also? How can you not protect your family? You must be ethically reprehensible to allow such a thing. Oh wait. I get it. The idea is this: it is normative to be a martyr for Christ, to not violently fight or kill for him, but if the cause is democracy or something noble like that, then by all means kill away to get your point across.

I’m worked up and sounding like a cheerleader. Crap.

I’m tired of neutering what Jesus really did and said, and the same attitude extends towards Dr. King in many ways. They were these revolutionaries, not to be poster boys to garner political points. And we are comfortable.  We are consumers.  Sometimes I am apathetic, compounding our problem by adding more drivel on yet another blog. We live in a country where 84% of people are personally comfortable, but 70% think we are heading the wrong direction. Huh?!  Our collective lives drip with dissonance and contradiction.

KING: Every time we drop our bombs in North Vietnam, President Johnson talks eloquently about peace. What is the problem? They are talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

Quotes from Dr. King.

And now that I’ve gotten a bit riled up on the topic, isn’t it blatantly clear that we have totally thrown out any semblance of Just War theory from U.S. foreign policy. This neo-con policy translated is, “Better to ask forgiveness, than permission,” and it’s just dandy since we are talking about efing up entire countries, as opposed to drinking your roommate’s last bottle of Boulevard.

Jus ad bellum

Jus in bello

Understandably, you may ethically disagree with the non-violent principles that spawned the phenomenal changes that occurred as the direct result of King’s non-violent resistance, and perhaps 200+ examples for similar movements through world history.  But our “Christian nation” has an intellectually rich tradition with respect to the philosophy of war (No, I’m not talking about the Constitution and war which we have shredded). These relatively minor Latin ideas above only have, say, a few centuries of historical weight behind them. But now our conduct abroad is totally contrary to this tradition, and things aren’t exactly rosy at home. To think that people are indifferent about, or really believe, the only changes in our civil liberties in the last few years being minor, and basically amount to taking off our shoes at the airport. Keep your head in the sand people. Oh wait, you don’t have anything to hide so why should you care right? Yeah, sure, taping your phone without a warrant, or even rummaging through your house, isn’t a big deal, because, that’s right, you have nothing to hide. All in the name of safety.  Brilliant. Will people notice a trend when they see one?

I’m not an alarmist. This isn’t some celebratory dispensational BS diatribe, thinking we can start up the rapture helicopters and jump ship. I trust Christ more than ever, knowing his kingdom is our only real hope (not Barack, or even Ron Paul). But it’s absurd to think Dr. King was just standing up for the rights of one race or one group, and we disgrace his legacy by myopically thinking it has no relevance to what is happening today.

If you have an hour this week, go rent A Time for Burning.

Cheers.