The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday March 22. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: debating the legacy of a Civil Rights leader. Here is WORLD reviewer, Emily Whitten.

EMILY WHITTEN: It’s been just over 60 years since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Christians continue to debate what it means for us today. That includes a recent article in Christianity Today by Justin Giboney which takes on the question of whether King was a Christian.

To go beyond the headlines of such a debate, I recommend two recent books. First, Jonathan Eig’s 2023 book King: A Life–the first major biography of the Civil Rights leader in over 40 years. Eig draws on hundreds of his own interviews as well as recently released FBI files to paint a fascinating portrait of King, whom he called a “Christian radical.”

For Eig, the I Have a Dream speech is an iconic moment in King’s “revolution” based “on Christian love, on nonviolence, and on faith in humankind.” Eig doesn’t weigh in on whether King was truly saved. Decades of one night stands and keeping a mistress cast some doubt on his profession of faith. Like Ravi Zacharias, King’s hidden sexual sin was terrible.

However, Eig says King did “agonize” over his sin at times, and in many ways he took Scripture seriously. Eig doesn’t address the question of whether King rejected all liberal theology later in life, but we do see some spiritual wisdom. For instance, King rejects an impersonal view of God common in liberal circles. King also taught Civil Rights protestors to love those who persecuted them. He clung to that Biblical principle, despite many who pressured him to embrace hate and violence.

The other book I recommend is The End of Race Politics by author and political pundit Coleman Hughes. Hughes doesn’t accept Eig’s view of King as politically radical–at least not in today’s terms. He argues from the conservative right that too many on the left remake King in their own image. That includes anti-racists like Ibram X. Kendi who promote a new kind of racism which Hughes calls “neoracism.” Hughes says, “Neoracists agree…that discrimination in favor of non-whites is justified” because of racism endured by people of color today and in the past.

In contrast, Hughes says Martin Luther King Jr. promoted colorblindness, the principle of treating “people without regard to race.” Hughes admits that King supported some “radical” policies like universal health care… and he strongly opposed the Vietnam War…”. But unlike neoracist radicals today, King never wavered on “the goal of transcending race.”

I suppose it’s likely that 60 years from now, if Christ hasn’t come back, Christians will still be debating Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. For now, these two books can help us sharpen our thinking about what he got right and wrong. I’ll admit, I still don’t know if King was truly a Christian. But both Eig and Hughes saw his dream as deeply rooted in the American dream. And I’m grateful Christians know the One who can purify that dream and make it a reality.

I’m Emily Whitten.

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