Regarding the MLK quote currently going viral on facebook
When I woke up this morning at approximately 7:40 GMT, several of my facebook friends had posted this quote as their status:
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."--Martin Luther King, Jr.
Then in the comments of one of these statuses, I saw that someone had posted "fake quote is fake" along with this link: "Out of Osama's Death, A Fake Quotation is Born"
The OP replied, "Well, it may be fake, but it still sums up all of my feelings regarding the assassination; and war itself, on a larger scale."
However, as this article points out, most of the quote can correctly be attributed to King. All of it except the first sentence.
I have seen several people on the internet reference King's 1967 book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, in which a variant of this quote appears:
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos Or Community?, 2000 edition, p. 64-65
However, a version even closer to the second part of the facebook quote appears in The Strength To Love, a volume of King's sermons published in 1963.
Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies” [Matt. 5:44], he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, The Strength To Love (1963) p. 37
It seems fairly obvious why someone felt the need to add "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy".
For one thing, it makes the quote more directly relevant to Osama bin Laden's death, but, more importantly, it softens King's original message and makes it more palatable for the general public. People are far more likely to criticize the War on Terror if they preface it with some sort of statement amounting to "First of all, I also think 9/11 was deeply tragic", just so no one thinks that they might somehow be IN FAVOR of terrorism.
And not rejoicing at the death of an enemy is one thing, but loving them? No one is going to post on facebook that they love Osama bin Laden. It just isn't going to happen.
Because the idea of loving Osama bin Laden is just crazy, right? He was an evil, evil man who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. You can't love that. In fact you probably threw up a little bit in your mouth just thinking about it.
But the Bible disagrees.
Ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν καὶ προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν διωκόντων ὑμᾶς.
--Matt 5:44
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
There's not really any wiggle room in that statement.
And MLK would have said, "Yes, you should try to love Osama bin Laden, even though it's really difficult and may make you feel skeevy and kind of nauseous. Also, killing him was wrong, the entire War on Terror is un-Christian, and we should never have invaded Afghanistan in the first place. Turn the other cheek, bro."
You know that Boondocks episode "The Return of the King", where MLK comes back and everyone condemns him for being un-American? Yeah. Like that. He was pretty uncompromising when it came to nonviolence.
I think what the thousands of people reposting the hybrid quote on facebook want to express is more along the lines of, "Guys, stop it, it's gross to celebrate someone getting their head blown off with a machine gun, no matter what they did to deserve it."
And, you know, that's okay.
But it's kind of funny and also sad that they needed to "improve" what King actually said in order to do it.
"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."--Martin Luther King, Jr.
Then in the comments of one of these statuses, I saw that someone had posted "fake quote is fake" along with this link: "Out of Osama's Death, A Fake Quotation is Born"
The OP replied, "Well, it may be fake, but it still sums up all of my feelings regarding the assassination; and war itself, on a larger scale."
However, as this article points out, most of the quote can correctly be attributed to King. All of it except the first sentence.
I have seen several people on the internet reference King's 1967 book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, in which a variant of this quote appears:
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos Or Community?, 2000 edition, p. 64-65
However, a version even closer to the second part of the facebook quote appears in The Strength To Love, a volume of King's sermons published in 1963.
Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies” [Matt. 5:44], he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition.
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, The Strength To Love (1963) p. 37
It seems fairly obvious why someone felt the need to add "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy".
For one thing, it makes the quote more directly relevant to Osama bin Laden's death, but, more importantly, it softens King's original message and makes it more palatable for the general public. People are far more likely to criticize the War on Terror if they preface it with some sort of statement amounting to "First of all, I also think 9/11 was deeply tragic", just so no one thinks that they might somehow be IN FAVOR of terrorism.
And not rejoicing at the death of an enemy is one thing, but loving them? No one is going to post on facebook that they love Osama bin Laden. It just isn't going to happen.
Because the idea of loving Osama bin Laden is just crazy, right? He was an evil, evil man who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. You can't love that. In fact you probably threw up a little bit in your mouth just thinking about it.
But the Bible disagrees.
Ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀγαπᾶτε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν καὶ προσεύχεσθε ὑπὲρ τῶν διωκόντων ὑμᾶς.
--Matt 5:44
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
There's not really any wiggle room in that statement.
And MLK would have said, "Yes, you should try to love Osama bin Laden, even though it's really difficult and may make you feel skeevy and kind of nauseous. Also, killing him was wrong, the entire War on Terror is un-Christian, and we should never have invaded Afghanistan in the first place. Turn the other cheek, bro."
You know that Boondocks episode "The Return of the King", where MLK comes back and everyone condemns him for being un-American? Yeah. Like that. He was pretty uncompromising when it came to nonviolence.
I think what the thousands of people reposting the hybrid quote on facebook want to express is more along the lines of, "Guys, stop it, it's gross to celebrate someone getting their head blown off with a machine gun, no matter what they did to deserve it."
And, you know, that's okay.
But it's kind of funny and also sad that they needed to "improve" what King actually said in order to do it.