We Twisted King’s Dream, So We Live With His Nightmare

[magus_69]

by Tim Wise

Comments

[lickety_split]

When is it not a rough year for MLK? He will never ever catch a break.

[sophiedegrouchy]

The title about twisting King's dream reminded me of a quotation by the pacifist theologian Stanley Hauerwas: “I fear that the celebration of Martin Luther King’s birthday as a “national holiday” is the attempt to separate King from the church he served and loved.” I have to feel that Wise is creating his own "safe and sanitized version of this man" in the totally secularized King that he presents here - in addition to the fact that I don't feel he does justice to the true economic radicalism of King's later years in this article, but I could be misreading him.

From what I've read of Hauerwas, he'd like to take all the civil religion/liberalism out of King and cast him as a purely religious figure. I disagree with that move, but the dude has a point that if you take all the Christianity out of King, you're missing something big. But then again, my attempt to balance the sacred and the secular in King doubtless reflects my personal beliefs. Funny how we all see what we want to see in figures of MLK's importance.

[tmlforsyth]

I remember reading about Dr. King's older sister who is still alive, and I remember this quote about he tried to get out of chores as a child, and that line reminded me of his humanity, of how he was once young and he got into mischief just like anyone else did as a child.

Just as everyone seems to paint a certain picture of Dr. King, it is important to see him not as an archetype, but as a human being.

[evelynwordsmyth]

I was about to read this, then I saw it was Tim Wise and I stopped.