Martin Luther King, Jr. Secular Saint?

I just finished reading Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which I had never read from start to finish before, and I was struck by what a deeply intellectual and Christian man he was. I knew this, but reading his words themselves at length and not the man mediated by a secular media really brought this home. Many forget that the civil rights movement was driven by men, and women, like Dr. King who were deeply religious. In fact you might be tempted to think from the general cultural portrayal that the movement was primarily secular in nature, and that religion was somehow tangential to its driving force and success. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This isn’t to say that what we learn in school or popular culture ignores that he was a minister, or that his faith inspired him, but you’ll rarely see his Christian convictions given the emphasis it deserves as the very reason that he did what he did. His Christian faith was the driving force of his life, and Christians should never tire of reminding Americans that this was the case. King was no secular saint, and there would have been no civil rights movement if there had been no Christianity.

As you read the letter you will see that Christians don’t get off without blame for either being quite in the face of or endorsing the evils of segregation. As we see all throughout the Bible itself, God’s people are deeply flawed, fallen creatures, as was King himself. But the moral foundation of the Jewish religion that was fulfilled in Christ, gave the world a moral north star that always shines through the fog of fallen human nature. King is a perfect example, a prophet who changed the course of history, and like many of the prophets who came before, gave his life for it. Just like his Savior did.