Tag Archives: Martin Luther King

History and Hope: Renewing the American Promise Part Two: Toward Justice for All

July 17th, 2024 |

The American Experiment in virtue-based liberty is never done…we are always aspiring to live up to the noble values of our Founders and Framers. In Part One, we looked at our nation’s foundations, find much to thank God for…and much requiring repentance and realignment with truth. In this essay, we explore events from the 19th century to the present as signs of blessing and judgment, with the hope that we can live more helpful and hopeful lives.

The decades before the Civil War (1861-1865) saw a nation divided over slavery, with the Compromises of 1820 and 1850 failing to appease of the passions of both abolitionists and advocates of slavery. The British and French preceded the USA in the abolition of slavery, even as Americans boasted about having a freer nation!

Tragedy and blessing: The Civil War officially started as a war for Confederate independence (Southern view) and a war to preserve the Union (Northern view). By late 1862 with the Emancipation Proclamation and early 1865, with the passing of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, President Lincoln and many others understood the war to be God’s providential judgement on three centuries of slavery. More soldiers were killed and wounded in this war that all other wars combined. The 14th and 15th Amendments, passed in 1868 and 1870, enshrined citizenship and voting rights for all people.

Tragedy: beginning in 1876 and lasting until 1964, segregation and second-class citizenship for African Americans and other minorities became normalized. African-Americans were the most impacted, while other minorities felt the sting if prejudice through restrictive immigration and outright bans from whole arenas of society.

Blessing: Full equality and voting rights for women were promoted by Abigail Adams and others in the 1780s and 1790s but fell on deaf ears until the late 19th century. Suffragette movements (often led by married women of solid Christian faith) gained ground in particular states before 1900. Finally in 1920, full voting rights were enshrined in the 19th Amendment. It would take several more decades and court decisions to allow full equality for employment and property rights.

Blessing and tragedy: Many Americans boast that we are a “land of immigrants” and that the Statue of Liberty welcomes all (legally). And there is much to celebrate as we think of the millions coming through Ellis Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. We are indeed a wonderful “salad bowl” (Historian Carl Degler) of diverse ethnicities and traditions. While we celebrate Ellis Island in New York and appreciate the opportunities afforded to so many, we must also lament the oppression of Angel Island in California and the severe restrictions placed on Asian (especially Chines) immigrants from the 1870s to the 1940s. The open doors of previous decades shut harshly after World War I.

We closed our doors to Jewish immigration and capitulated to severe antisemitism from the 1920s to the1940s, only changing course after seeing the full evidence of the Holocaust.

Blessing: After World War II, the momentum for civil and voting rights for all was unstoppable, though only in 1965 were full rights established. The movement led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was one of our last moments of unified advocacy with people from all backgrounds ready to help cash, “the promissory note” of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

The past six decades are their own unique narrative, with bright moments of divine life and tragic moments subverting the values and visions of the Founders. May we delight in the providential progress of our history and humbly continue the journey toward justice so all can flourish.

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Unspoken Absolutes: What Lies Beneath All the Outrage

September 21st, 2022 |

About 1,960 years ago, The Gospel of Matthew was penned, offering collections of the words and works of Jesus of Nazareth. Central to all the teachings presented are the Beatitudes found in Chapter 5. They constitute foundational dispositions and disciplines for followers of Jesus the Christ. One of these pithy and profound sayings is found in Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” The “blessed” (happy, to be congratulated, under divine favor) actively pursue peace (concord, harmony, end of conflict, enemies becoming friends).

This peacemaking includes personal conflicts, peace among contentious groups, warring nations, and rival powers. Jesus was building on the Wisdom traditions of Israel calling the faithful to, “seek peace and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:14) and the Apostle Paul would highlight both the individual and relational facets of peace with God and among humankind (Romans 5:1; Galatians 5:22; Colossians 3:16). Jesus’s words have inspired intercultural and interracial harmony, as well as reconciliation movements throughout history. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1950s and 1960s, and President Nelson Mandela in the 1990s are examples of peacemakers bringing justice and calm to intense struggles.

In our contentious public square, peacemaking is needed more than ever. The agitation propaganda, apocalyptic hyperbole, outright anger, and egregious personal insults are not fostering concord and harmony! Why is it so hard for people of conscience to ignore the reactive emotionalism and forge principled compromises and offer proximate justice? The answers are complex, but we can unearth the unspoken absolutes that create the conditions of contention. Underneath all the “be a good person” and “we ae all one” and “be kind” sayings are pillars of post-modern anarchy and subjectivism that make consensus hard. Here are a few of these new “absolutes”

  • Knowledge is not objective, but subjective. Pursuing the truth of a matter is now replaced by “my truth.” Even the words, “fact(s)” and “objectivity” are considered oppressive and racist.
  • The human person is now a malleable creation of the autonomous self, not an identity to cultivate and refine as a human being who is male or female. Gender anarchy is a deliberate subversion of the divine image and everyone is now their own god, manufacturing new narratives of victimhood and pseudo-liberation. Of course, anyone affirming the commonsense view that all humankind is one race (with many ethnicities, of course) with binary female and male characteristics is ignorant at best and evil at worst.

These crises of knowledge (epistemology) and human identity (anthropology) make peacemaking quite challenging. Part of peaceful relations is living civilly with our deepest differences, desiring for all freedom of conscience and opportunity to flourish. But the purveyors of the aforementioned axioms purposefully cultivate conflict so they can rage against the machine forever, instead of offering principles and pathways for a preferred future.  There are two more unspoken absolutes that govern this grievance culture:

  • Morality is subjective and traditional religions are the enemy of human freedom. Marxist ideology aims for a “new person” free from economic and spiritual history with the state in control of every detail of life. One set of absolutes is now replaced with “liberation” through class struggle…and history tells us this is disastrous!
  • History must be shaped to promote political agendas, regardless of the tapestry of narratives and the beauty and brokenness of humankind in all cultures and all eras. “Presentism” is the fashionable ideology of making today’s wokeism the lens by which all people at all times are evaluated.

Is there a way forward? Yes! Peacemaking requires values and virtues shared by diverse groups. People of conscience and common sense must affirm that pursuing the truth is noble and possible. We must allow science to speak loudly about the DNA of human identity, without imposing cultural idols. We must affirm that there are moral standards we can agree on. And we must learn all historical narratives and allow them to inform our decisions. I pray we will find the courage and wisdom for peacemaking rooted in enduring principles.

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Human Identity Up for Grabs

March 18th, 2019 |

When I was a university and seminary student in the 1970s and 1980s, radical feminists declared, “Gender is a social construction” as they advocated for reappraisal of male and female passions and roles. No one, even the most extreme, suggested that someone could choose their gender. Fast-forward to the 1990s and the LGBTQ movement is searching for genetic underpinnings for same-sex or bisexual attractions. Finding none, by the 2000s they declare that what used to be dysphoria (people feeling like a woman/man in a man’s/women’s body) is really an opportunity for transgender reassignment surgery or simply choosing a new identity.

Today, we are told that being “cisgender” (i.e. normal male or female identity and desire for intimacy with the opposite sex) is part of the “privilege” of “heteronormative oppression.” It is now cool and exotic to claim some form of unusual identity, especially if one can distance themselves from anything resembling a white male, who, by definition, is filled with “toxic masculinity.”

Added to gender confusion is racial identity, where anything other than White is OK, though Asian is now suspect because of some groups succeeding in the academy and economy. Whether it is Senator Warren creating a career out of a false identity with the Cherokee people or a former NAACP leader exposed as not Black enough, we are in a state of deep confusion and new tribalism that does not bode well for the common good.

We must return to the biblical vision espoused by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. People should be evaluated by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Going deeper, we must reaffirm the biblical vision of a common humanity and male and female identity – without the historical oppression of class, gender, or race.

The Bible is brilliant in its profound simplicity. Here is the Creation order of Genesis 1:26-28 and 5:1-2:

  • We are created in God’s image
  • We have a job to do (care for and cultivate creation)
  • We carry out this vocation as a male or female
  • Male and female are both called “Adam” – which is the term for all humanity

For social cohesion, this means that every person I meet is made in God’s image and worthy of dignity and respect. Each person I meet is fashioned to bring good to our world, if given access and opportunity. Furthermore, each person (with rare genetic exceptions in a fallen world) is a male or female – equal and different. Cultural traditions are NOT neutral – they enhance or impair human flourishing.

The reasons for gender confusion are many and no one should be mistreated. This does not mean we should accept any and every set of behaviors as normal! And in the next essay we will examine the moral codes for flourishing neighborhoods and nations.

Next week: True Toleration and Moral Universals

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Celebrating Our American History and Hope

August 7th, 2017 |

The Declaration of Independence was approved on July 2, 1776 and signed by John Hancock on July 4, with most of the other signatories penning their names on August 2. In celebration and for reflection, I offer the following insights that flow from this Declaration and the later Constitution and Bill of Rights. These are our founding documents.

We are still catching up to the promises of the Declaration of Independence.

The Declaration of Independence and Constitution declare that human rights are God-given natural rights. Governments exist to protect our rights, NOT bestow them!

“Let’s freedom ring…”
Today, I am appreciating the words and works of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. When asked about freeing the Blacks, he said that his cause was about freeing ALL people…and saving the soul of White America from the scourge of racism.

As we rightly celebrate our nation’s birth, let’s ask the Almighty for full liberation from hatred, injustice and prejudice. People of every class, gender or race or religion are made in God’s image and endowed with inalienable rights.

“Proclaim liberty throughout the land…”
May God help us relearn civil conversation, principled debate and good-faith progress toward justice in all our political circles.

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Reflections and Laments from Dallas, Texas (July, 2016)

August 15th, 2016 |

Dallas tragedy.
No words.
I am weeping over the historical and systemic injustices still rampant in our land.
As a citizen grateful for first responders and law enforcement, I am weeping for families left desolate.
I am weeping bitter tears over the extremists that gain from inflamed tensions while people of conscience of all colors and classes seek some way forward.

Since the loss of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and the polarization of both political parties, we have lost the moral and spiritual center that grounds peace, reconciliation and shalom.

There is hope: authentic, deep, moral and spiritual awakening rooted in humility and sacrificial love.

There is hope: when we begin with the infinite value of every person and the dignity and equality that flow from this conviction.

There is hope: when we desire peace for our posterity over the passions of this moment.

Weeping and hopeful today.

 

 

 

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