Follow King’s example to unity, reject extremism

In the face of recent events in our nation, my heart is deeply grieved. In the last six months, we have witnessed one the nastiest political campaigns in our nation's history. During this campaign, we heard the worst insults imaginable. We witnessed a brutal attack by a radicalized Muslim on the LGBT community in Orlando. We’ve witnessed disturbing images of black men being shot dead by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana. And then we witnessed the vengeful killing of five police officers during a Black Lives Matter (BLM) rally in the streets of Dallas. That’s why my heart is deeply grieved as I write this.

Recently, I read an excerpt from Martin Luther King’s famous 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It reminded me of King's legacy.

I grew up in inner-city Atlanta during the tumultuous ‘60s. I was in the first crop of white kids who were integrated into a black public school. So, as one of five white kids at C.D. Hubert elementary school, I learned a lot about King. And despite the racial violence that I endured as a "white minority," King gradually became one of my boyhood heroes. This was because, at 12 years of age – sitting as the only white kid in my all black classroom – I never saw King as strictly an advocate for the African American race. I saw him as an advocate for freedom, for me.

In the letter from Birmingham, King gave an excellent defense of his strategy of non-violent, civil disobedience that was rooted in the Christian gospel. In fact, his strategy was so rooted in the Christian gospel that in the weeks before every protest, King asked his demonstrators to meet together with him so he could teach them the nature of Christian civil disobedience. He then called everyone to prayer, to repent of anger, and to ask for the grace of Christ to help them endure the mistreatment that they would inevitably face. In this way, King invited reconciliation and he courted allies from among the white community. Again, this was made possible because King's movement was not exclusively an African American movement. No. It was a freedom movement.

As proof, you need simply recall the last words of King's “I Have a Dream” speech. On 10 different occasions at the culmination of that speech, King cried, “let freedom ring!”

At the end, he thundered with passionate joy, almost singing, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty! I'm free at last!"

When I first heard that speech in the auditorium of C.D. Hubert elementary school, chills of joy spread over me. That speech was for me. I am convinced that King's success in the Civil Rights Movement was a direct result of his posture of peacefully standing firm in his fight for freedom for all Americans. He believed in the miraculous, reconciling grace of the gospel. He refused to lash out – in even the worst of circumstances. He forgave his enemies. And he continually invited those who loved freedom to fight at his side.

Sadly, our present civil rights movements are not imbued with King's DNA. Indeed, in his Birmingham letter, King himself denounced radicalized revolutions. He said, "(A radicalized civil rights movement) is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation – the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. This movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible 'devil'."

Tragically, radicalism is the prevailing nature of our current, cultural rhetoric. Not just in the BLM movement, but in almost every movement in America. We demonize each other. We fight for power. We shout at each other. We seek revenge. So, instead of a nation defined by a unified pursuit of equality and freedom, we have become a fractured nation of vengeful revolutionaries who desire to reorder the American social power base to favor our own particular people group. Yet, I am convinced that this approach will never produce equality. It will never produce freedom. It will only produce deeper division and lead to more violence.

Meanwhile, there are many, many people in this country who want to stand together in a common fight for freedom and equality. They lament injustice and terrorism. They lament the violent face of racism and classism, wherever it occurs. But those of us who are Christians – black and white – we must be willing to lead the way toward peace and justice. Like King, we must learn to lament together in the face of all injustice. Because brothers and sisters, if all lives do not matter, then no life matters at all. So, let's pray to together for the grace of Christ to lead us toward courageous forgiveness, deep reconciliation, and radical love. In the meantime, I long for the day when my soul will be at rest and I will sing together with all of Christ’s church at the throne of God, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank Christ Almighty! We are free at last!"

Melton is associate pastor of Surfside Presbyterian Church.

This story was originally published August 7, 2016 at 8:52 AM with the headline "Follow King’s example to unity, reject extremism."