Posted on 01/15/2018 10:56:45 AM PST by GoldenState_Rose
On July 18, 1957, the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama—the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—gave a public prayer at Madison Square Garden as part of the long-running Billy Graham evangelistic campaign.
In an earlier interview with historian Grant Wacker, I asked him about the background of this development by Graham to address racial justice through his ministry. He responded:
Till then, his racial justice efforts were mostly memorable for starting to de-segregate his crusade audiences in 1953 (possibly 1952). In the context of the early 1950s, insisting that he would not tolerate segregated audiences was a momentous and courageous step. One Graham biographer, generally not sympathetic to him, called it his “handsomest hour.” But 1953 was not 1957. “Time makes ancient truth uncouth,” the poet James Russell Lowell had said. Graham knew that he had to do more.
From the beginning at the Garden, Graham saw that his audiences were overwhelmingly white. A few days in, he contacted his black friend Howard Jones, the pastor of a large African-American Christian Missionary Alliance church in Cleveland, and asked what he should do about it. Jones advised, Do not wait for blacks to come to you. You need to go to them. The sub-text was clear: you and everything else about your crusade–associates, artists, music, choir, and congregation–present a virtually solid white front. If blacks are hesitant to come, what would you expect?
Inviting King—the most prominent black Christian in America—was a logical next step.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott—led by King—had ended just seven months earlier, in December 1956.
King was 5’7;. Graham was 6’3;
Both were Southerners. King, the son of a pastor, was born in Atlanta, Georgia; Graham was reared on his family’s dairy farm outside of Charlotte, North Carolina.
(Excerpt) Read more at thegospelcoalition.org ...
A great social revolution is going on in the United States today. Dr. King is one of its leaders, and we appreciate his taking time out of his busy schedule to come and share this service with us tonight.
King prayed as follows:
Let us pray.
O God, our Heavenly Father—out of whose mind this great cosmic universe has been created, toward whom the weary and perplexed of all generations turn for consolation and direction—we come before Thy presence this evening thanking Thee for the many blessings of life.
We come recognizing our dependence on Thee.
We also come, O God, with an awareness:
The fact that we have not always given our lives to that which is high and noble.
In the midst of all of the high and noble aspects of justice,
we followed injustice.
We stand amid the forces of truth,
and yet we deliberately lie.
We stand amid the compelling urgency of the Lord of love, as exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ,
and yet we live our lives so often in the dungeons of hate.
For all of these sins, O God, forgive.
And in these days of emotional tension—when the problems of the world are gigantic in extent and chaotic in detail—give us penetrating vision, broad understanding, power of endurance, and abiding faith, and save us from the paralysis of crippling fear.
And O God, we ask Thee to help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world and for a brotherhood that transcends race or color.
We thank Thee this evening for the marvelous things which have been done in this city, and through the dynamic preachings of this great evangelist.
And we ask Thee, O God, to continue blessing him. Give him continued power and authority.
And as we look into him tonight, grant that our hearts and spirit will be opened to the divine inflow.
All of these things we ask, in the name of Him who taught us to pray.
Our Father [audience also begins to pray],
who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. . . .
[Audience continues prayer without King.]
You can hear some of the audio in the following clip:
And sadly, the evidence is—as illustrated by his personal lifestyle—that M.L. King rejected the good news of Jesus Christ. In seminary it’s clear he rejected the virgin birth and the divinity of Christ. King became a Baptist minister instead of a Unitarian, not due to evangelical conviction—but mainly because he knew he would have much greater acceptance and leadership in the black community—to lead them into social justice.
According to his closest associates, the night before he was murdered—he had sexual relations with 3 different women, none his wife (a pattern repeated and routine during his travels)...and it is also proven he plagiarized his doctoral thesis. The content of Rev. King’s (personal) character needs to be acknowledged, was sorely lacking. Yes, he did great things for civil rights—but we must not make him a saint, when he certainly was not.
No Christianity is possible without the Virgin Birth and the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Coretta was Hillary before the Clintons emerged to charm the American people.
King was not an orthodox chrstian of any kind whatsoever, as may be found by reading this article (from a friendly source!). King was a typical liberal religionist who rejected all the supernatural dogmas and retained only a secular moral code, which he quoted the scriptures to bolster and justify.
He was an unorthodox fraud. Whether or not he was a Communist is secondary.
By the standards of adultery, then even the great Psalmist himself, King David, (who also committed murder) could not stand before judgment.
Martin Luther of Germany held grotesquely anti-Semitic views.
John Calvin’s life is full of controversy also.
You can appreciate great men of God like Billy Graham, and yet not identify as a Baptist/Evangelical or Arminian.
Seminary, University is a time of deep introspection and questioning in general. I speak not only for my friends who attended seminary and aspire to be church leaders, but even for myself as a layman. The Christian I am today, intellectually speaking, has evolved. And I do not fall neatly into any one fixed box.
And neither do God’s chosen people. Salvation is ultimately not based on a multiple choice doctrine test.
While I hold to strong Calvinist views on matters of sin and the means of salvation, I worship at a Catholic Church and my daily prayers and praise are inextricably tied to the liturgy and the sacraments.
While living in Russia, I appreciated the prism into Christ and the ancient treasures of faith Eastern Orthodoxy opened my soul to. I experienced a dimension of the Holy Spirit that I have not in Western churches.
I do believe MLK died a man who acknowledged his sinful nature, accepted the Gospel and Christ as His Savior.
And I believe God used his intellectual journey with wll its complexities and questions, to mold him for “such a time as this” at that crucial juncture in our country’s history.
Martin Luther of Germany held grotesquely anti-Semitic views.
John Calvin’s life is full of controversy also.
For all have sinned, and fall short of the Glory of God. - Romans 3:23
MLK’s personal life showed no evidence of true repentance and faith.
Again, he was a great civil rights leader, used mightily of God, but he was not a Christian—in belief, or behavior.
We will see for sure in eternity...
I believe there is a Pharisee-echoing campaign against him and his memory among small swaths of people who are better off examining the failures of the American church to address and repent of racism. King was right to point out that night clubs, concerts, and sporting events were less segregated than churches on Sunday morning.
And sadly some of the most “doctrinally sound” men on paper were among those who perpetuated injustices like slavery in their day, etc...
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