People use “Doctor” to secularize the Reverend King’s religious training in seminary. And it’s annoying because conservatives have found it fashionable too to dilute his reputation and know next to nothing of his education or his lesser known writings. He was NOT some major libertarian conservative but he was not a Marxist or leftist either. And Charlton Heston marched with him asking with thousands of truly faithful Christians.
The Left loved to call Fidel Castro, “Dr. Castro”.
We have a number of pastors around here who use the title “Doctor”. They have a PhD In Theology. It seems popular with specific Protestant denominations. It is used predominantly by black pastors but, I have met a few white pastors who use it as well. Is that normal or something popular after King?
Frederick Douglass had no formal education, and yet he was one of the most brilliant, iconic figures in American history. Neither Jill Biden nor Martin Luther King was fit to even tie that man’s shoes.