Was MLK Jr. a Christian?

I think we all accept that MLK Jr. made great strides in the civil rights movement. I don't mean my question to take from his accomplishments in the social realm.

But we also know MLK Jr.'s "theology" as he has written of his faith.

Regarding Christ, MLK Jr. rejected:

1. The virgin birth
2. The divinity of Christ
3. The bodily resurrection of Christ
4. The doctrine of the Trinity
5. A supernatural salvation


Instead MKL Jr. viewed those doctrines as ancient ideas disproven by science. He viewed the resurrection as Christ's teachings not dying with Jesus but living on and Jesus' earthly ministry a call for social reform.

So, would you consider MLK Jr. a Christian?

(MLK Jr.'s papers are avaliable at the King Institute, Stanford University).

 

I understand liberal Christianity, and I don't believe liberal Christians to be any less Christian than I.

But there is a difference between liberal Christian and non-Christian.

MLK Jr. was focused on social injustice, and this influenced his faith. Scripture refers to this as allowing the problems of this world to rob that "seed".

His accomplishments were in the social, not religious realm. He was simply not Christian.

The reason it is important today is there are movements which seek social reform under the name of Christ while not actually being Christian.

MLK Jr. was like Thomas Jefferson. Neither man's accomplishments should be minimalized, but at the same time they were not Christian.

 

The reason for the post is farily simple. I was thinking of this not because of the holiday but upon considering words by Raphael Warnock (now a Senator but pastored Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta).

I have noticed that we (Christians) sometimes try to uplift great men as believers when their faith is at least somewhat in doubt.

I wonder what effect, if any, this has on the Christian community.

MLK Jr.'s contributions to the civil rights movement should be in no way diminished. In that realm he was a great man who galvanized millions to right a wrong. And I believe God used MLK Jr. for that purpose.

But MLK Jr. was not, by biblical definition, a Christian. We do not have to wonder because he was not silent about his beliefs. He was very clear, even embracing, what we would today call "double speak" (in his Easter Sermon, for example).

This makes me wonder a couple of things:

1. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, where was the church? Why did it take a gifted but secular leader like MLK Jr. to galvanize Christians into action?

2. What effect does this form of "Christianity" have on the understanding of our faith today? Beyond portraits and stained glass windows of a leader who viewed supernatural salvation, the bodily resurrection, divinity of Christ, ect. as an archaic myth, does this carry over into doctrine and if so to what effect?

 

This is a good snippet. In MLK Jr.'s Easter sermon he hits these points. It is good vs evil, and Easter coming to race relations.

MLK Jr. declared the grave empty. He explained that this is empty of the ideas proclaimed - that the gospel did not die with Jesus but rose and lives.

The question is why we dismiss MKL Jr.'s own explanation in favor of how we may take his words as orthodox when we would quickly dismiss tge pastor of somebody else.

 

Because they are MLK's published explanations of his faith apart from his sermons and we can read the entire papers for ourselves.


We can certainly read his sermons and take rhem as we will, without truly considering the man's personal faith. But we could also listen to the man explain his meaning and come to a better (althogh unfortunate) understanding of the man's philosophy and focus.

This is only one example:


"All ideas, however profound or however naive, are produced by conditions and experiences that grow from the producers’ environment. . . .we shall discuss the experiences of early Christians which lead to three rather orthodox doctrines—the divine sonship of Jesus, the virgin birth, and the bodily resurrection. Each of these doctrines is enshrined in what is known as “the Apostles’ Creed.” . . . But in the minds of many sincere Christians this creed has planted a seed of confusion which has grown to an oak of doubt. They see this creed as incompatible with all scientific knowledge, and so they have proceeded to reject its content

But if we delve into the deeper meaning of these doctrines, and somehow strip them of their literal interpretation, we will find that they are based on a profound foundation. Although we may be able to argue with all degrees of logic that these doctrines are historically and philolophically untenable, yet we can never undermind the foundation on which they are based. . .

The Church called Jesus divine because they had found God in him. They could only identify him with the highest and best in the universe. It was this great experience with the historical Jesus that led the early Christians to see him as the divine son of God.

. . . all New Testament scholars agree that the word virgin is not found in the Hebrew original, but only in the Greek text which is a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for “young woman.” . . .

The last doctrine in our discussion deals with the resurrection story. This doctrine, upon which the Easter Faith rests, symbolizes the ultimate Christian conviction: that Christ conquered death. From a literary, historical, and philosophical point of view this doctrine raises many questions. In fact the external evidence for the authenticity of this doctrine is found wanting. But here again the external evidence is not the most important thing, for it in itself fails to tell us precisely the thing we most want to know: What experiences of early Christians lead to the formulation of the doctrine?

The root of our inquiry is found in the fact that the early Christians had lived with Jesus. They had been captivated by the magnetic power of his personality. This basic experience led to the faith that he could never die. And so in the pre-scientific thought pattern of the first century, this inner faith took outward form. But it must be remembered that before the doctrine was formulated or the event recorded, the early Christians had had a lasting experience with the Christ. They had come to see that the essential note in the Fourth Gospel is the ultimate force in Christianity: The living, deathless person of Christ. They expressed this in terms of the outward, but it was an inner experience that lead to its expression."

"What Experiences of Christians Living in the Early Christian Century Led to the Christian Doctrines of the Divine Sonship of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, and the Bodily Resurrection"