Has The Dream Been Realized? MLK Day 2024

“Prophets are honored everywhere except in their own hometowns, among their relatives, and in their own households.” ~ Mark 6:4 CEB 

If you have never heard or read the previous statement, these were the words of Jesus when he taught in the synagogue in his hometown. If you have heard or read this story in Mark Chapter 6, have you considered what this Text says about many of the people in the crowd? 

These people thought Jesus was JUST Mary’s baby. They thought he was JUST a carpenter. They questioned his wisdom. They questioned the power of the things he had accomplished. The Text goes on to say that he was appalled by the unbelief of these people.  

This story makes me think back to my original blog post, “Merely A Preaching Activist?”. Although I understand that many of us who proclaim Christianity view Prophets in a certain light, I want to challenge you today.  

May I suggest that a prophet or a prophetess is one who speaks the truth of God to the people of God in the midst of criticism or reprimands of power structures whether they be social, religious, or political. 

For years, there have been those who knew nothing but the Black Prophetic Preaching tradition of speaking truth to power. This preaching tradition has been beneficial to helping to liberate the minds of many who have been shackled by the Eurocentric message of an oppressive and abusive American Jesus who masquerades as the Jesus of the Gospels.  

Dr. King was not only a practitioner of this tradition, but he also became a public theologian. Some in religion had an issue with him because he wasn’t focusing his time on “putting butts in pews”. Some in politics were trying to understand why this “preacher” was so concerned about social issues. His mere presence became a nuisance to some in these power structures. But Dr. King kept speaking the truth of God to them. 

Now, we have a sanitized whitewashed version of his prophetic rhetoric. The content and context of his 16+ min speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom has been reduced to the last 2-3mins where he was encouraged by the incomparable psalmist, Mahalia Jackson, to tell his dream. A speech that was full of indictments against an empire that was not living up to its canonical document has been reduced to a YouTube short or Instagram Reel that make some people feel good about their lackluster efforts to live up to the fullness of his entire speech. 

The reason so many in power (politically, religiously, and socially) are currently fighting to silence history by banning books, romanticizing oppression, rewriting positions, and gaslighting the truth is because they know that Eurocentric based patriarchal values are being challenged by the Afrocentric philosophy of Ubuntu. Essentially, a world that is controlled by men with money and power is detrimental and antithetical to the diversified unity that God intended where all people are important in the eyes of God. The conqueror knows that if a people do not know the full extent of their history, it is nearly impossible for them to mobilize and fight against the oppressive forces of the conqueror. 

So, I ask the following, “Has the dream come true or are we in a comatose state of meandering through life?” Let’s be honest, can we answer Dr. King’s following words in the affirmative? *“Are we actively seeking to make justice a reality for all people? Are we actively seeking to make sure those who are supposed to protect and serve are doing just that for everyone? Has Mississippi become an oasis of freedom and justice? Are kids being taught to join hands or are parents teaching them to be suspicious of other kids? Has faith caused us to have a symphony of brotherhood? Have we allowed freedom to ring in every village, every hamlet, every ghetto, every suburb, from every state, and every city so that all people created by God (Black, White, rich, poor, male, female, straight, queer, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) can say, we are free at last?” 

MLK Day has become a day of pomp and circumstance where some speak empty words and go through the motions about the feel-good statements, they believe Dr. King was speaking. But it is interesting how the radical statements that he made about what needs to change have purposefully been negated or sanitized when telling the story of who this prophet was.  

The United States of America, the home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is still rejecting his prophetic messages. History and current events confirm this because King’s messages were of inclusion that were addressed to Black Americans but for all Americans. If one is adamant about King’s short highjacked Kumbaya phrases, he/she should keep that same energy with his phrases that cause tension to make us rethink our comfort zones of dealing with the wellbeing of others.  

So, I end this blog post by asking these questions. How do you view Dr. King? Was he just a preacher who was a civil rights activist? Was he just a public theologian? Was he a prophet? Or was he all of the above? No matter how we view the man, we cannot deny that his messages were very similar to the messages of the prophets of Torah. They were also words that brought the teachings of the Jesus of the Gospels to life in a country that is still known for mistreating “the least of these.” 

*The King quotes were taken from his March on Washington Speech.