Honoring Rev. Dr. King While Ignoring His Message: The Paradox of MLK Day 2025

I know it has been a while but I believe that today is appropriate to post this blog.

I have sat back for the past few months and just observed the actions and responses of how professing Christians have responded to the world events but especially those here in America.

I have seen several different reactions. However, I want to use this post to address this day. It is a paradoxical moment in time. While this post is not based on American Politics, it is based on the American Christian idea of morality.

For the past 39 years, this country has recognized the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. While I acknowledge that Dr. King dealt with his own moral failures, his message was theologically based on the teachings of the Jesus of the Gospels. Dr. King’s legacy has been whitewashed and sanitized to make those who do not respect authentic research feel better about their biases and sometimes racist, classist, and bigoted responses to history and those around them. Dr. King had more than a dream. I hate the fact that his legacy has been relegated to just the work of civil rights and preaching. Dr. King was a theologian who understood that economics and political persuasion were needed not only to help the Black Community but to help all people who were less than in this country. While there are many who are fighting DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, they do not realize that those initiatives are not just for one specific group of people. Those who believe this either have agendas that they seek to protect or they are oblivious to the inner workings of how power works in this society. On this day, Dr. King’s Legacy should be remembered as someone who sought to bring everyone together by getting power to understand that this country should not be oppressing “the other” to exert its power over its citizens or the world. Dr. King understood that socioeconomics played a vital role in citizen’s survival. Our goal should be to build upon the work that he did to make sure (on an individual and collective level) that the least of these have what they need to be able to enjoy the basic necessities of life. If a person does not have a bootstrap, we help them to obtain one. If a person does not know how to pull that bootstrap up and secure the boot, we have an obligation to teach them. Dr. King’s Legacy is not about “I have arrived and you get here the best way you can.” Dr. King’s Legacy is not about cozying up to power to give the illusion of “us all getting along.” Dr. King’s Legacy is not about getting to a certain status of class and power and forgetting how you got there and who helped you along the way.

The paradox of this day in history shows the preceding statements to be what we have accepted. We cannot and should not accept ideals that are detrimental to us and those we claim to love. I am skeptical about labels that are widely embraced by the masses. This is why I have returned to the Text and consider myself to be a Follower of The Way instead of accepting this label of “Christian.” I reject and I don’t want to be associated with many of the ideals that the American Church has taught, allowed, and mandated over the years. I don’t want to be associated with the American Church’s affinity with its adulterous relationship with power.

On this day, I choose to remember the Radical King that was written about in the book that Dr. Cornell West edited. I will celebrate the King of history not the one that has been baptized in the bleach of Whiteness that has been disseminated by the church and the empire. I will celebrate the King that started the Poor People’s Campaign in 1967. I reject the King that has been portrayed as a leader that believed that we should get along just to get along without work and intentionality. I celebrate the King that believed that we should work towards diversity, equity, and inclusion like the teachings of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. I reject the portrayed King that w

Dr. King’s message was about judging the content of a person’s character. Have we forgotten that message on this day in history? There in lies the paradox of January 20, 2025.