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Every January, we pause to remember one of the greatest Americans of all time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His voice resonates in our culture as a cry for freedom, and his outstanding role in the fight against racism will always be remembered and honored. His unifying message centered around America's founding and religious ideals is exactly what our polarized nation needs to reinvent itself today.
Dr. King truly believed in the American spirit. Despite the racially divided environment in which he lived, he believed that the true message of freedom and human equality contained in America's founding documents was a “promissory note” destined to come true. I believed there was.
He declared, “This document was a promise that all men, not only white men but also black men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
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Today, there are those who seek to belittle the character flaws of America's founders and even argue that our founding documents are like the fruit of a poisonous tree and should be thrown out.
Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) told the crowd during the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., “I have a dream.” gave a speech. (Central Press/Getty Images)
King chose a different path and achieved great success. He recognized the power and beauty of documents created and signed by flawed people. Two things can be true at the same time. One is being able to admit that the Founders did not fully embody the principles set forth in the Declaration, while at the same time acknowledging that those ideals are true and worth striving for. That's it.
Additionally, some may argue that the founding documents do not represent the founders' personal sins, but rather their better angels. That's why they endure. Dr. King was able to distinguish between the grand message of America's founding principles and some of the actions of the writers.
He believed that the path to success was not to abandon our nation's founding beliefs, but rather to encourage them to be better protected. On the surface, he may seem radical to some, but what he was seeking was already deeply rooted in American tradition.
Perhaps one of the secrets of Dr. King's success was that he chose to uplift people instead of beating them with guilt. Just as building a tall, gigantic building requires digging deep into the ground for stability, so building up the American people is done by grounding them in the values set forth in our founding documents. Must be.
A tree's growth depends on its ability to establish strong roots, and likewise our growth as a nation. Dr. King's dream is exactly the American Dream envisioned by the Founding Fathers and should be upheld by all Americans.
Dr. King's inspiration came from roots even deeper than America's founding values, taking its optimism about a better world from the same Hebrew Bible as the founding fathers.
The Hebrew prophets were so central to him that his entourage at the time remembers that he carried around copies of Jewish treatises on the Biblical prophets. The basis for equality for all races and ethnicities advocated by Dr. King was premised on the Genesis account of all people being created “in the image of God.”
The story of Exodus was a central theme, first in liberation and then in the civil rights movement, with Dr. King often citing the example of Moses. Additionally, his great speeches not only use Biblical imagery, quotations, and meter, but also convey it through parallelism, repetition, and alliteration, common tools with which the Hebrew Bible conveys its message.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. votes while his wife Coretta Scott King waits for her turn in Atlanta, Georgia on November 3, 1964. (Getty Images)
Drawing on the Hebrew Bible's theme that the world is ultimately on a trajectory toward perfection and correction, King argued that the moral arc of history ultimately “bends toward justice.” I expanded my thoughts.
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The application of the Biblical model of innate human worth is the basis upon which the nation was founded and continues to be perfected. Neither the King nor the Founding Fathers called for a theocracy, but they were well aware that the Biblical worldview was the central banner upon which society should be united and founded.
There is a great call to action for our generation to reconnect with our roots, stay firmly rooted in our foundations, focus on what unites us, and reclaim our glory. To move together towards a common destiny, we must unite around the values of our common history.
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I join King in aspiring to his vision as recorded in Isaiah, as we all should. The crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together. ”
When we recognize that we are one nation under God, we are indivisible and there is freedom and justice for all.
