On this day, we remember the great leader Martin Luther King, Jr. I share one of his most famous quotations along with the Scripture passage upon which it is based:
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. —Martin Luther King, Jr.
A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
—Isaiah 40:3-5 (NRSV)
I grew up in Alabama in the fifties and sixties and saw segregation and racial prejudice first hand. Interestingly because of our Alabama context, my Mother told me that she admired Dr. King because he stood up for, as she put it, “his people.” In retrospect, he was standing up for all of us, though sometimes I wonder if the African-American community understands that. While I agree that he was a great leader in the crusade to end racial prejudice, a matter of social holiness, I regret that on the night he was murdered, he was in a hotel room with a woman other than his wife. I do not believe he was a good example of personal holiness, but heroic in the social justice movement.