Martin Luther King’s Faith Questioned By Athiest Crusaders

Published Monday, January 21st, 2008 in Culture & Society

Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, famous atheist apologists, are distorting the legacy of Martin Luther King.

While Hitchens calls Martin Luther King a nominal Christian, Becky Garrison, religious satirist and author of The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail, observes that the kind folks at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church would beg to differ. She backs this up with a personal anecdote adding that late father was an Episcopal priest joined other clergy to fight for civil rights during the late 1950s and early ’60s.

Sam Harris has this to say about King: “When you look at why he preached nonviolence to the degree that he did, he didn’t get that from Christianity. He got it from Mahatma Gandhi. And Gandhi got it from the Jains.” Here Garrison notes how Harris cherry-picks through Gandhi’s teachings; he conveniently chooses to overlook Gandhi’s admission of how this peaceful pioneer was influenced by the teachings of Jesus and Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God Is Within You.

According to Martin Luther King Jr.’s own admission, Tolstoy, Jesus, and Gandhi served as the models for his nonviolence actions. How can anyone look at this trio and not conclude that Christianity played a pivotal role in King’s understanding of his mission?

These athiest crusaders are distorting history to make political points. I agree with Becky,  we need to give credit where credit is due. In this case, King led a Bible-based nonviolence movement for racial equality.

The fact that folks are still trying to discredit King’s work, decades later, demonstrates the persistence of religious devils to hinder God’s plan. We’re all equal in God’s sight, there is difference between us. King was a Christian who was anointed for his time to bring reformation to a wicked system of segregation. He had a dream.

It’s not unusual for people to attack God-given dreams, and I’m not surprised people are still attacking King’s. Guard your God-given dream to the end.