The title tells the tale of a dichotomous man: Reverend. Doctor.
One foot planted squarely in two separate and seemingly incongruent worlds.
One hand lifted in triumphant exultation. The other, extended low to uplift the downtrodden, the unseen disenfranchised, the unheard and underserved, the suffering masses.
A solemn voice that pierces the silence in whispered alms to an all seeing, all knowing God. The other shouting from 'mountaintops,' commanding the consideration of those with ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord would say.
His head lifted in high praise and adoration, brought low in the defiant posture of non-violent protest. His decorous declarations ringing in freedom from behind the bars of a Birmingham cell -- daring to call forth those things that be not as though they were.
A Nobel peace prize winner gloriously lauded from a Stockholm stage juxtaposed against a reception of billy clubs and tear gas on a bridge from Selma one Bloody Sunday afternoon.
On the one hand, a conductor of the civil rights engine. On the other, a mere man cloaked in the innocuous garb of a humble minister of the Gospel.
I would surmise that it is in the posture of Reverend that Doctor King is least understood.
From an early age, he struggled to reconcile the role of religion in a dynamically changing world or to define 'purpose' in the context of a generation.
At Morehouse, he learned to balance the intellectual stimuli of the theological discipline with the emotive construct of his deep Baptist roots.
At Boston University, he studied the great modern theologians, deducing that the role of the church must be to illuminate a way of life rather than a static system of beliefs.
In practice, he lived a form of Christianity that demonstrated "the power of God in human experience."
His desire was to both "spread the message as the master taught" and to stamp out the evil of injustice in its varied and incendiary forms though committed action.
He reminded us that Good Friday came before Easter as a way of illustrating Christ's progression from death, penultimate burial to Resurrection. In his life he clearly understood that there would be suffering. "We must bear the cross," he said.
If his life's work could be summarized in a single thesis, it would be found in his final sermon entitled The Drum Major Instinct" based on the passage in Mark 10:35-45 that depicts man's incessant quest for supremacy.
"If you want to be great..." he cried out in the prolonged cadence of his denominational heritage, "... you must serve others!"
He lived by faith with love, justice, and truth as the triumvirate of his legacy.
He was unparalleled in his ability to inculcate two worlds as divergent as "church" and "state."
Like Jesus, he was singular in purpose, misunderstood even in the context of his times, taken far too soon, but leaving the next generation with the formula for success: to be of service to others.
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I would like to add my respect also to his wife Coretta Scott King and his son Dexter Scott King for also having concerns and compassion for the life of animals who are all too often abused in our society, for being vegetarian and vegan.
QUOTE, NYT archive:
Boston U. Panel Finds Plagiarism by Dr. King
Published: October 11, 1991
A committee of scholars appointed by Boston University concluded today that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized passages in his dissertation for a doctoral degree at the university 36 years ago.
"There is no question," the committee said in a report to the university's provost, "but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation by appropriating material from sources not explicitly credited in notes, or mistakenly credited, or credited generally and at some distance in the text from a close paraphrase or verbatim quotation."
END QUOTE.
What kind of Drum Major Instinct boasts of nuclear bombing?
Our President is expanding wars and selling military armaments in Africa rather than promoting trade and commerce. Also, he is stationing ships provocatively at the borders of China; is this generating peace?
Drug wars festering on the Mexican U.S. borders, 48,000+ drug related deaths; all because U.S. citizens love drugs; and, rather than treating this addiction as a mental health crisis the U.S. makes it a war crisis?
Do you remain silent on government spending of trillions of dollars on war armaments; negating "social upliftment" while funding the military industrial pathological complex?
Honorable Rev. Dr. T. D. Jakes would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. have remained silent on the White House and Congressional reinforcing of the Patriot Act that further threatens Civil Liberties?
On the other hand, would Dr. King, Jr. have remained silent on President Barack Hussein Obama's acts of aggression and seized authority to assassinate American Citizens without trial, proof, or, attack a foreign nation without Congressional authority?
Dr. King is quoted as saying "Silence is Betrayal". Why the silence when Nuclear War is knocking at America's Door of No Return?
I guess there is various ways to honor Dr. King, Jr. Peace, Life, & Health be with you.
would Dr. King remain silent on the issue of marriage equality for our LGBTQ community?
I think not: http://revdavida.blogspot.com/2012/01/reflecting-on-dream.html
AMERICA w/out AFROAMERICAN's is as Good As Dead! Yet
G_D, if any, Hath Blesseth US All, not Only In U.S.A., but EVERY/ANY & ALL Body's, On This Miraculous, Holyi, [Nebula-Built] Space-Ship Earth; Something "MLK" et al Died For (Never in Vain) and Those Still Alive Will Fight For.
WE [i] Salute All "PEACE-MAKER'S": from Beginning of Humanity To End.
G_D BLESS SPACE-SHIP EARTH (Because Of Them)!