Martin Luther King Jr. Special Edition_____
(The ^Jortlatxb (DbaerUer
January 19, 2000
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A C T IO N "
THE SOCIAL ENGINEER AND THE BELOVED COMMUNITY
By Dante Ché
■—
The contributions o f Martin Luther
King, Jr. to mankind are without ques
tion. He was a man whose leadership
was pivotal to turning an oppressive
society into one more receptive to
the inherent value o f all human be
ings.
Through his courage, the power of
his intellect, the charisma o f his per
sonality and eloquence ot his lan
guage, he revealed to a nation steeped
in the history o f racism that people
o f color are o f worth as God’s chil
dren; that the arguments of past gen
erations to suppress them were with
out merit; that there was constitu
tional obligation set forth by the
founding fathers that all men are cre
ated equal and thereby entitled to the
largesse o f America.
There have been many observa
tions concerning the life o f Martin
Luther King. Jr. However, to appreci
ate his vision, one must explore the
exegisis of his philosophy. In a sim
plified approach, one may conclude
that there were two profound influ
ences on Dr. King’s construction of
what has come to be known as the
“ Beloved Community” which was the
destination o f his vision, as expressed
in the "I Have A Dream” speech. They
are the evangelical liberalism school,
tempered by the insights ot Christian
realism school o f thought as elabo
rated on the Rheinhold Niebur. As a
student of Crozer Seminary, Martin
Luther King, Jr. took a number of
electives from professor George W.
Davis, a proponent o f evangelical lib
eralism. His interpretation o f Chris
tianity had a definitive effect.
In brief, there are five major te
nets which Davis espoused which may
be considered the gist o f evangelical
liberalism. (1) The existence o f a
moral order in the universe. A congru
ent universal rule that moves man from
the malaise o f chaos toward an exist
ence which is governed by a higher
order of community. (2) God acts in
history. In short, divine revelation is
seen as essentially historical in na
ture. The Biblical view ofhistory sees
God
w ork
w ith in
e a rth ly
events...historical events do not just
happen. They are done by God. (3) A
high priority is assigned to the value
o f personality in Christian life. That
the highest “cognito ergo sum” is that
o f God. Since man is made in the spiri
tual image o f God, the implication is
that God is the source of rational truths
o f philosophy o f religion as well as
that revealed o f theology. So it
follows.. personalism is the belief that
conscious personality is both supreme
and the supreme reality in the uni
verse.” (4) That human existence is
fundamentally social in character and
that human solidarity is
the goal toward which
history ev o lv es...T h e
spirit o f mature religions
is social and socialness
does not stifle individu
ality or suffocate the per
sonal. To the contrary, it
nurtures healthy interre
lationships and interde
pendence. That is what
we should expect, be
cause G od’s intention is
that human life will be
come increasingly social
and that humanity will
achieve solidarity. (5)
Christianity «essentially
a moral and ethical reli
gion. Davis maintains,
“ Love
your
enemies.. .that ye may be
sons.” The Christian in
eradicable interest in the
good life for all human
beings stems from the
ethical nature o f Chris
tian faith and moral foun
dation o f Christian foun
dation. These precepts
lie at the base of King’s
philosophical underpin
nings that he so elo
quently expressed in his
speech “ I H ave A
UTHs COSPEL CARAVAN
IE HUMMINGBIRDS
Dream” in which he spoke o f the con
stitutional promissory note o f our
founding fathers, the vision o f the
beloved community and the Chris
tian principles that every person has
God-endowed divine worth.
However, as King’s thought ma
tured, he was given over to influ
ences o f Rheinhold Niebur. In that,
man is a creature of nature as well as
a spiritual being, limited by original
sin. The three operative tenets o f
Rheinhold Niebur were: ( 1 ) the rela
tionship between spirit (anima) and
nature (i.e. form); (2) the nature o f
individuality (free will); (3) the ori
gin o f evil. The outcome o f the influ
ence o f Niebur on King as he evolved
as a social activist was to temper his
views o f the relationship between
power and the oppressed. Also, it
affected the view on love and power.
In response to the rise of the “Black
Power Movement” and the violence
associated w ith it, King w rote
“ ...Power, properly understood, is
the ability to achieve purpose. It is
the strength required to bring about
social change, political, or economic
changes. In this sense, power is not
only desirable but necessary in order
to implement the demands o f love
and justice. One o f the greatest prob
lems of history is that the concepts
o f love and power is that power and
love are usually contrasted as polar
opposites. Love is identified with a
resignation o f power without love is
reckless and abusiye and that love
without power is sentimental and ane
mic. Power at best is love imple
menting the demands o f justice. Jus
tice at its best is love correcting
everything that stands against love.”
King as a social engineer was a
pivotal conductor in steering America
toward reconciliation and conse
quently affecting the world in terms of
race relations. The impact he had on
the day-to-day human condition can
be said to be no less than profound. He
engendered to a post-war generation
a heightened sense o f human worth
and, although he was committed to
non-violence as a tactic, he came to
realize that the struggle between ju s
tice and abuse o f power as vested in
those who control the power is inevi
table. The beloved com munity...the
Promised Land is still in the distance
as we travel toward the future. Man
kind more so than ever holds his des
tiny in his hands. The legacy ofMartin
Luther King, Jr. leaves us a map o f
which we all should take heed.
CH ASE YO U R
DREA
We Celebrate the Birthday o f a Great American Hero
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