Formative Years
“Of course I was religious. I grew up in the church. My father is a preacher, my grandfather was a preacher, my great-grandfather was a preacher, my only brother is a preacher, my daddy’s brother is a preacher. So I didn’t have much choice.” King’s journey with religion started at a young age as his childhood revolved in and around the church. While the core tenants of his faith would be shaped over the course of his life, especially during college and seminary, he traced his family as a strong influencer in his early years. It was in his youth that he would be introduced to the Lord, gain a very basic understanding of social injustices in America, and begin to learn how these two things needed to interact with each other in order to live out the Gospel more fully.
King’s initial understanding of the Lord was sprung from his own experiences with his family—and since his family was filled with closeness and love, it was only expected that his view of the Lord would be that of a loving Father. However, King’s walk down the aisle as a five-year-old to join the church had more to do with keeping up with his sister than it did about what the Lord was doing in his heart and life. He would quickly grow out of this and begin to find a second home in the church. Both of King’s parents played a pivotal role in teaching and training him up to be a man that was not only devout in his relationship with God, but also in his quest for equality. King described in his autobiography how, as a young boy, his mother attempted to explain the injustices of racial segregation and, while the world may seem against them, he was to believe that he was “as good as anyone”.
King’s father also taught him significant values when it came to equality, as he was a man driven by a deep sense of integrity and morals. He not only spoke with conviction and, oftentimes, bluntness, but he was a man who lived boldly out of this conviction. King recounts a story in his youth that was quite formative in his mind, telling readers of a time when his father chose to walk out of a shoe store rather than be moved to the back of the store, out of sight of the large windows in the front where anyone walking by could have spotted them. Instances like these would continue to shape and challenge King’s perspective on this interaction between his faith, the world around him and how he ought to live in the midst of a broken, fallen, and unequal world.
Even as a 14-year-old, King was figuring out that the things he was discovering on his Christian journey were a sharp contrast to the reality that he was living. “We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flout the central teachings of Jesus: Brotherly love and the Golden Rule,” King wrote in an oratory contest that he won. The more he learned about the Lord and Scripture, the more he was convinced that his reality (and America’s reality) needed to change. A trip to Connecticut right before college gave King a new and eye-opening perspective on America—not all of it was segregated. In the north, King was given freedoms that he had never had and this discrepancy contributed even more to the animosity toward racial inequality that was growing in his heart.
King’s faith in the Lord was steadfast except for a short stint in college where he received opportunities to challenge the teachings of his youth and process through the inconsistencies he saw in the African American churches. To him, they were highly emotional and most of the pastors had no seminary education. As he began to wonder if religion could be “intellectually respectable” as well as “emotionally satisfying”, his skepticism would lead him deeper into his studies of Scripture and other philosophers and theologians. His discoveries, as well as his encounters and friendships with stand-up and respectable ministers in college, would free him to see that the two concepts were compatible and lead him to pursue a career in the ministry. King wrote:
I guess the influence of my father had a great deal to do with my going into the ministry. This is not to say that he ever spoke to me in terms of being a minister but that my admiration for him was the great moving factor. He set forth a noble example that I didn’t mind following. I still feel the effects of the noble moral and ethical ideals that I grew up under. They have been real and precious to me, and even in moments of theological doubt I could never turn away from them.
Prayer
Now that we have seen how King’s youth shaped his spirituality, forming a steady foundation to his passion for social justice, this paper will show the large emphasis that King placed on the necessity of prayer, understanding Scripture, and his response to both of these foundations in such a way that resulted in action.
Prayer was a vital component of King’s spiritual life and a source of strength throughout the many tribulations he experienced. It was not only something that King grew to be deeply committed to, but something that he was urged to engrain into his life by his father: “You see young man you are becoming very popular. As I told you you must be much in prayer. Persons like yourself are the ones the devil turns all of his forces aloose to destroy.” This exhortation to King may have produced seeds that caused him to rely on prayer in a way that not only affected his own spiritual life, but the lives of those around him. In fact, King referenced the importance of praying often and there is evidence of that sprinkled throughout his speeches, sermons, writings, and interviews.
For King, this discipline did not arise from a few years in seminary, but out of the depths of the African traditions that were passed down to him through his family. These traditions taught that prayer for his ancestors was “…much more than the heart and soul of a religion, or an essential aspect of spirituality; it was a necessary ingredient in the total experience of living.” Prayer was a faith component that King relied on and he spurred others to do the same (although, of course, not without action to accompany it). He had a habit of a regular evening prayer and was committed to this time in conversation with the Lord.
One particular story that King tells in his sermon, Our God is Able, reveals the impact that his relationship with the Lord had on him and his pursuit of non-violent resistance. He describes in great detail receiving a threatening phone call and being on the verge of quitting all of his efforts in the Civil Rights Movements. He did not feel like he had the strength to carry on and, in earnest, honest conversation with the Lord, he prayed: “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to a point where I cannot face it alone.”
He goes on to describe the divine interaction that took place that evening, as he experienced a sense of peace and resolution in God’s presence. This is just one example of many revealing how often King communed with the Lord and was encouraged, comforted and inspired to do even greater things for the Kingdom of God. One can see that these conversations were both honest and sincere and allowed for transformation to happen in King’s mind and heart as he perpetually pursued transformation in the world around him. These were the prayers of a man who insisted that, “…a dynamic prayer life is essential for any social movement.”
Understanding Scripture
In addition to prayer, it is necessary to realize that Martin Luther King, Jr. was not just a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, but also a reverend that preached many sermons that required him to be very familiar with Scripture. These encounters with the Bible shaped not only the words that he spoke and wrote, but also the philosophies that guided his life. He was directed by the teachings he found in the word of God and held them to be true, even in the midst of such inequality. During his interview at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, before preaching, King found himself saying, “Keep Martin Luther King in the background and God in the foreground and everything will be all right. Remember you are a channel of the gospel and not the source.” King’s focus was always on God’s agenda, not his own and he knew it was necessary to be well-versed in Scripture in order to communicate that to others.
If one reads or listens any of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermons, they will quickly notice how prevalent Scripture is in them. A lot of Scripture even directly influenced his prayer life, as many of his prayers are filled with Old and New Testament references. The more he studied the Bible, coupled with his quest after other great philosophers and reformers before him, the more his life was impacted and changed. King considered the Bible to be an authoritative source, although he primarily preached from the New Testament. One sermon King delivered was Paul’s Letter to the American Christians. Using Paul’s epistles as a reference, King molded a letter (in the form of a sermon) in modern day terms to speak to the American people in a way that would hopefully cause them to consider how their actions were reflecting those of the often-scorned recipients of Paul’s letters. Through this unique role, King not only addressed the negative idols that America had latched onto (capitalism, materialism, and sectarianism), but he also brought out the concept of nonviolence “using Christian symbols and imagery.” One particular witness, Henry H. Mitchell, of this speech wrote about the power of event and King’s impact on the audience:
…his delivery started slowly and never gained speed or volume, but it gripped and held this audience of ten thousand or more…We hung over the balcony rail and wept unashamedly. When he quietly announced the pro forma, ‘I must close now,’ the sea of black Baptists arose as one and protested.
Non-violent Resistance
Through King’s steadfast upbringing, dedication to prayer and involvement in Scripture, he knew that his life must also reflect the truths that were being realized within. His spirituality was founded in action, as he was deeply convicted that he must live out the very things he was claiming from the pulpit or podium. Non-violent resistance in the face of the Civil Rights Movement would not only become a reform strategy, but it would become an identifying factor of his personal faith in Jesus Christ and his convictions to live out of that fully.
As already discussed, King’s progression in his faith and also his interactions with social injustice led him down a path of deep soul searching and researching the many had gone before him as he attempted to make sense of the world that didn’t seem quite right. The shame, humiliation and the feelings of being “less than” seemed contrary to the Scriptures he was growing more familiar with and, the more he learned, the more his findings would spur him into action. One of King’s first pushes for social change involved the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. Coretta Scott King, King’s wife, wrote in the foreword of Strength to Love that this boycott is where King “first actively combined theology with social change.”
In King’s sermon, “Love in Action”, he spent some time attempting to communicate the fullness of Luke 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” In this sermon, King was encouraging the forgiveness of those who have wronged us, saying that this is “love at its best.” This mentality moved the sermon swiftly into loving our enemies and the power that can result when a person takes a nonviolent, loving stance over one of violent confrontation. His sermon on “Loving your Enemies” told a story about Abraham Lincoln who, rather than choosing to treat his arch-enemy with contempt, chose, instead, to appoint him as his Secretary of War. King stated, “If Lincoln had hated Stanton both men would have gone to their graves as bitter enemies. But through the power of love Lincoln transformed an enemy into a friend.”
This attitude of love, even despite the opposition of hate, is one that drove King to his nonviolent methods. In his quest for eliminating social evil, King found himself adopting various positions and ideals from different philosophers. He landed in a place of allowing the “Christian doctrine of love” to be simultaneously operated with the “Gandhian method of nonviolence”, believing it to be “one of the most potent weapons available to an oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.” It was during the Montgomery bus boycott that King finally got to live out this intellectual concept and see how this was not just a nice sounding principle to talk about, but it was something he was committed to living his life by. In fact, if King had simply defined his spirituality by prayer and an understanding of Scripture, he would have been incomplete. Nonviolence resistance that moved him (and the world) forward in the fight for equality was something that was necessary to his spirituality—something that allowed him to truly live out the things he said he believed. “‘You must do more than pray and read the Bible’ to destroy segregation and second-class citizenship,’ the local newspaper reported [King] as saying; ‘you must do something about it.”’
Conclusion
Martin Luther King, Jr. created many waves during the 1960s in the face of racial segregation and social injustice. While many Americans only know a limited (maybe even face value) version of the man who fought in the Civil Rights Movement and helped spur on the quest for equality, there is much more to the man than most realize. King was driven by a deep spirituality—a faith in Jesus Christ that moved him to action. His life was committed to prayer, understanding and teaching Scripture, and a commitment to nonviolent resistance in the form of love when faced with opposition. He taught from this, lived out of this, and impacted the lives of many, as a result. Carson remarks that, “King saw his religious identity as his ‘being’ and ‘heritage’…”, more than any type of Civil Rights’ leader.
From the time King was a young boy, he found his home in the church, identified with the deep roots of African traditions that molded his own prayer rhythms throughout his life, and all of this gave him opportunity to examine Scripture in such a way that moved him toward radical action. These are the fundamentals of what drove Martin Luther King’s spirituality and, as a result, his way of life. The two are intrinsically connected, unable to be separated.
The non-negotiable components of King’s faith (and life) were wrapped up in his upbringing, prayer-life, understanding of the Bible, and his nonviolent resistance methods. Without those fundamentals, he wouldn’t have been the man we remember, celebrate, and are challenged by today. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, King’s former Chief of Staff, wrote in the introduction to Rediscovering Lost Values, “Despite the now legendary oratorical gifts that King developed in his post-Montgomery career, first and foremost he was an unapologetic proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth.” It seems that this would be the legacy King would have wanted to be remembered by: a man who not only challenged the status quo of his time, but did so because of Jesus Christ and what He stood for. King’s spirituality is worth knowing about and sharing with others as it can lead others back to Christ, as well as inspiring one to living a life of Christ-centered change in a fallen and broken world.
Appendix: Reflection
I feel like I have spent the better part of my life pretty ignorant to the injustice in the world. I have been far removed from it and, as a result, been isolated from knowing how to respond or even feeling like I needed to respond. My journey through the Old Testament this last semester had already begun to plant some seeds that perhaps there was something that I needed to be doing about the injustice around me. This, coupled with a newly raging desire within to know how to respond to the heartache in this world, had my mind spinning. King’s response is a human’s response to the broken world, but I am deeply inspired by a tangible example in more modern times that we have through him as he attempted to live out of his understanding of the Bible (and the many others that he studied before him). I am inspired by the way he sought to embody Scripture in a way that not only shaped his actions, but helped pave the way for others to move into a new era of freedom and hope.
I have been praying a lot more for wisdom and discernment on how to proceed from here. Praying a lot for opportunity and that, in the face of opportunity, I would be bold, courageous and willing to step into something that is potentially frightening but a cause worthy of fighting for. I long to be more intentional about the way I live out of the Gospel, and the way that I love others. What I also appreciate about King is that he didn’t step into any of it blindly. While he was passionate, he was also educated. He took the time to study and prepare and develop a mindset that he believed in before he was ever able to live it out. He took time to be equipped and prepared and, while this took effort, I think it also is in line with the example of others we have in Scripture.
I have the tendency to want to rush into things, to want to do things and to make a difference. I don’t want to just sit around and talk about things, but I want to know how we can apply it and how we can put it to action. However, I do feel like there is wisdom to waiting, wisdom in being patient, wisdom in seeking to learn and know more about God’s word. I believe that I may be in this season and am eager to see where the Lord takes me in it.
In some ways, I feel like if King were alive today, his sermons and speeches and prayers would still make a profound impact on the world around him. While there have been so many victories in the realm of racial segregation and injustices, there are still so many to overcome. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from such a great man and hope that some day I can more fully live out of the convictions in my heart, especially when it comes to social injustice.
