The Presbyterian minister Jim Rigby of Austin came up with a list of five quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I’ve shared below.
King was loved by masses of minorities and equally hated by masses of whites who gleefully called him “Martin Luther Coon.”
The hatred stemmed from King’s refusal to shut up with his relentless critiques of the excesses of capitalism, militarism, materialism, property rights (i.e., land grabs) and of course, racism.
It’s interesting that the prophetic Pope Francis, who admires and refers to King or quotes him frequently, says all the same things on a near daily basis.
For sure, the pope is loved and admired by many, but loathed, detested, and even hated by so many who worship at the altar of raw power and military might, profiteering, materialism, and consumerism.
One of the bigger fools at the always religiously correct Fox News, which is a virtual forestland of fools, once called Francis “the most dangerous man alive” in a hate-filled rant in reaction to a book-length papal document that the fool didn’t bother to read but culled for a few quotes taken out of context.
Go here for more on that loving Christian’s love letter to the Pope.
I’ve always seen the vitriol and hatred expressed toward King in his day and Pope Francis today as a measure of just how hard they hammered on the Truth.
Christ was loved and of hated for being a truth teller himself, ya know.
Dr. King said:
1. “Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad.”
2. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
3. “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
4. “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”
5. “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”
And then there was the German prophet and martyr who was quite Christlike himself.
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