Martin Luther King Jr.: A Man of the Greatest Faith
By Celia C. Peters, AOL BlackVoices
Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy was characterized by deep and abiding spiritual faith. Dr. King's belief in God's love sustained him through the search for understanding, his growth into his role as leader, struggles with the ugliness of prejudice and injustice, and ultimately, dangers that threatened the lives of his family and himself. The kind of unrelenting belief in God that Dr. King had was something that seemed to emanate from within and touch everyone around him. The depth of his faith completely colored the way that he interacted with the world and everyone in it; as well, that faith seemed to empower him to take on the great leadership responsibility that he carried throughout his adult life. Indeed, the power of his beliefs is clear in the very nature of the cause that Dr. King chose to make his life's work: a nonviolent social justice movement that was steeped in the Christian doctrine of loving one's enemies. For Dr. King and his fellow civil rights activists, that was a tall order when the enemy struck out with guns, bats, dogs, hoses and rope –- but amazingly, and thankfully, Dr. King forged on with what he believed and was able to engage the support of those who wanted the same things that he did: justice and peace.
The foundation of Dr. King's spiritual life was a family legacy of ministry; both his grandfather and father were Baptist ministers at Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, and at the tender age of 19, MLK Jr. was ordained as assistant pastor of the church. For the King family, however, religion had always been very connected to the everyday issues of African Americans. Both King's grandfather, the Rev. A.D. Williams, and his father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., were deeply involved in 'social gospel activism,' a ministry that involves itself in bettering the lives of its faithful through social and political action. These men had worked for black voting rights, improved education for black children, fed the hungry and led campaigns for pay equity for blacks, among other things –- in decades that were long before any laws were in place to protect their rights or their safety. For Dr. King, then, the entwining of concern for both the spiritual and the civil well-being of black folks was not a new concept.
At some point early on in his life, Dr. King accepted the fact that he had been called to the ministry. Still, even after having this realization (particularly while attending Crozer Theological Seminary and later, Boston University) Dr. King struggled to find his own unique spiritual perspective. Over time, he developed a belief system that combined his Baptist roots with other Christian ideologies, such as theological liberalism and personalism, which he was exposed to in his theological training. As a consequence, the God that Martin Luther King Jr. came to believe in was both an absolute source of personal strength and an undefeatable force of righteousness acting in the world. Jesus Christ himself was also a great influence on Dr. King's shaping of the civil rights movement -– both in terms of embracing civil disobedience (which again, is rooted in faith in one's beliefs) and the willingness to sacrifice and suffer for a greater cause.
One of the final factors in Dr. King's spiritual development was his discovery of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi advocated nonviolent protest as a tool of political activism, and he successfully practiced what he preached in his native country of India. His achievements and accomplishments in the face of powerful and violent oppression struck a chord with Dr. King. Drawing from his own experiences and learning, Dr. King came to believe that Christian love put into action using Gandhi's method of passive resistance was the key to the success of the civil rights movement. He understood all too well the difficulty of asking people who were being violently attacked not to strike back, but ultimately, for Dr. King nonviolence was a life choice that would only serve to make the world (and the people in it) better.
It is no surprise then, that even in Dr. King's darkest hours of despair, when he felt his back against the wall and questioned himself, he called upon his God for strength. Instead of feeling forsaken, his faith was unwavering. Dr. King believed without question that God would make a way for him to accomplish his mission of fighting injustice and finding an equality that would improve life for all Americans. And in the end, Dr. King's faith enabled him to do just that.