Reflecting on the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King – It’s His Day!

[Five Solas]

[In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythians [who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person].

--Colossians 3:11, Amplified Bible

I read the “Amplified” translation of the New Testament back when I was still LDS.  And the rendering of this passage has long stuck with me.  The words in []’s are the “amplifications” intended for greater context and understanding of the thought being communicated.  And they are sometimes quite beautifully composed, In this new creation all distinctions vanish.  I like to think about that. 

Today is the day we honor Dr. King and his legacy.  It means as a practical matter, I’ll be spending the afternoon riding bikes with my kids, instead of them at school and me at work.  It also means they are sleeping in and I have a few minutes to enter my thoughts into the keyboard (while I fast walk on my treadmill).  But it’s also a moment for reflection.  If I want to see a direct result of King and his legacy, I find it in the attitude of my kids toward various persons of color.  Influenced as they are by so many things that were influenced by him, such as our public schools--and yes, even our churches.  And I will readily admit their attitudes are healthier than mine were at their age.

I’m interested in folks' thoughts on Dr. King and his legacy here.  Once upon a time predominately LDS Utah held out against his holiday, and if memory serves was the very last state in our Union to recognize it.  Would that be a source of pride, embarrassment, or maybe just a shrug and a 'who cares'?  All thoughts welcome.   

--Erik

PS.  If you have Netflix, David Letterman’s recent interview with Barack Obama is well worth an hour (watched it with my wife after the kids were in bed last night).  And very much on the topic. 

[Tacenda]

I don't understand why Utah would be so slow to honor MLK by giving him a day of the week. I read today that we were among the last 5 states to do that.

 

[Maidservant]

I have been reading Martin Luther King's autobiography on and off with my two youngest sons (we're not very consistent!).  I am struck with the depth of his commitment and testimony.  He was very clear about his reliance on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the example of Jesus Christ as the way for him and his people to act in a way to change their community (and the world).

[Robert F. Smith]

1 hour ago, Five Solas said:

...............................................

I read the “Amplified” translation of the New Testament back when I was still LDS.  And the rendering of this passage has long stuck with me.  The words in []’s are the “amplifications” intended for greater context and understanding of the thought being communicated.  And they are sometimes quite beautifully composed, .........

the Amplified Bible is an interpretation more than a translation.  It may be an improvement on the archaic KJV, but everyone would be much better off reading actual modern translations.  One can go to a commentary for interpretation, and that interpretation will normally reflect the biases of the interpreter, no matter how scholarly.

1 hour ago, Five Solas said:

Today is the day we honor Dr. King and his legacy.  It means as a practical matter, I’ll be spending the afternoon riding bikes with my kids, instead of them at school and me at work.  It also means they are sleeping in and I have a few minutes to enter my thoughts into the keyboard (while I fast walk on my treadmill).  But it’s also a moment for reflection.  If I want to see a direct result of King and his legacy, I find it in the attitude of my kids toward various persons of color.  Influenced as they are by so many things that were influenced by him, such as our public schools--and yes, even our churches.  And I will readily admit their attitudes are healthier than mine were at their age.

I’m interested in folks' thoughts on Dr. King and his legacy here.  Once upon a time predominately LDS Utah held out against his holiday, and if memory serves was the very last state in our Union to recognize it.  Would that be a source of pride, embarrassment, or maybe just a shrug and a 'who cares'?  All thoughts welcome.   -.........................

I am not a native Utahn, but I find this historical sequence interesting and meaningful:

Quote

President Ronald Reagan signed Martin Luther King Jr. Day into a holiday in 1983.

Utah began to acknowledge Martin Luther King Day with Human Rights Day in 1986.

In 1993, Salt Lake City changed the name of 600 South to Martin Luther King Boulevard. 2-years later the City of Ogden did the same thing, changing the name of 24th street.

......................

In 2000, Utah became the last state to recognize the National holiday known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day by getting rid of Human Rights Day.   http://www.good4utah.com/news/local-utah-state-news-/several-events-planned-for-martin-luther-king-jr-day/206004059 .

 

[The Nehor]

Where are the options for thinking we give too little emphasis. Part of me is saying that because I did not get the day off of work.  

[RevTestament]

4 hours ago, Five Solas said:

[In this new creation all distinctions vanish.] There is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, [nor difference between nations whether alien] barbarians or Scythians [who are the most savage of all], nor slave or free man; but Christ is all and in all [everything and everywhere, to all men, without distinction of person].

--Colossians 3:11, Amplified Bible

I read the “Amplified” translation of the New Testament back when I was still LDS.  And the rendering of this passage has long stuck with me.  The words in []’s are the “amplifications” intended for greater context and understanding of the thought being communicated.  And they are sometimes quite beautifully composed, In this new creation all distinctions vanish.  I like to think about that. 

Today is the day we honor Dr. King and his legacy.  It means as a practical matter, I’ll be spending the afternoon riding bikes with my kids, instead of them at school and me at work.  It also means they are sleeping in and I have a few minutes to enter my thoughts into the keyboard (while I fast walk on my treadmill).  But it’s also a moment for reflection.  If I want to see a direct result of King and his legacy, I find it in the attitude of my kids toward various persons of color.  Influenced as they are by so many things that were influenced by him, such as our public schools--and yes, even our churches.  And I will readily admit their attitudes are healthier than mine were at their age.

I’m interested in folks' thoughts on Dr. King and his legacy here.  Once upon a time predominately LDS Utah held out against his holiday, and if memory serves was the very last state in our Union to recognize it.  Would that be a source of pride, embarrassment, or maybe just a shrug and a 'who cares'?  All thoughts welcome.   

--Erik

Growing up tbh, I didn't really get all the hubub about Dr Martin Luther King holiday. The word holiday comes from Holy Day, and now I believe it quite fitting. Dr Martin Luther King was committed to overcoming prejudice and bigotry in the way of Christ, and was a great Christian. He helped bring the country into the final healing stages from the results of the Civil War, and for this we owe him a great debt. He inspired others around the world, such as Nelson Mandela - another leader of great moral character, who helped bring about peaceful change for the better. While others such as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, may try to fill Martin Luther King's shoes of leadership, none have been able to emulate his leadership in the U.S. I think the void in the black citizenship has been felt, and can only imagine what the black community would be like had Martin Luther King survived to lead through his old age. I feel he would have inspired a more Christian lifestyle and spoken up for the family unit which began to suffer badly after his death.

Quote

PS.  If you have Netflix, David Letterman’s recent interview with Barack Obama is well worth an hour (watched it with my wife after the kids were in bed last night).  And very much on the topic. 

In this modern age of divisive politics, I can only say while Barack Obama may speak of unification, he is no Martin Luther King, Jr., and did many things which I believe have caused a renewed rise in racial tensions. Speech and actions have consequences, and Barack Obama spoke in a manner which raised again the spectre of victimhood politics rather than leading people to overcome such things. He caused walls of difference to again rise up, and for people to lob accusations back and forth, which is why I consider him to be a president of divisiveness rather than the great unifier he promised to be. This tends to be what happens when you act like some people are victims - they began to feel like they are being victimized by someone else rather than taking responsibility for their lives. As long as someone is a victim there is a perpetrator or wrongdoer, and a reason for the politics to continue. I am certainly not saying Donald Trump is any better, but Hillary Clinton certainly would not have been. So I honor Dr. Martin Luther King, while I lament that Barack Obama was not a man more like him to be the first black president of the United States.

[Jeanne]

5 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I don't understand why Utah would be so slow to honor MLK by giving him a day of the week. I read today that we were among the last 5 states to do that.

 

 

Sometimes change in Utah is a bit like pulling teeth.. 

Edited January 15, 2018 by Jeanne

[Robert F. Smith]

1 hour ago, RevTestament said:

............................... can only imagine what the black community would be like had Martin Luther King survived to lead through his old age. I feel he would have inspired a more Christian lifestyle and spoken up for the family unit which began to suffer badly after his death.

That's like wondering what the Mormon community would have been like had Joseph Smith survived.  It would certainly have been different, but I'm not sure what possible trajectory we might have experienced until today.  Would Brother Brigham ever have become Church President?  Which policies and doctrines would have been emphasized or relaxed?  What happens without a martyr?

1 hour ago, RevTestament said:

.................................... I am certainly not saying Donald Trump is any better, but Hillary Clinton certainly would not have been. ...................................

Projections based on "what if" seem very odd in the context of religious leaders on the one hand, and political leaders on the other.  There are wholly different standards at play when comparing the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Mohandas Ghandi. or of Archbishop Thomas Becket and Queen Mary Stuart.

[kiwi57]

7 hours ago, Five Solas said:

[In this new creation all distinctions vanish.]

And that explains why you so carefully worded your poll options to distinguish "LDS" and "Christian" as if they were distinct categories - how, exactly?

[Scott Lloyd]

Does this topic really fit this board? Seems quite a stretch to me. It 

[Rain]

I’m LDS/Christian and I think it fitting we celebrate Dr. King and his legacy with a national holiday

[Five Solas]

1 hour ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Does this topic really fit this board? Seems quite a stretch to me. It 

We've discussed religious leaders and their legacies in the past on the board.  Late last year we had a couple of threads on Martin Luther, recognizing the 500 year anniversary of the Ninety-Five Theses.  A lot of Luther's beliefs/Protestant doctrines make LDS uncomfortable (and I should know, my user name has repeatedly proved to be a lightning rod around here).  But it didn't stop us from having some discussion.  Yet Luther's namesake, a man who drew insight and inspiration from Scripture, the founder and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--you want him/his legacy to be out-of-bounds? 

Sincere, non-rhetorical question here: On the basis of what, Scott?  (You can answer it too, kiwi--since you gave Scott a 'like' for his curious opinion.)  Confident I'm not the only reader wondering. 

--Erik

__________________________

Southern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said

--Neil Young, 1970

[The Nehor]

7 hours ago, RevTestament said:

Growing up tbh, I didn't really get all the hubub about Dr Martin Luther King holiday. The word holiday comes from Holy Day, and now I believe it quite fitting. Dr Martin Luther King was committed to overcoming prejudice and bigotry in the way of Christ, and was a great Christian. He helped bring the country into the final healing stages from the results of the Civil War, and for this we owe him a great debt. He inspired others around the world, such as Nelson Mandela - another leader of great moral character, who helped bring about peaceful change for the better. While others such as Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, may try to fill Martin Luther King's shoes of leadership, none have been able to emulate his leadership in the U.S. I think the void in the black citizenship has been felt, and can only imagine what the black community would be like had Martin Luther King survived to lead through his old age. I feel he would have inspired a more Christian lifestyle and spoken up for the family unit which began to suffer badly after his death.

In this modern age of divisive politics, I can only say while Barack Obama may speak of unification, he is no Martin Luther King, Jr., and did many things which I believe have caused a renewed rise in racial tensions. Speech and actions have consequences, and Barack Obama spoke in a manner which raised again the spectre of victimhood politics rather than leading people to overcome such things. He caused walls of difference to again rise up, and for people to lob accusations back and forth, which is why I consider him to be a president of divisiveness rather than the great unifier he promised to be. This tends to be what happens when you act like some people are victims - they began to feel like they are being victimized by someone else rather than taking responsibility for their lives. As long as someone is a victim there is a perpetrator or wrongdoer, and a reason for the politics to continue. I am certainly not saying Donald Trump is any better, but Hillary Clinton certainly would not have been. So I honor Dr. Martin Luther King, while I lament that Barack Obama was not a man more like him to be the first black president of the United States.

Well, that was a weird post. You honor the holiday with a political attack ad against a former president?

[Scott Lloyd]

42 minutes ago, Five Solas said:

We've discussed religious leaders and their legacies in the past on the board.  Late last year we had a couple of threads on Martin Luther, recognizing the 500 year anniversary of the Ninety-Five Theses.  A lot of Luther's beliefs/Protestant doctrines make LDS uncomfortable (and I should know, my user name has repeatedly proved to be a lightning rod around here).  But it didn't stop us from having some discussion.  Yet Luther's namesake, a man who drew insight and inspiration from Scripture, the founder and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--you want him/his legacy to be out-of-bounds? 

Sincere, non-rhetorical question here: On the basis of what, Scott?  (You can answer it too, kiwi--since you gave Scott a 'like' for his curious opinion.)  Confident I'm not the only reader wondering. 

--Erik

__________________________

Southern man
better keep your head
Don't forget
what your good book said

--Neil Young, 1970

On the basis of relevance — or lack thereof. I thought this was a board for discussion of Mormonism and subjects related thereto. 

[Five Solas]

22 minutes ago, Scott Lloyd said:

On the basis of relevance — or lack thereof. I thought this was a board for discussion of Mormonism and subjects related thereto. 

To be sure it is that, Scott. 

But the LDS Church doesn't exist in a vacuum.  Please correct me if I'm wrong (and kindly furnish a corrective link or two if I am)--but I don't recall you've ever once objected to a thread about another religious leader/legacy "on the basis of relevance."  Your words here may cause the board's readers to think there is something particularly irrelevant about Dr. King in the context of Mormonism. 

Is this really your point of view?  Do you think the work & legacy of Dr. King has had zero effect on the LDS Church, its leaders, its membership, its teachings? 

--Erik

[Scott Lloyd]

2 hours ago, Five Solas said:

To be sure it is that, Scott. 

But the LDS Church doesn't exist in a vacuum.  Please correct me if I'm wrong (and kindly furnish a corrective link or two if I am)--but I don't recall you've ever once objected to a thread about another religious leader/legacy "on the basis of relevance."  Your words here may cause the board's readers to think there is something particularly irrelevant about Dr. King in the context of Mormonism. 

Is this really your point of view?  Do you think the work & legacy of Dr. King has had zero effect on the LDS Church, its leaders, its membership, its teachings? 

--Erik

I don’t recall encountering a thread as lacking in relevance to the designated purpose of the board as this one. My sole intent in entering the thread was to question that relevance. Since you seem unable or unwilling to persuasively explain the relevance, I have no further interest in the thread and do not intend to read or post in it going forward. 

[Gray]

Here's a great quote by MLK:

 “Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge, which is power; religion gives man wisdom, which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary. Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.”

[Storm Rider]

I think the MLK's greatest message of the value of each human life and the need for members of society to primarily look upon one another by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin has become a bedrock principle of our nation. Without him we would be less than we are today.  

His private life more often than not goes unreviewed by society - or at least forgotten. In this time of irreligious sexual puritanism I wonder if MLK can continue to teach us that the humanity of a man should never negate the value of the individual.  That we must look at the entire human being rather than use subjective tests to determine if a man can be respected or valued for their life's contributions.  

[The Nehor]

10 hours ago, Storm Rider said:

I think the MLK's greatest message of the value of each human life and the need for members of society to primarily look upon one another by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin has become a bedrock principle of our nation. Without him we would be less than we are today.  

His private life more often than not goes unreviewed by society - or at least forgotten. In this time of irreligious sexual puritanism I wonder if MLK can continue to teach us that the humanity of a man should never negate the value of the individual.  That we must look at the entire human being rather than use subjective tests to determine if a man can be respected or valued for their life's contributions.  

But if I cannot judge everyone else to be worthless because of their obvious imperfections how do you suggest that I convince myself that I am better than everyone else?

[Storm Rider]

1 hour ago, The Nehor said:

But if I cannot judge everyone else to be worthless because of their obvious imperfections how do you suggest that I convince myself that I am better than everyone else?

Alas, Nehor, these kinds of conversations take place in the privacy of one's own mind and never shared.  Then we can look with bemused enlightenment at the frailties of others as we privately step on them to ever higher realms of perfection. 

[RevTestament]

On 1/15/2018 at 4:13 PM, kiwi57 said:

And that explains why you so carefully worded your poll options to distinguish "LDS" and "Christian" as if they were distinct categories - how, exactly?

I like to refer to myself as LDS Christian to non-members, but on the board I will often just say LDS. Rarely do I refer to myself as Mormon. I think I can recall a grand total of about one non-member who adopted LDS Christian in his visit, but that is why I do it. Because, I want to emphasize that I think of myself as Christian. Calling myself Mormon plays into their mental separation of myself as being outside of their "Christian" box. If the whole Church referred to ourselves as LDS Christian, I think we could change that, but if we keep referring to ourselves as Mormons, I think we lose clout to complain about it. Inevitably, we also get called "the Mormon Church" - a Church named after a man, which we should discourage. 3 Nephi 27:7-9