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====Breaking Unjust Laws====In King’s Letter From Birmingham Jail, he addressed a question he found himself constantly needing to answer--from the media, from critics, from American citizens: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?”<ref>See: https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Letter_Birmingham_Jail.pdf</ref> In other words, King is defending himself against the legalist, who might claim that individuals should always follow the law--that following the law is the definition of justice. According to King, such an appeal is simply ludicrous because justice is not synonymous with the law.
====Amillenialism and the Social Gospel==== Martin Luther King Jr. preached counter to dominant eschatological theologies in the South, holding what might be described as an amillennial a millennial view. Millenialists, on the whole, assert asserted the literal Second Coming of Christ and adhered to a specific role of the church and the nation of Israel in salvation history. King’s rejection of this theological position was crucial in understanding King’s ardent defense of working towards the establishment of civil rights for African Americans. In order to explain King’s position, I will begin by explaining its opposite, premillennial dispensationalism, a view common among fundamentalist Christians and evangelicals in the South. This view gained much traction in United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. According to LeAnn Snow Flesher, the key features of premillennial dispensationalism include:
<ul style="list-style-type:circle">
<li>“a dichotomy between Israel and the Church</li>
Now, King’s theological commitments could not be more opposite. As Amanat and Bernhardsson claim, Martin Luther King Jr.’s eschatology could be described as amillenial.<ref>Amanat, Abbas, and Magnus Thorkell Bernhardsson. Imagining the End : Visions of Apocalypse From the Ancient Middle East to Modern America. London: I.B.Tauris, 2002.</ref> As a result, there is no understanding that the establishment of justice in the temporal order is something Christ will operatively take care of at the Second Coming. Instead, there is more emphasis on what is famously called the “Social Gospel.” This theology emphasized the church’s role in renewing and establishing peace which squared with, as stated above, the moral law of God. Thus, King’s brand of theology was one that could not be divorced from the church’s involvement in the public sphere. In fact, it demanded the church’s engagement in it to confront social injustice and oppression.
====Non-Violence====Finally, we now turn to King’s commitment to nonviolence. Ron Large describes this relationship well, claiming that at the heart of King’s insistence upon nonviolent change is his theology. <ref> Large, Ron. "Martin Luther King, Jr: ethics, nonviolence, and moral character." The Journal Of Religious Thought 48, no. 1 (Sum 1991): 51-63. </ref> He believes that it is especially important to consider that King viewed God as “a God of power, strength, and love who acts to fulfill the creative purpose, which is the establishment of community. " Non-violence directly appeals to the notion of God, who’s providential purpose for the universe is to bring people together. Violence is in direct conflict with this claim, as it intrinsically causes injury to human relation and connection. Thus, King could not be a proponent of extreme Marxist forms of revolution, which required violent uprising. The means should never undermine the end.
===Conclusion===
Each of these main theological tenets largely impacted the brand of social reform that King championed in the 1960’s--his transcendent form of justice, rejection of premillenialism, and commitment to nonviolence. Thus, it can be safely said that King’s progressivism was steeply rooted in Christian theology and teaching. Now, this is not to say Christianity, generally speaking, played a positive role in the Civil Rights Movement. However, it is plainly clear that Christianity was used both positively and negatively. It was used positively in the case of Martin Luther King Jr. and other advocates of the Social Gospel, as a means to usher forth nonviolent change. In some cases, it was a hindrance to bringing civil liberties to blacks in the South, appealing to God’s operative role in establishing justice and de-incentivizing Christian engagement with fighting for the poor and oppressed.
===References===
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[[Category:Wikis]][[Category:Religious History]][[Category:African American History]][[Category:Civil Rights History]]
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