Martin Luther would certainly be among the top ten people who’ve had an influence on me. CS Lewis would as well. Among more contemporary thinkers, I’d have to list Ravi Zacharias and RC Sproul. Luther, of course, had some less than gentle things to say about Jews in his day, giving a black eye to the Reformation. Lewis’s view of the Bible is shameful, embarrassing. I need not catalogue for anyone who hasn’t been in a cave the last fifteen years, the grievous sins of Ravi Zacharias. As for RC Sproul, well, while he was a sinner like the rest of us, he’s the exception that proves the rule.
Sadly, we all tend to conflate the men and their ideas, and so when confronted with the failures of these men we are tempted either to defend the defenseless (the men) or give up the wonderful (the ideas.) The more nuanced among us remind us to “chew on the meat, and spit out the bones.” It’s a good principle, assuming we know how to tell the difference. The less subtle are more than willing to build a bonfire for both the books and bodies of their enemies.
Today the nation observes Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I’m old enough to remember when there was no such day, and when our solar system had nine planets. There was quite a ruckus when the holiday was first proposed (though, oddly, none whatsoever when Pluto got demoted.) Arizona refused to take part. And, a whole cottage industry committed to revealing all the flaws of MLK was born.
We’ve learned about his dissertation that even Harvard’s ex-president wouldn’t have approved. We’ve learned about the serial infidelity. We’ve known about J. Edgar Hoover’s conclusion that King was a card-carrying communist. Suppose all those things were true, as they may well be. Suppose there are worse things we don’t even know about, as there certainly are. Suppose the man was a scoundrel from top to bottom. None of that in the least diminishes the truth and the beauty of the core message which was so eloquently expressed in his “I have a dream” speech.
I have no interest in lifting up the man, defending his reputation or anything of the sort. Nor do I think his core message was original or unique to him. Instead, I share with him the dream that a day will come when all people are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I share the dream not because he had it, but because Jesus calls us to pray for it when He taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, om earth as it is in heaven.”
That this simple principle has come to be despised and repudiated by race hustlers in our own day is yet another good sign that it’s a good idea. Good character embraces the concept of judging people by their character, even when that message is made famous by a man of low character. Don’t celebrate the man. Instead dream the dream.