Revisionism and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Several years ago William J Bennett published his Book of Virtues, a compendium of literature from around the world meant to illustrate the seven virtues of classical thought. In his book were a couple of selections from the works of Martin Luther King, Jr., including his Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

The letter was an eye-opener to me because I had always been led to believe that King was either an incendiary left-wing ideologue (from one side’s perspective) or a saintly left-wing ideologue (from the other side’s perspective). But the letter from the Birmingham jail reveals someone who does not fit into either of those mischaracterizations. In fact, it would be fair to say that Dr. King’s position on natural law would cause him to be considered unqualified to sit on the Federal bench in today’s political environment. Dr. King’s justification for his acts of civil disobedience relied heavily upon his belief in a law higher than man’s law, and that a person is justified in defying unjust laws if one must do so in order to obey the higher law.

That’s why I was distressed by what I found on the University of Pennsylvania’s African Studies website, edited by Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar. I was searching the net for the text of the Birmingham letter and found the following URL:

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

I posted this on my Facebook Wall, and then began to read the letter for references that I knew Dr. King had written. After reading what was on the site, I immediately removed the post. Specifically, I was looking for his scriptural references (Dr. King equated natural law with the Law of God, a disqualifying conviction in the minds of many on the left today), and virtually none of them were there. His references to natural law were also largely expunged, and what remained were what seemed like the diatribes of a secular humanist playing the roll of victim.

I wondered if maybe Dr. King wrote two letters from jail, so I searched further, and came across the archives of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. The URL:

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/resources/article/annotated_letter_from_birmingham

The Institute houses the official archives of Dr. King and includes transcripts of some of his sermons (well worth the read). They clearly state that the posted version of the Letter from the Birmingham Jail is only excerpts. Even so, Dr. King’s clear references to Scripture, classical Western thought, respected theologians, and American ideals are there for all to see.

I’ll leave it to Dr. Ali-Dinar to explain why he edited the University of Pennsylvania’s version the way he did without disclosing what he was doing. Surely a Ph.D should know better. In any case my point is as it stands: Dr. King’s philosophical heritage was squarely in the mainstream of Western thought and furthermore reveals a man of deep intellect, love for country, and respect for Scripture.

And in my humble opinion, he would not be comfortable in today’s Democrat party.