Dr. King’s birthday was yesterday. He would have been 90.
On Monday there is the national holiday to honor him. But in some states, Dr. King doesn’t get the day to himself. Because in those states, Dr. King shares the day with Robert E. Lee. Let me repeat that so you understand.
On January 20, 2019, in some states, Dr. Martin Luther King has to share the day with Robert E. Lee.
And people wonder why “race relations” are the way they are.
If you know me in real life (or if you’ve read this blog long enough), you know that history is my thing. I truly believe Faulkner was right when he said, “the past is not dead. it isn’t even past.”
Part of the reason the United States is in the position it’s in is because too many people want to believe that our past is dead. Or, more precisely, that our past isn’t our past. That white supremacy is not a feature of our system, but just a bug.
So…if my last list of suggestions for things to preach this Sunday didn’t do anything for you, I have another idea for you.
This year, instead of preaching King, do a sermon that juxtaposes the two Kings: Dr. King and Rep. Steve King from Iowa. And your reading assignment is the last chapter of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction in America, “The Propaganda of History”. Here’s a piece from near the end…..
…..In order to paint the South as a martyr to inescapable fate, to make the North the magnanimous emancipator, and to ridicule the Negro as the impossible joke in the whole development, we have in fifty years, by libel, innuendo and silence, so completely misstated and obliterated the history of the Negro in America and his relation to its work and government that today it is almost unknown.
This may be fine romance, but it is not science. It may be inspiring, but it is certainly not the truth. And beyond this it is dangerous. It is not only part foundation of four present lawlessness and loss of democratic ideals; it has, more than that, led the world to embrace and worship the color bar as social salvation and it is helping to range mankind in ranks of mutual hatred and contempt, as the summons of a cheap and false myth.
There are statutes honoring Confederates all over the country, including Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. There are U.S. military bases named after Confederate generals. And a sizable portion of the U.S. white population believes that slavery (the expansion of it to be more correct) was not the cause of the Civil War.
So look here, white minister friends. There are so many things you can preach about Sunday. Please, as a favor to everybody, do not do the same tired thing and preach the palatable King.
East Of Midnight 