When Barack Obama gave his "religion" speech recently, he brought up one of our greatest American heroes, Martin Luther King, as an example of how religion is part of our public discourse.
For some reason, that got me even angrier than all the rest of his helping-the-Republican-frame characterizations of secularists and, especially Democrats.
Think about it for a moment. Think how Martin Luther King used his faith to help promote justice in America.
One of Martin Luther King's main accomplishments was in the area of civil rights, using the cause (in the case of Rosa Parks) to point out a moral evil in our society.
Did Martin Luther King espouse "faith based initiatives?" No. He did not espouse either the Federal or state government giving money to churches in order to raise the level of equality for American citizens. He espoused changing the laws using the democratic process, he espoused justice in the secular sphere using the religious and moral language of the church. But his goals for these secular changes were secular. His religion and his citizenship were not mixed up with each other. And because of this he could freely use his faith to blast the hypocrisy and evil of his day, and influence people of all philosophies, from atheist to evangelical, by his own moral strength.
I've resisted writing a diary on this topic because so many diaries have already been written. But I feel very strongly about this. Obama has not complimented Martin Luther King in how he used him in that speech. I find it hard to believe that Martin Luther King would have applauded Obama. MLK was very fiery in condemning his co-religionists when he felt they were sitting on the sidelines on issues of social justice -- read his eulogy for those girls who were killed in the horrible fire at the Sixth Street Baptist Church, how he blasted the preachers who hid behind lace curtains and did not get involved and the racist Christian churches who supported the kind of hatred that could lead to such an evil act.
It is meaningless to say you want religion in social discourse without strongly stating how your own faith informs your decisions on basic moral issues. Obama did not do this. Instead he claimed he was "ashamed" of his language when someone didn't like how he claimed he was pro-choice. If he indeed is pro-choice, he should not apologize. If he is anti-abortion he should not apologize either. But to think that changing his language on this issue is making a strong moral statement about "respecting" others just makes me sick.
No, Barak Obama is no Martin Luther King. For someone to have credibility when speaking of religion, they have to show me they stand for something. I didn't see that in his speech. I always see that in Martin Luther King's speeches. That's why I had to conclude that Obama's speech was purely political and did not at all enter the moral realm.