King is sailing, they say

Let the Trumpet Sound

The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. by Stephen B. Oates

This is one of the books that started my doubting slide.  This is a major catalyst for my current trend away from my beliefs.  I have always had questions and doubts, but this book forced me to confront those doubts head-on, to take them from under the rug, and re-evaluate my beliefs in Christianity. 

Last year, I was convicted by my ignorance of the world around me.  I am educated, yet I knew next to nothing about the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s.  So I picked up this 500 page biography of Martin Luther King, published in 1982.  I was immediately struck by the very recent history of this country, the history we have all heard a little about, but I think may not have studied in much detail.  Black Americans were treated like animals in the Southern US as recently as the 1960s, and this book makes that point clear.  King was a brilliant young minister from Atlanta who held his first pastoral duties in Birmingham, Alabama. Holding a PhD in systematic theology, King was highly academic, and initially approached his sermons in an intellectual manner.  But Birmingham was the in the heart of racism and segregation.  When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, Birmingham erupted into violence and protest.  King really struggled to keep is church and ideology focused on Jesus, heaven, salvation of souls and the afterlife.  But he was forced to concede that a church which does no good for humanity while on earth is not a church at all.  He went full throttle into social activism and civil rights and never looked back.  The book, and King’s life and activism is too full to summarize beyond this point.  Pick it up at the library, and read it for yourself.

Bottom line – this book is excellent.  I recommend it to anyone who values history and our relationship with our fellow humans.  If I have one criticism, it is that the book nearly deifies King, and glosses over his very real failings, such as infidelity to his wife.  That is a small complaint though.  Read it.

But the real question is, what is this book review doing on a site which questions the claims of Christianity?  What are the spiritual applications?  Like I said, this book is one of the catalysts for my move away from Christianity.  I will write about that in my next article – so stay tooooned.