Bloodlines

i) Martin Luther King fought for a worthy cause. At the same time, evangelicals should resist the impulse to canonize the man. King was a great man, but not a good man. His moral deficiencies (adultery, plagiarism) and theological deficiencies (liberalism) are conspicuous. He championed a cause greater than himself.

ii) Although Jim Crow had to go (good riddance!), it’s better to suffer here and now, but be free in the hereafter–than to be free here and now, but suffer in the hereafter. Life is fleeting. Eternity is forever.

iii) The reelection of Barak Obama vividly illustrates the moral limitations of a legal liberation movement.  Likewise, naming schools, streets, bridges, and holidays after King’s memory does nothing to solve social problems which beset segments of the black community. That’s bread and circuses.

iv) I also don’t see the duty to commemorate the civil rights movement every year. We don’t need to be constantly reminded of something we’ve heard over and over again. Not something we must endlessly relive. The past is past. And as far as that goes, there are many other, often neglected, events in American history, not to mention world history or–most of all–Bible history.

v) John Piper wrote a book (Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian) about race relations. As a Southerner in his sixties who came of age in the shadow of Bob Jones University, it’s only natural that Piper wanted to get that off his chest. But the generation for whom that’s resonant or relevant is rapidly dwindling.