Yesterday Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, and organizer of the "Just Us Sunday" events, wrote about Martin Luther King, Jr. in an attempt to connect the work of King with his own at FRC:
"Today, we honor his memory and we take up his call. Dr. King's quest for civil rights was a movement of the church, by the church, and for the church. He sought changes in unjust laws. And he succeeded. Today, the ACLU and others are militantly hostile to any reform movement in society that seeks to awaken the church. Simply to speak from a pulpit and to call for righteousness in the land strikes some militant secularists as a threat to our liberties. Dr. King didn't think so. Just a little over a week ago, I had the privilege of joining with Dr. Alveda King (Dr. King's niece), Bishop Wellington Boone and Rev. Herbert Lusk at Philadelphia's Greater Exodus Baptist Church. We spoke before an audience of black and white Christians who embraced each other and the dream of the Church united. We spoke out for religious liberty, for the right to life, and for marriage. Outside that inner city church, hostile demonstrators, some in devil costumes, carried torches and called those of us inside a lynch mob! I have to think that if Dr. King were alive, he would be speaking in churches on the burning issues of the day. Would the ACLU seek to silence him?"
Perkins compares his critics (which I guess would include me) with lynch mobs and critics of King. This is extremely ironic and disingenuous considering that Perkins has a poor historical record on racial issues. As Max Blumenthal pointed out, Perkins has had dealings with racist David Duke (formerly of the KKK) and the racist Council of Conservative Citizens.
If Perkins really wants to honor King's legacy, he should begin by apologizing for his past. If he doesn't apologize, then perhaps it is because he still holds those views. King would not have to worry about the ACLU today, but white religious leaders like Perkins!
"Today, we honor his memory and we take up his call. Dr. King's quest for civil rights was a movement of the church, by the church, and for the church. He sought changes in unjust laws. And he succeeded. Today, the ACLU and others are militantly hostile to any reform movement in society that seeks to awaken the church. Simply to speak from a pulpit and to call for righteousness in the land strikes some militant secularists as a threat to our liberties. Dr. King didn't think so. Just a little over a week ago, I had the privilege of joining with Dr. Alveda King (Dr. King's niece), Bishop Wellington Boone and Rev. Herbert Lusk at Philadelphia's Greater Exodus Baptist Church. We spoke before an audience of black and white Christians who embraced each other and the dream of the Church united. We spoke out for religious liberty, for the right to life, and for marriage. Outside that inner city church, hostile demonstrators, some in devil costumes, carried torches and called those of us inside a lynch mob! I have to think that if Dr. King were alive, he would be speaking in churches on the burning issues of the day. Would the ACLU seek to silence him?"
Perkins compares his critics (which I guess would include me) with lynch mobs and critics of King. This is extremely ironic and disingenuous considering that Perkins has a poor historical record on racial issues. As Max Blumenthal pointed out, Perkins has had dealings with racist David Duke (formerly of the KKK) and the racist Council of Conservative Citizens.
If Perkins really wants to honor King's legacy, he should begin by apologizing for his past. If he doesn't apologize, then perhaps it is because he still holds those views. King would not have to worry about the ACLU today, but white religious leaders like Perkins!
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