Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a preacher through and through. From the images he invoked, to the cadence of his speech, to the values which shaped his every decision, Dr. King, whose life and work we formally honored yesterday, was a public pastor with a ministry to all of America.
The same can be said of Rev. Pat Robertson, but that is where the similarity ends, as we were once again reminded this week when Robertson offered his explanation for the Haiti earthquake. I can’t help but wish that Robertson was more like King.
It’s not that I wish the two were more politically alike. And it’s not because I am deeply uncomfortable with Rev. Robertson’s theology. In fact, I even appreciate that a deep longing for a good and just God is probably at the root of Robertson’s explanation for the quake.
But it’s precisely when our views are most provocative and potentially destabilizing that we must proceed with care in both our words and our deeds, especially when we base ourselves on what we believe is God’s word, as King did, and Robertson continues to do. And, care need never be confused with timidity about speaking one’s truth, as Dr. King well knew.
King said, “if a man hasn’t discovered something to die for, he isn’t it to live”. Hardly timid words. In fact, they sound as fanatical as do the words of those who most opposed him. So where is the care?
The care lies in the fact that for all his passion, I know of no case in which King condemned his opponents to Hell or described them as cursed by God. Unlike Dr Robertson, the suffering of others was not a proof text for the correctness of his own beliefs.
Ultimately, Dr. King was ever aware of the humanity even of those with whom he most deeply disagreed. And in that too, I wish Dr. Robertson was more like Dr. King.
King appreciated that even when he was right, he was creating new challenges as he addressed old ones. He said, “all progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another”. It’s hard to imagine that Robertson stopped to think about the problems created by his “solution” to the question of why the earthquake happened.
For King, violence was never the answer. One wonders about any preacher, including Robertson, who genuinely believes that violence, whether by humans or by God, ever is. And in that also Dr. Robertson could take a lesson from Dr. King.
Whether we celebrate King’s legacy or not, whether we agree with Robertson or not, we all could.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted January 21, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Unfortunately the lines between myth and delusion and the rational seem more and more blurred by the facts that have emerged. Mr. Robertson seems now and then to have completely lost coherency and whatever intellectual gifts he may have had at one time, are so faded as to make him a paradoy not worth attention. Mr. King’s historic personna is entrenched in myth on the one had, and muck on the other. Serious scholarship, has discovered that Mr. King had flaws of a magnitutde that would be fatal in today’s world of instant, brutal disclosure, and are not unlike those of his contemporary myths, the Kennedy’s. At a time that President Kennedy was involved in torrid encounters with the mistress of a Mafia gangster, and legions of some named and nameless women, one of the real unsung heros of the civil rights movement, the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, was warning Mr. King of his sexual liasions and apparently bad treatment of many women. At a time that President Kennedy’s serious health issues were hidden from public view, or his non-authorship of “Profiles in Courage,” the President apparently disliked Mr. King and Robert Kennedy warned Mr. King of his very public associations with known communists, a serious issue then for the Kennedys. The King mythology is really a pathology that strangely continues despite the fact that Dr. Pappas, later President of Encyclopaedia Britannica, published a serious study of Mr. King’s writings discovering that Mr. King plagerized much of his Ph. D. dissertation, many of his other writings and even sermons. The fact of the plagerism resulted in the university granting the degree forming a review committee that found that indeed, plagerized portions of the supposed King were a fact. However, since Mr. King had died, there seemed no reason to remove his awarded doctorate. Unfortunately, plagerism does have serious consequences as many have discovered, from historian Stephen Ambrose to writers for the New York Times, and Mr. King did not deserve the title of “Doctor.” Nothing healthy can emerge from toxic mythology, and the result of the King myth-making has left many brave and intellectually honest people such as Reverend Ralph Abernathy and others lost and forgotten.
posted January 22, 2010 at 12:52 pm
There is a small typo in the following quote, of Doctor King, on the word “fit”
“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
Regarding the comment on King’s credentials:
Matthew 5:10-12 KJV Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
posted January 23, 2010 at 10:54 am
The comments by Mr. Rhoades are appreciated and I am sure they represent how he feels, Everyone should be able to believe anything they wish. Unfortunately, there is truth and there is fact. In the case of Mr. King, is appears well dculented that he was a plagerist of significant proportion. It is also well documented that he had certain proclivities nor dissimilar to those of President Kennedy, Mr. Woods, and so many others. It was indeed Robert Kennedy who urged Mr. King to dissociate himself from communist on his staff or advisors, and on and on. The basis of Mr. Rhoades citiation is that the allegations were false. In the case of Mr. King, they appear to be factual.
posted January 29, 2010 at 11:08 am
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