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Martin Luther King.....Questions about him....What is your feeling on him.......

C

Chicoman

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So yesterday was Martin Luther King Day.....A National Holiday!

I was very young when MLK was killed and we've all heard the speeches by him and the powerful message he sent throughout this nation about equality and equal rights and he brought racism into the mainstream.

I'm not trying to discredit MLK for spearheading the charge to equality for everyone.....however the more I read the more I gather that MLK had a dark side.....very dark IMHO.

He was investigated for years by J Edgar Hoover head of the FBI for being a communist. They quickly learned he wasn't a communist however he was an adulterer (and yes this is all documented) who had slept with over 40 women while he was married with a wife & 4 children.

Now my question to the Steeler Nation is should we be celebrating a man who ironically based on the content of character seems like a severely flawed, troubled person. Here we have a reverend preaching the gospel and the word of god from the age of 25 who just IMO was a hypocrite.

I truly feel his push for equality was appropriate but the guy has a less than stellar track record as an upstanding citizen when it comes to his adulterous affairs and sex parties that this guy who called himself a reverend preaching the gospel and the word of god.

When I think about everything I can't help but think the reason this country is the way it is now is because we have lost sight of core values such as religion and ethics. You see, I believe that we are obligated to be true to ourselves and to each other. The decline of morality is a growing problem through the United States. The decline of morals and values has changed the people and families in this great nation. Parents today have to take a stand and teach our young to have respect for themselves and others. To get back some of the moral values we use to hold so dear.

Does Martin Luther King deserve a National Holiday? If so why? We don't celebrate Abe Lincoln anymore....and that guy was one of the most important people in the history of this great nation.

How can we expect our kids to look up to a guy like Martin Luther King who was a severely flawed man with poor values and a reverend to boot!

With that in mind I just don't see how we can celebrate Martin Luther King as a person! I celebrate equal rights and his push for them but I can't celebrate the man for how he lived his life and what he did during his marriage. I think it's disgraceful!

would love to hear other peoples thoughts.....
 
How can we expect our kids to look up to a guy like Martin Luther King who was a severely flawed man with poor values and a reverend to boot!
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It can be argued that the title "Reverend" to men seems to denote a touch of pride in one's position and elevates the man. The term "pastor" correctly denotes one who humbly serves and cares for the flock. Only God is to be revered. It is a tradition in America, men like the Rev. Jackson, the Rev Sharpton, want notoriety, just add Rev. in front of your name and you command respect.

It can be debated forever if King did this intentionally, but it is universally accepted that he was an exceptional man on a mission, whether he used the term for political reasons or not, who knows ?

The term "pastor" literally means "shepherd". The Bible itself refers to congregation elders as shepherds and undershepherds.

The term "reverend" applies to a human a term rightly reserved for God himself (note the only use of the word in the entire KJV, cited below). Typically, a so-called "reverend" is aligned with a church teaching a counterfeit form of false Christianity.

The term "minister" means "servant", one who serves. The Bible consistently refers to every Christian preacher as a minister, and Jesus himself taught that every Christian must preach.

A priest is an intermediary between humans and God. Before Christ, God did arrange for priests to perform a role, but the resurrected Jesus Christ is humankind's eternal High Priest, and a class of "kings and priests" rule only from heaven. No human can rightly be called a priest of Almighty God.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080803115225AAzdoRU
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I wish he was alive today. I bet he'd be mortified by all this "Hands Up / I Am Trangel" bullshit and the riots, the cop killing, the knock out game, the unemployment, the drugs, the rap and thug culture and the missing baby daddies.
 
How can we expect our kids to look up to a guy like Martin Luther King who was a severely flawed man with poor values and a reverend to boot!
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Taking your accusations at face value, this is an easy question to answer. Kids are taught in a PC public "education". In today's world, you simply cannot, absolutely cannot, say those things about MLK. I would expect that any teacher who tried would be fired and the teacher's union wouldn't say **** about it.

Second, lots of people are/can be flawed and still do great things. Theoretically, you could teach that and, while admitting the flaws are not "OK" (depending on the flaws), accept that they are there and still celebrate the great things.
 
Presidents day is a day we are suppose to celebrate Lincoln. But other than that if you don't think we celebrate Lincoln, you should visit the Lincoln memorial any weekend of the year.
Every time I drive by, since I live near DC, it's packed with crowds.
 
21STEELERS21 said:
Presidents day is a day we are suppose to celebrate Lincoln. But other than that if you don't think we celebrate Lincoln, you should visit the Lincoln memorial any weekend of the year.
Every time I drive by, since I live near DC, it's packed with crowds.
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Presidents day is a combination of Lincoln and Washington's birthdays. Can't you get anything right?

The civil rights movement would not have been anywhere near successful without MLK. He would be aghast at the situation today.
 
you would be hard pressed to find any great person that was flawless.

King may not have always been a virtuous man, but he looked to virtue as his guide.

and if you're going to judge a man by the quality of his enemies.....well.
 
Meh, he wasn't perfect



but I think he was sincere and the black community would be much better off today if he had not been killed.
 
I try to judge people by their totality and the time in which they lived. I don't care about their enemies because that tells me nothing about the man. The same people that will brush aside MLK cheating on his wife and family will berate others for the exact same thing simply because MLK is untouchable in some people's eye. If anyone can name another Christian leader that had multiple affairs and is as deeply admired as MLK I'd like to hear it.
 
My feelings are similar to others.... the messenger being flawed doesn't destroy the merit of the message. He may have believed some things with which I disagree (not a student) but most of what I know of his thoughts are basic common sense things like being responsible for your own destiny and equality for everyone.
 
He wasn't a Christian leader per se, but he was a well known catholic JFK
 
Rod Farva said:
My feelings are similar to others.... the messenger being flawed doesn't destroy the merit of the message. He may have believed some things with which I disagree (not a student) but most of what I know of his thoughts are basic common sense things like being responsible for your own destiny and equality for everyone.
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I totally agree with that. I just wished it cut both ways.
 
I won't make my comment long or sermon-like...

I suggest the OP read the context of this Biblical story first - John 8:7 - ..."He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone..."
 
bermudasteel said:
I won't make my comment long or sermon-like...

I suggest the OP read the context of this Biblical story first - John 8:7 - ..."He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone..."
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I suggest you read the entire story. Jesus is talking about actually stoning a woman caught in adultery. You're taking the sentence out of context and I'm sure you know it. What do you think Jesus would say to a minister cheating on his wife? Do thou likewise? I wonder what Jesus said about adultery? You have any texts for that?
 
Vader said:
I suggest you read the entire story. Jesus is talking about actually stoning a woman caught in adultery. You're taking the sentence out of context and I'm sure you know it. What do you think Jesus would say to a minister cheating on his wife? Do thou likewise? I wonder what Jesus said about adultery? You have any texts for that?
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Vader, you'll argue ANYTHING.

The point of the parable is that IF any of the men standing there - willing to stone the harlot for adultery, did not have a sin that they had not confessed - then Jesus said, "...he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone..."

My original comment was not intended to incite an argument. It simply was intended to say, "are the negative actions in MLK's life weighed against him so much that they out do the good he achieved during his life"???

In closing, there has been, and will only be One human that has lived or will ever live on this Earth and not succumb to the temptations of the devil. His name is Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23 - "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God".
 
I don't respect his personal behavior, nor some of his political beliefs (he was a socialist who believed in redistribution of wealth, reparations, affirmative action, massive social spending, opposed war and wanted military spending slashed to pay for social programs) but the dismantling of segregation is a major historic event that he played a very large part in.

Lets not forget other prominent figures of the time could hardly throw stones in this department...JFK, RFK, LBJ to name a few...
 
I think he was a great man who wanted to right a bunch of wrongs. Now please don't ask me about Jackson or Sharpton.
 
bermudasteel said:
Vader, you'll argue ANYTHING.

The point of the parable is that IF any of the men standing there - willing to stone the harlot for adultery, did not have a sin that they had not confessed - then Jesus said, "...he who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone..."

My original comment was not intended to incite an argument. It simply was intended to say, "are the negative actions in MLK's life weighed against him so much that they out do the good he achieved during his life"???

In closing, there has been, and will only be One human that has lived or will ever live on this Earth and not succumb to the temptations of the devil. His name is Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23 - "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God".
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That wasn't his intent at all. Do you really think Jesus was saying "If you have confessed your sins to God then please go ahead and stone her."? You really think that is his point? Jesus was saying that they were all guilty of adultery as well. They didn't even bring the guy she was caught with... probably because it was one of them. She was probably setup to test Jesus and to put him into a no win situation. Jesus turned the tables on them.

This situation has nothing to do with a full fledge ordained minister cheating with multiple women on his wife. He's a hypocrite. I understand he had good ideas and he was the voice of an entire race of people. But that doesn't change the fact that he was a womanizing cheater. If he were a republican or an evangelical preacher that wasn't a democrat he'd be raked over the coals. I don't remember anyone standing up for Jimmy Swaggart.
 
80 pages. . . minimum.

btw, no one is perfect or w/o sin. I have also heard that he may have not been faithful to his wife and such. It doesn't dismiss what he tried to do or say. Morally, he may have had a dark side, but his heart and mind was in a right place.
 
I don't remember anyone standing up for Jimmy Swaggart.
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I don't think Jimmy Swaggart ever did anything great that helped to change the course of human history, so less to balance it out.
 
Vader said:
If he were a republican or an evangelical preacher that wasn't a democrat he'd be raked over the coals.
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MLK was a registered Republican. Just sayin'.
 
Vader said:
That wasn't his intent at all. Do you really think Jesus was saying "If you have confessed your sins to God then please go ahead and stone her."? You really think that is his point? Jesus was saying that they were all guilty of adultery as well. They didn't even bring the guy she was caught with... probably because it was one of them. She was probably setup to test Jesus and to put him into a no win situation. Jesus turned the tables on them.

This situation has nothing to do with a full fledge ordained minister cheating with multiple women on his wife. He's a hypocrite. I understand he had good ideas and he was the voice of an entire race of people. But that doesn't change the fact that he was a womanizing cheater. If he were a republican or an evangelical preacher that wasn't a democrat he'd be raked over the coals. I don't remember anyone standing up for Jimmy Swaggart.
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If that's how you interpret it - I cannot change that...everyone has the power of choice - a God-given talent.

Nice talk.
 
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