Each April 4th, we must remember Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the day of his martyrdom. With his death, America lost its last major leader who was willing to defy the authorities and risk imprisonment, and worse, for his cause.
Listen to this post: Twilight Patriot - 4 April 2019
America won
her independence because of the bravery of the Founding Fathers. It could not
have been done without a generation of men willing to say: “We must, indeed,
all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Abolitionism
never would have triumphed without men and women like Frederick Douglas,
Harriet Tubman, Sherman Booth, and John Brown, who risked imprisonment and
worse in order to aid the escape of as many slaves as possible. And although
President Lincoln professed a great respect for the laws, he would never have
emancipated anyone if he hadn’t been willing to defy the Supreme Court.
The
enemies of freedom gain power on the same principle. Lenin and Stalin both
spent years in Siberia for their early revolutionary activities. Hitler and his
lieutenants served time in prison after the Beer Hall Putsch. In the end, these
men supplanted the old rulers because, what they lacked in decency, they made
up for in courage.
The
defenders of liberty cannot afford to be less dedicated to their cause than its
foes are to theirs.
It is
reasonable, therefore, for Americans to inquire whether such bravery has lasted
into modern times. What was the most recent movement in our national politics
whose leader was willing to risk imprisonment and death rather than doom his
cause to failure by treading carefully? Which activist wrote a letter from a
jail cell to denounce any moderate who “paternalistically believes he can set
the timetable for another man's freedom?” Who, by doing such things, led his people
to victory and gained near-universal acceptance for his principles?
It was
the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who did those things, and that’s why I
believe that he is worthy of being known as America’s last great statesmen.
Some
people might argue that King’s nonviolence precludes him from being on the same
list with Washington, but I don’t think so. Reverend King had chosen his strategy
of nonviolent resistance, and it was a winning strategy – it brought down
segregation in America. Nonviolence can’t bring down all injustices – Nazism, for instance, was out of its purview – but
even against the Nazis, nonviolent resistors like Corrie ten Boom saved many
lives.
The
important element here lies in resistance,
in defying the authorities and holding to principles which you will not give up
even if you are ordered to do so. No modern American politician holds such
principles; they will yield on anything if a court issues an injunction. Not so
with Reverend King, who defied injunctions against his assemblies and marches. “We
aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around,” he said, “we aren't
going to let any injunction turn us around.”
Here was
a man who was willing to get arrested, beaten, or shot rather than yield his
ground, and he stood at the head of thousands of followers were likewise
willing to get arrested, beaten, or shot.
You
cannot bring down the great injustices by opposing them through strictly legal
means. Forms of dissent that are permitted are permitted for a reason. A
resistor who does what isn’t
permitted is a threat to the authorities, whether that resistance is violent or
not.
Reverend
King understood this, as should every minister in a religion whose scriptures
say that “We ought to obey God rather than man.” It is sad to see that so many modern
Christians take the opposite approach, and teach that it is a virtue to obey
man’s laws no matter what. But the only reason they’re even capable of practicing their watered-down
Christianity is because people like Peter and Paul chose to practice the other form of Christianity, and got
crucified for it.
On the
day before his martyrdom, Reverend King gave his famous speech, “I’ve been to
the Mountain-Top.” In it, he exhorted his followers, “Develop a kind of
dangerous unselfishness.”
He told
the story of the Good Samaritan, and speculated on why the Priest and Levite
passed the wounded man by. He talked of having gone to the Holy Land and seen
the road where the story was set, and how it was a winding, dangerous road.
Perhaps the Levite, fearing that if he paused his journey, he might be robbed
as well, asked himself: “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”
“But then,” said Reverend King, “the Good
Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: If I do not stop to help this
man, what will happen to him?”
And
Reverend King believed that, by asking that question and standing up for their
brothers’ rights, his people could win their struggle for equality. “We've got
to say to the nation,” King said, “We know how it’s coming out. For when people
get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for
it, there is no stopping point short of victory.”
Americans
need to remember Reverend King and the sacrifices that he made – and which no
leader with his level of influence is willing to make today. And we need to
tell the stories of the men and women in our history who likewise resisted
despotism. The fight for freedom has taken many forms throughout the years, and
it is only by remembering a diverse array of heroes, and their many tales of
resistance, both violent and nonviolent, that we can prepare ourselves to
struggle for liberty in our own time.
We need
to talk about Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty, George Washington and the
Continental Army, and Thomas Jefferson and the Kentucky Resolutions. We need to
talk about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas. And we need to talk about
Sherman Booth, the Wisconsin abolitionist whose successful advocacy for nullification
of the fugitive slave laws led to years of arrests by federal marshals, and
years of the state militia repeatedly setting him free.
How I
wish that the modern pro-life movement had a Sherman Booth, but alas, it does
not! Nor is such a leader to be found in any of the modern political causes
whose supporters wrongly see themselves as the successors to the
revolutionaries and the abolitionists.
This is
not to say that the modern injustices aren’t as severe as what previous
generations dealt with. Rather, the difference is that modern activists aren’t
willing to make sacrifices nearly as big as those made by America’s past
troublemakers.
The
various political movements which presently squabble over this country’s
direction are not led by the likes of Washington, Lincoln, or Reverend King. You
cannot become a great statesman by moderating your positions to avoid
controversy, or by never putting yourself in personal danger, or by always submitting
to your self-appointed superiors in the courts. Reverend King knew this, and we
would all do well to remember him on the fourth day of April, and take time to
contemplate his bravery, his resistance, and his martyrdom.

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