A Legacy Remembered

Sometimes it seems hard to look beyond the legend that has become Dr. King. Today, he is a national icon, appearing on t-shirts, books, stamps, and monuments.
Yet behind this legend I attempt to see a real man, a man who attempted to stand up to centuries worth of oppression, a man who took the courage to say to those around him that all men were indeed created in equality, in the image of God, their Creator, and were thus men and women worthy of respect.
Dr. King challenged the status quo. He was unwilling to accept the Bible and the Christian faith as a method of repression, as a tool for enforcing "separate but equal."
As you can imagine, Dr. King has always been a hero of mine. Yet on this MLK day, I have really tried to look beyond the simplistic understandings of a man cloaked in legend, to the true man, a man tested and tried; a father, a brother, a son.
It is people like Dr. King, like William Wilberforce, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, like Oscar Romero, these individuals who stood up to the common status of "Christianity" in there days, men and women who were willing to ask the question "could we be missing all of the picture that Jesus paints for us?" As I step into a Christian world divided by anger and fear, I praise God for the heroes that have gone before me. Unlike Dr. King and those other men and women that fought for equal civil rights for African Americans, I do not have to fear being lynched or killed because of the color of my skin. Compared to these individuals, my life and journey is so easy.
Yet there are still difficulties, there still remains a long journey ahead in this fight for equality, not only within our society, but also within our churches. I yearn for the day when the era of "don't ask, don't tell" in our pews is history. But for now, I look to those before me, those like Dr. King who said no to status quo, no to injustice, and no to the repression and subjugation of a group of people. Thank you Dr. King for the hope that you bring me.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
~Martin Luther King Jr.