Introduction
Martin Luther King was a significant figure in the history of the United States due to his contribution to the promotion of human rights movements and racial equality facilitation. As a preacher, he had a solid background and an influential perspective on the way religion was used by the US society and political decision-makers. In Strength to Love, King presents a number of church sermons establishing the importance of cultivating ultimate love inspired by Christianity as a source of the good capable of overcoming the atrocities of the world. This paper is designed to explore the perspectives on the religious experiences of the USA presented by Martin Luther King to identify his central message of the importance of love toward one another.
Discussion
One of the dominant messages prevailing in Martin Luther King’s book Strength to Love is the emphasis on the ambiguity between softmindedness and toughmindedness in the religious teachings in America. King opens his book with a sermon on toughmindedness as a combination of “characteristics of the serpent and the dove,” implying being wise and harmless at the same time (1). King states that being wise as a serpent means demonstrating a tough mind capable of critical thinking and objective judgment (2-3). On the other hand, possessing the characteristics of the dove implies being soft and subjective in one’s opinions, relying on a stronger position as the correct one. For King, Jesus wants people to be capable of combining these binary characteristics in human life to ensure a loving and accepting society (4). However, the author acknowledges that the reality of American society is far from being compliant with such consideration.
Indeed, the inability of the general public at large to use their critical thinking and toughmindedness for objective judgment is a cause of recurring bias. According to King, since a softminded person fears change, “softmindedness often invades religion,” excluding the opportunity of using one’s reason (3). In the writer’s opinion, softmindedness has been repeatedly used by religious decision-makers as a means for manipulating the general public to impose control and eliminate any opportunity to instill change against the ruling power. In particular, as King states, “through edicts and bulls, inquisitions and ex-communications, the church has attempted to prorogue truth and place an impenetrable stone wall in the path of the truth-seeker” (3). In this regard, the cultivation of the lack of reason has been a significant characteristic of the American religious experience.
Importantly, racial prejudice and social injustices are the results of the adverse implications of using religion as a tool for political processes. In the book, King emphasizes that conformity to the imposed rules and biased opinions led to the exclusion and suffering of African Americans due to their difference. Indeed, King directly states that African Americans have been “confined in an oppressive prison of segregation and discrimination” (101). However, it is essential to resist such a manifestation of oppression while remaining good Christians. In the preacher’s opinion, combating prejudice should be based on the perception of religion not as a source of compliance and fear of change but as a power to fight against atrocities using love as a tool. Indeed, for King, “to be a Christian, one must take up his cross, with all of its difficulties and agonizing and tragedy packed content, and carry it until that very cross leaves its marks” (18). It is through suffering one can achieve freedom, which must come as a result of rethinking the religious experiences of the past.
Furthermore, the author’s account of the history of using religion as a tool for oppression demonstrates how this tool might be rearranged into a means of fighting against discrimination. King states that formerly cultivated bitterness and cynicism are not productive in achieving freedom (101). Instead, it is essential to cultivate non-violent approaches inspired by God’s love. Indeed, one should be “thankful that our God combines in his nature a creative synthesis of love and justice which will lead us through life’s dark valleys and into sunlit pathways of hope and fulfillment” (King 9). The elimination of atrocities inherent in the way religion has been used in America and substituting it with the messages of love and acceptance are the keys to a striving society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the discussion presented in this paper has revealed that Martin Luther King was critical in his accounts of American religious experiences. The author claimed that the abundance of religious interpretations present in the US, as well as the manipulative use of such interpretations by politicians at different stages of the US development, were hazardous. Indeed, in King’s opinion, the long history of America’s use of religion for political purposes, the Bible has been interpreted solely as a tool of control, manipulation, and the denial of change. However, the preacher emphasizes that such experiences have led to atrocities, social segregation, discrimination, and racial prejudice, which might be overcome by the proper use of religion and faith. Christianity should be treated as a source of love and support to instill a non-violent fight for freedom and equality in US society.
Work Cited
King, Martin Luther. Strength to Love. Pocket Books, 1964.