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January 19 will be Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sadly, it was not until 2000 that every state observed the memorial holiday. However, for me the greatest omission in the flood of tributes and biographies for this great man was the fact that most of them omit the fact that this man was a minister. He is always described as a great political leader of the civil rights struggle but only rarely is he described as a man of God whose entire mission was to speak the words of God to a broken world.

I think the fact that people often omit King’s title as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was the result of the widespread feeling that politics and religion should be kept apart. King never accepted that dichotomy. His politics was a part of his faith and his faith led him to demand nonviolent political change.

Listen to his words. This from one of his sermons:

“Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don't plan to run for any political office. I don't plan to do anything but remain a preacher. And what I'm doing in this struggle, along with many others, grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the whole man.”

King’s political faith or his religious politics (take your pick) was suffused not only with the teachings of the Bible but also with the religions of the east. The doctrine of nonviolence (ahimsa) is part of both Buddhist and Hindu teachings and King absorbed that teaching. As the Buddha taught, “The only way that wrath can be conquered is by non-wrath.” King was friendly with the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh whom he personally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

King also used a proof text in Matthew 5:38-48:

“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also.”

My view is that nonviolence is like vegetarianism. It is one of those spiritual goals we set for ourselves that is sadly impossible to fulfill on a large scale because of the realities of our need to defend ourselves with force. I can live with that. I think faith is not only about teaching us what we can do but teaching us what we cannot do now but may grow to be able to do some day. This is the reason I consider King not just a political leader but also a prophet in our time.

I am deeply moved by King’s embrace of love as a powerful force for social change:

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”

As President Reagan said in his signing the bill making King’s birthday a national holiday:

“Each year on Martin Luther King Day, let us not only recall the REVEREND Dr. King, but rededicate ourselves to the Commandments he believed in and sought to live every day: Thou shall love thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. And I just have to believe that all of us -- if all of us, young and old, Republicans and Democrats, do all we can to live up to those Commandments, then we will see the day when Dr. King's dream comes true.

King’s last public words before his assassination on April 4, 1968 felt like they were words spoken by Moses:

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land…”

His friend Mahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", at the funeral. I believe that God did indeed take his hand.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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