Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A time to reflect on how the example of a great man challenges us and invites us to be better than we are.
Also a time for people who hate living civil rights activists to remind us how much they prefer dead civil rights activists.
King came from the Christian tradition, which means he followed a Jewish rabbi named Yehoshua.
Like King, Yehoshua was considered a rabble-rouser and troublemaker, beloved by marginalized people and hated by comfortable people during his life.
There are other similarities.
Both men were persecuted and falsely accused and killed by the dominant economic superpowers of their day.
After their deaths, both men were revered by the states that killed them, and people operating in a spirit that opposed them claimed redemption through them.
Redemption.
Because his position as a moral giant has been firmly established, we will today be subjected to a parade of politicians who claim to revere King’s life, who also happen to be working to demolish everything King ever stood for: voting rights, social/economic justice, equality.
They’re mostly men, mostly white, mostly Christian—and they’ll be paying him their own form of tribute.
I’ll paraphrase this tribute.
The tribute involves a solemn reminder that between the dates of his life and his death, King said exactly one thing, which is that we should not judge people by the color of their skin but the content of their character.
By this they means that there is no such thing as racism anymore, and therefore anyone who suffers in our perfect and absolved land suffers because of a defect of character, not because of our national sins, which have been forgiven, even if they still seem extremely present.
They aren't actually very sharp on what King actually said, which is that his dream was that his *daughters* would one day be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
They aren't sharp at all about the uncomfortable fact that the rest of the speech is about how America wasn't living up to that dream—"uncomfortable" because that fact would inevitably highlight the ways America still isn't living up to it.
It's almost as if these people, who act in a spirit that opposes everything King worked for, believe that King took the sin of racism into his body, and in his murder, expunged it, taking our original sin of racism away, even though that sin is still extremely and observably present.
It's as if they believe King did for our nation what they believe the Jewish rabbi Yehoshua did for them, which is give them a redemption they never have to pay for.
I'd observe that these are people who seem opposed to paying any costs, especially for redemption.
Redemption.
Here in the United States, we don't talk about reparation much, but we are very interested in finding paths to redemption.
But OK. I’m game. Let’s talk about redemption.
I wonder how many people who ask for redemption actually want it.
https://armoxon.substack.com/p/sabotage-part-14-the-vineyard-and
And I think the work of reparation—including paying the costs of repair—is redeeming work—the only path to redemption I know. That’s my answer to those whose priority, during a time of rising atrocity, is establishing a path for redemption.
You want redemption? You truly want to redeem?
Repair and pay.
@JuliusGoat Prior to the 2020 election results I was in (actual) dialogue with multiple MAGA supporters. When their side lost I invited them to regain their authority by repenting and doing the work of reconciliation. Brother, you have never seen people as offended as they were. Repentance is perceived as an existential threat to the ego — which of course it’s *supposed* to be, but some cannot imagine that could be healthy.
