We are in danger of losing America to the "triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism," warned Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is a great piece of history which is very relevant for today.
While I don't agree with the parts of the speech which seem to advocate a redistribution of wealth, I certainly agree that unprovoked war is a very foolish and wicked endeavor, which does economically hurt all of our citizens, including the poor. And the fact of the matter is, even with socialistic programs, the poor sometimes get the short end of the stick when the wealthy, such as war profiteers, unjustly get their hands on our tax dollars. The man who led the fight for the South Vietnamese chose Hitler to be his favorite historical character? And we supported him with our tax dollars! Sounds a lot like what is going on in the Middle East. We supported Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein, Iran, Osama Bin Laden, etc. with our tax dollars at one time or another.
While King derides, to some extent, the concept of property rights, later on he supports God given rights. Of course, the right to own property is one of the rights that God has given us. Perhaps this was a response against people who said that laws against "white only" restaurants were a violation of their property rights. Certainly, this is a problem that Dr. King did not have the correct solution to--at least it was partially incorrect. (Of course the government itself should be legally prevented from making such discriminatory restrictions.) But the fact that our government and many of its citizens had engaged in such hate-motivated racist policies is the perfect argument that our involvement in the Vietman War was pure hypocrisy. How could we go over there to give the Vietnamese people freedom when blacks and whites could not even go to same schools here in America? We don't have much of this brand of racism today, but have something that far worse--abortion. It is the new racism. How can we fight for justice and freedom over in some other country, while we murder our own babies by the thousands every day in our own country. We need to heed Jesus' warning to remove the plank from our own eyes! Like Dr. King, I believe that if you really want peace and you really want to help the people over in the Middle East (both Jews and Muslims) you should be supporting missionaries who will preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them. Dr. King pointed out that it cost "$500,000 to kill each enemy soldier". When the government prints money like crazy to pay for these wars and all the social programs and bureaucracy, there is less money (purchasing power) in your pocket to be used for doing God's will. Dr. King called this a "giant, demonic, destructive, suction tube" (taking money, lives, and our moral integrity with it). All this hysteria over Islam has caused people to forget that God is all powerful and in control. He will protect us (if we obey His Word) because he is more powerful than Islam. Communist governments fell by the will of God, not because of bombs and bullets, and same thing can happen to Muslims. I agree with Dr. King that dissent is patriotic, not disloyalty. Dr. King pointed out that it is inconsistent to be in favor of using violent means of solving the problems in other nations, while condemning it as a means of solving our own. Think about it. Why bomb cities in the Middle East, but not abortion clinics? What's the difference? Dr. King proved that non-violent means can be effective.
Come home, America.
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