“WE ARE AT the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly.”
Martin Luther King Jr. gave this stinging critique of the apathetic nature of both the U.S. church and the general public more than 40 years ago. While some things have changed for the better, the truth remains that the three evils of society that King named (racism, militarism, materialism) continue to pervade U.S. culture, crippling our moral and ethical foundation.
It is difficult to imagine that someone the FBI once labeled as “the most dangerous man in America” would one day have his own national holiday. Each year we celebrate the life of King with an incomplete and romanticized retelling of the impact he had on society during and after the civil rights movement. He dreamed of a better nation, but what was it about his dream that made him a nightmare to the U.S. government?
That is essentially the question that Cornel West attempts to answer with his latest book, The Radical King. This is the 10th book in the King Legacy series, a partnership between the estate of Martin Luther King Jr. and Beacon Press. West curated 23 selections, ranging from King’s Palm Sunday sermon on Mohandas K. Gandhi to his speech titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” which he delivered exactly one year to the day before he was assassinated. West utilizes this wide array of King’s most important writings and orations to illustrate just how radical he was.
According to West, “The radical King was a warrior for peace on the domestic and global battlefields. He was a staunch anti-colonial and anti-imperial thinker and fighter. His revolutionary commitment to nonviolent resistance in America and abroad tried to put a brake on the escalating militarism running amok across the globe. As a decade-long victim of the vicious and vindictive FBI, King was a radical libertarian as well as having closeted democratic socialist leanings. His commitment to the precious rights and liberties for all was profound.”
Many Christians like to concentrate on King’s commitment to peace and nonviolent protest. This focus can lead to the meek and docile version of King that is sometimes presented in the public sphere. It is eerily similar to the treatment we give Jesus. King’s commitment to radical love came out of his radical commitment to the gospel and out of his radical commitment to imitate Christ. This commitment is what allowed King to be unapologetic in his prophetic criticism of U.S. society.
Throughout The Radical King we are given examples of the depth to which King loved. In a sermon King reminds the congregation that when he speaks of love he is not “referring to some sentimental or affectionate emotion. It would be nonsense to urge [people] to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive goodwill.” King continues, “we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word agape. ... Agape is not a weak, passive love. It is love in action. Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community. ... When I am commanded to love, I am commanded to restore community, to resist injustice, and to meet the needs of my brothers [and sisters].” The type of radical love that King embodied emboldened him to go head to head with the greatest empire this world has ever seen.
Since Michael Brown was killed by police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014, there have been more than 900 demonstrations nationwide in protest of police brutality and racist law enforcement departments. The release of The Radical King in the midst of mass protest is timely. This is precisely the King whose words can be the sustenance for today’s movement. One must wonder, however, as West wonders, “Does America have the capacity to hear and heed the radical King or must America sanitize King in order to evade and avoid his challenge?”
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