from: Wikipedia King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta,_Georgia>, to the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr.<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Sr.> and Alberta Williams King<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Williams_King>.[2]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-2> King's given name at birth was Michael King, and his father was also born Michael King, but, after a period of gradual transition on the elder King's part, he changed both his and his son's names in 1934.[3]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-The_King_Center-3>[4]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKing199230-31-4> The senior King was inspired during a trip to Germany for that year's meeting of the Baptist World Alliance<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptist_World_Alliance> (BWA). While visiting sites associated with reformation<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation> leader, Martin Luther<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther>, attendees also witnessed the rise of Nazism<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism>. The BWA conference issued a resolution condemning anti-Semitism<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Semitism>, and the senior King gained deepened appreciation for the power of Luther's protest.[5]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-5> The elder King would later state that "Michael" was a mistake by the attending physician to his son's birth,[6]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Snopes-6> and the younger King's birth certificate was altered to read "Martin Luther King Jr." in 1957 King was initially skeptical of many of Christianity's claims. At the age of 13, he denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_of_Jesus> during Sunday school<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_school>.[18]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Autobiography-18> From this point, he stated, "doubts began to spring forth unrelentingly."[19]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKing19986-19>[18]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Autobiography-18> However, he later concluded that the Bible has "many profound truths which one cannot escape" and decided to enter the seminary<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminary>.[18]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Autobiography-18> For a time, he was interested in Walter Rauschenbusch<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rauschenbusch>'s "social gospel... ...in Boston, King befriended a small cadre of local ministers his age, and sometimes guest pastored at their churches, including the Reverend Michael Haynes, associate pastor at Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury (and younger brother of jazz drummer Roy Haynes). The young men often held bull sessions in their various apartments, discussing theology, sermon style, and social issues. As a Christian minister, King's main influence was Jesus Christ<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ> and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses. King's faith was strongly based in Jesus' commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule>, loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His nonviolent<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolence> thought was also based in the injunction to turn the other cheek<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_the_other_cheek> in the Sermon on the Mount<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount>, and Jesus' teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52).[245]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-246> In his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_from_Birmingham_Jail>, King urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus' "extremist" love, and also quoted numerous other Christian pacifist<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_pacifism> authors, which was very usual for him. In another sermon, he stated: 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.[246]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-247>[247]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-248> King was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi> and his success with nonviolent activism, and as a theology student, King described Gandhi as being one of the "individuals who greatly reveal the working of the Spirit of God".[254]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-255> King had "for a long time ... wanted to take a trip to India."[255]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-256> With assistance from Harris Wofford, the American Friends Service Committee<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Friends_Service_Committee>, and other supporters, he was able to fund the journey in April 1959.[256]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-257>[257]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKing199213-258> The trip to India affected King, deepening his understanding of nonviolent resistance<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonviolent_resistance> and his commitment to America's struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, "Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity." King's admiration of Gandhi's nonviolence did not diminish in later years. He went so far as to hold up his example when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, hailing the "successful precedent" of using nonviolence "in a magnificent way by Mohandas K. Gandhi to challenge the might of the British Empire ... He struggled only with the weapons of truth, soul force, non-injury and courage."[258]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-259> Another influence for King's nonviolent method was Henry David Thoreau<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau>'s essay On Civil Disobedience<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Disobedience_(Thoreau)> and its theme of refusing to cooperate with an evil system.[259]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-260> He also was greatly influenced by the works of Protestant theologians Reinhold Niebuhr<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr> and Paul Tillich,[260]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-261> and said that Walter Rauschenbusch<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Rauschenbusch>'s Christianity and the Social Crisis left an "indelible imprint" on his thinking by giving him a theological grounding for his social concerns.[261]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Ansbro_1982_p._163-262>[262]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Baldwin_Burrow_Fairclough_2013_p._133-263> King was moved by Rauschenbusch's vision of Christians spreading social unrest in "perpetual but friendly conflict" with the state, simultaneously critiquing it and calling it to act as an instrument of justice.[263]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Long_2002_p._53-264> He was apparently unaware of the American tradition<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifism_in_the_United_States> of Christian pacifism<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_pacifism> exemplified by Adin Ballou<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adin_Ballou> and William Lloyd Garrison<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lloyd_Garrison>[264]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Perry_1973_p._4-265> King frequently referred to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon_on_the_Mount> as central for his work.[265]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Burrow_2014_p._313-266>[266]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Deats_Lenker_Perry_2004_p._37-267>[267]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Stott_2004_p._149-268>[262]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-Baldwin_Burrow_Fairclough_2013_p._133-263> King also sometimes used the concept of "agape<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape>" (brotherly Christian love).[268]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-269> However, after 1960, he ceased employing it in his writings.[269]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-270> Even after renouncing his personal use of guns, King had a complex relationship with the phenomenon of self-defense in the movement. He publicly discouraged it as a widespread practice, but acknowledged that it was sometimes necessary.[270]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-271> Throughout his career King was frequently protected by other civil rights activists who carried arms, such as Colonel Stone Johnson<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Stone_Johnson>,[271]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-272> Robert Hayling<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine_Movement>, and the Deacons for Defense and Justice<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacons_for_Defense_and_Justice>.[272]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-273>[273]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#cite_note-274> -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <RadicalCentrism@googlegroups.com> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. 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