Or so Thom of Semper Reformanda thinks as he asks his readers to pray for me because of my Martin Luther the King post. He says:
Here are two links to two great posts on Martin Luther King — the first over at Michael Westmoreland-White’s Levellers, and the second over at my cuñada’s (sister-in-law’s) blog, Tia Meg. I commend them both to you. The first is written by a man who wrote his doctoral dissertation on King, and the second by a young woman who, as a Mexican immigrant to the U.S., knows relatively little about King. The contrast is instructive. After reading these posts, I’d like you to check out this post and pray for the guy what wrote it. He needs your prayers.Then pray for me, that I’d be half as faithful in my faithfulness as MLK was faithful even in his unfaithfulness. (Italics mine)
Now let me just say that I’m happy to have any and everyone pray for me because God knows I do need it, but I think as it relates to this specific request, the call for prayer is without merit. As I see it there are two things that could have led Thom to make his remark:
-
My statement in the body of the post that I’ve never been a fan of MLK.
-
My reply to Jason Oliver Evans in the comments that I’ve never been big on pacifism so MLK (along with Gandhi) doesn’t impress me in that regard.
If the first is what caused Thom’s request for prayer on my behalf then I definitely have to decline those prayers. I see absolutely nothing wrong with not idolizing Martin Luther the King. Sure, he accomplished much for blacks in America and I think that is certainly commendable, but his accomplishments don’t necessitate that I jump on the MLK bandwagon and pledge allegiance to him.
If the second is the cause then I wonder why Thom waited until now to seek prayer for me. He’s known my stance on pacifism for a little while now (see this post and the comments that followed).
Whatever prompted him to make the request, I have to be honest in saying that I find it disingenuous at best. It’s little things like this that force me to agree with Doug Chaplin when he says: “Christian pacifism as I have encountered it is often unutterably smug in claiming the moral high-ground, and implying that it is a superior form of Christianity.” I can come to no other conclusion from reading Thom’s comments. This is exactly the impression that I got.
B”H
