Image from here, where you can read about the great Charles Albert Tindley.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase," said the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. I find that very meaningful and moving, but, in the interests of equal time, let's hear what the Huffington Post's sam harris has to say on the topic:
"It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum."
It's too bad that sam and other similarly enlightened bloggers weren't here to school King on the errors of his worldview. Sure, the great man of faith whom we honor today helped, in no tiny way, to bring about vastly important and necessary changes to our society, our democracy, and our vision of humanity--but, at the same time, he had an irrational faith in, well, faith. And it's possible that sam (or some other illustrious "bright") could have cured him of that irrationality.
Our loss. One can only imagine what a rational King would have sounded like. Maybe something like this: "I have a dream that all the people of the world will come to see how foolish it is to dream! I have a dream that all the citizens of our great land will have the wisdom to move forward into the darkness only when they're absolutely sure what's there--only after they've thoroughly and carefully tested the space before them. And consulted with a futurist. What kind of foolish person steps into the unknown? I mean, based on what? Faith? Please!"
Anyway, we can be sure that the logic and reason brigade is on its way to accomplishing King-sized things for our culture. Any moment now. I can feel it. Just give it... um....
Any... moment....
Okay, it's still early. We'll give the "brights" time to finish their coffee. Meanwhile, Happy Birthday, Reverend King! Oh, and our playlist includes the great man's favorite hymn, I Want to Be Like Jesus. In fact, it includes it twice. Oops. (I never claimed to be an expert zip-file maker.)
Click here for today's zip file: MLK Day, 2009
PLAYLIST
HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW (Martin-Gabriel)--Mahalia Jackson, 1958.
AN EVENING PRAYER (Battersby-Gabriel)--Mahalia Jackson, 1958.
WE SHALL OVERCOME (Tindley)--Mahalia Jackson.
I WANT TO BE LIKE JESUS (Spiritual)--Tuskegee Quartet, 1927.
HOW I GOT OVER (C. Ward)--Mahalia Jackson.
I WANT TO BE LIKE JESUS--Oops!
TAKE MY HAND PRECIOUS LORD (Thomas Dorsey)--Jimmy Dean.
Lee
10 comments:
Remember, religion poisons everything. Absolutely everything. Absolutely every religion. The book's title says so. God is not great!
Therefore, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. actually deeply poisoned American society. This forced State recognition of a religious figure who did such obvious ill to society must just be torture for the Brights[tm]. We must join with other white people fighting for the separation of Church and State by abolishing MLK Day and racial integration.
A while back, some on-light "brights" were explaining to me that MLK's great acts had nothing to do with religion, or at least nothing to do with Christianity in particular. After all, if something is good, it can't (by definition) be of religion.
This prevents brights (and other enemies of faith) from having to condemn people like MLK, Jr. or the good deeds they do. Because, if something is good, it can't be of religion.
I think they have it worked out so that Obama's brand of religion is actually secular spirituality. I mean, Obama can't be religious, because religion is bad, and that would make Obama bad, by extension. And their logical and rational brains couldn't handle that.
Meanwhile, Huff-Po, the site that printed harris' "Science Must Destroy Religion," is getting all excited over the first Christian to occupy the White House in eight years....
No better time than MLK Day to reflect on the good that faith can do. I always liked how Emerson put it: not rejecting science, as some (like sam harris?) seem to think we must do to be spiritual -- but instead "kindling" science with the fire of faith, wonder, poetry. An ichthyologist can know all the intricate details about how a fish evolved, how its metabolic processes work, how it fits into its ecosystem, etc. -- and still feel that sense of childlike wonder or awe at it all. One need not reject evolution or anything else scientific to feel that awe. I think many scientists do feel it; for many of them, that is the original motivation for devoting their lives to the particular things they study. Or, to get back to MLK, he could be coldly rational about the politics of protest -- no one was more sophisticated than he in anticipating the reactions his actions would elicit -- and yet still hold to that overarching faith that people might ultimately transcend it all and come together in love and justice. And for him, that faith was steeped in Christian teachings; anyone who denies that is just flat wrong.
Didn't mean to go off on all that; you just got me thinking. Mostly just wanted to say thanks for your thoughts, and for the (as usual) well-chosen songs. Am I remembering right that Mahalia Jackson was one of King's personal favorites?
Lee,
It reminds me of the "was John the Baptist sent from God?" question that Jesus posed to the Pharisees. The integrity of MLK forces New Atheists to redefine religion so that, by definition, it can cannot produce good and any religious person who produces good is doing so against their own religion, no matter how strongly they themselves may draw the association.
But you get into a lot of disingenuous territory when you start making arguments by definition. If we were to make the contrary argument, that New Atheism is by definition evil and therefore any higher moral and spiritual values such people may express are religious in nature, then they would get their noses bent out of shape. However, it's not like New Atheists are reknowned for their logical coherence.
No I don't like your new site, I can't download anything from "Savefile". I am getting a message that says "file is an application' then I get a little Safari icon that is useless. This is frustrating and irritating. Am I supposed to be on some secret list?
Um, no.... Sorry you're having trouble with Savefile. I just downloaded the file to see what would happen, and everything went without a hitch.
I'm using Mozilla Firefox on an HP computer. I recently heard from someone who was having trouble between Savefile and Safari, if you're using Safari....
I love and appreciate the musical selections to celebrate Dr. King's Day.
Thanks so much for all the work you do.
Thank you!
Hope you're following the best-of-Charles-Gabriel series, which I hope to resume on Sunday.
In other news, Google is back to not recognizing me. Hmm. But I know for a fact that I haven't been replaced by an impostor. I mean, not to my knowledge....
"God made Man unto his own Image & Likeness"
Really?
With so many ugly people on the planet He must look like some kinds freak!
That was really intelligent. Thanks.
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