A Martin Luther King Day Reminder: Religion Matters in Public Life

Today, as we seem so divided by our disagreements, we would do well to remember Reverend King’s words.

These are tough and divisive times. We’ve lived through a pandemic, riots, social unrest, and an often-toxic winner-takes-all political culture. There are those who seek to divide us by race, religion, political tribe, or even vaccination status. Civil disagreement — the quaint notion of viewing ideological opponents as decent neighbors who happen to disagree in good faith — is in short supply. No one seems to extend grace or the presumption of good intentions to the other side, and certainly not to one’s own critics.

Martin Luther King Day brings us a timely reminder that we have made it through much darker days. The fruits of that historic moment prove that there are better paths to overcoming our differences. And King’s writings remind us that religion — and religious liberty — are central to that story.

Reverend King once explained that in “the quiet recesses” of his heart, he is “fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher.” And it was as a clergyman that he wrote his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail to answer critics of his nonviolent demonstrations against segregation. Although King of course lived in intensely divisive times, he opened the letter by explaining that he believed his critics were “men of genuine good will” whose “criticisms are sincerely set forth” and thus would be answered in what King hoped would be “patient and reasonable terms.”