Not only does Scripture enjoin the state’s just punishment of oppression, but for King it also declares that such measures must lead not to mere retaliation but to a “beloved community” that anticipates the coming kingdom of God. Both punishment of and protest against injustice, however, were to have a common goal of reform and reconciliation. These texts serve to support King’s contention, on the one hand, that the just state was called to enact God’s judgment by punishing oppressive rulers who opposed divine justice, and, on the other hand, that the unjust state itself would be punished by God through the geo-political sphere. In doing so, he binds his own world to that of Scripture, but he remains remarkably sensitive to the context of his chosen texts. King employs Scripture in public speeches and writings to re-contextualize texts from across the scriptural canon and redirect their address to the specific circumstances of the struggle for civil rights. Many know King’s frequent citation of Amos 5 in his hopeful call to work “until justice rolls down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream,” but fewer recall his use of Psalm 46 as a warning to unjust leaders that God would “rise up and break the backbone” of their power. In this faith-fueled fight for social and political change, King believed God’s justice to include God’s judgment, some of which would be carried out both by and against the state, and King repeatedly envisioned this justice and judgment through pointed appropriations of scriptural texts to his own circumstances. repeatedly brought the Christian scriptures into the public square to oppose oppression and inspire resistance, and he proved to be a figure in whom the lines between “public” and “religious” were consistently and intentionally blurred. Breaking the Backbone of Oppressive Power: Martin Luther King, Jr., the State, and the Wrath of Godĭuring the United States Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr.
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