Happy African birthday, MLK Jr and me!

Perspectives

Martin Luther King Jr and I share the same birthday some 54 years apart and we share many ideals.  He was so well-spoken on the topic of inequality, injustice, and true freedom... topics so pertinent to Africa today that as I celebrate my own birth and blessings in Africa it makes me consider how his efforts changed America and how a similar effort still needs a mouthpiece like him in Africa now.  Tomorrow Americans celebrate his day (his real birthday is today, just so you know) and yet Africans unaware perhaps of his significance, go about a normal work day tomorrow. 

Dinner with Lisa last night

What MLK realized, which is different than many relief efforts that take place throughout third world countries, is that real long-term change is rooted in essential change of the heart, mind and soul.  His call for liberty in America grew out of a knowledge not just of personal injustices and a desire for those to be righted, but out of a very biblical view of where justice, equality and goodness arise.  Martin Luther King Jr, named after Martin Luther a Christian reformer known for refuting rituals and false doctrines by returning to the Bible as the irrefutable source of truth, knew the Bible well.  He knew that manmade definitions, constructs, and relationships were faulty outside of a person's right relationship with his/her Maker.

Birthday bfast with waffles and omelettes!

His most famous quote is "Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"  Which is followed in the Declaration of Independence by "...that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." - all of which is based on a Biblical view of all men being made in the image of God.

Formerly a 5 star hotel... many buildings have assumed this look

Any other view of men is wrong, not because MLK Jr says it is so, not because I want it to be so, and certainly not because I have been persecuted (like MLK Jr and so much of the African world I have encountered) and am seeking vindication.  It is wrong to allow injustices, because in the Sunday School answer that MLK Jr also believed, 'The Bible says so.'  Some people follow the UN Declaration of Human Rights, others daily read the Human Rights Watch, different people donate to various wonderful charitable organizations like International Justice Mission.  None of those things are efficacious or good without recognizing 1: nothing apart from the Bible

Zionists are a large religious group here.  (left)

is infallible and as it says 2: your and my heart are the beginning of what is wrong with the world so 3: to change other hearts and lives, we must first change our own.









If you're interested in reading more of where the Bible supports viewing all men as equally valuable, calls for us to fight injustice, and why our hearts need to be changed see below:
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Prov 14:31 Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

Jeremiah 22:3 Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place

Psalm 12:5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”


Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Jeremiah 7:5-7 "If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,  if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place,
and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,  then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever"

1 Cor 6:9-11 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men  nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.