Will the Dream Become a Reality?

by Matt Harmon

Few individuals in the 20th century have had a greater impact on our nation than Martin Luther King Jr.

We as a culture have the responsibility to see that the changes Dr. King fought for so diligently will live on for generations to come. Despite his dream to see people of all different ethnic backgrounds living together in society peacefully, and the efforts made in the past 30 years to make that dream a reality, we would all agree that the fulfillment of this dream has not been reached. This raises the obvious question of what has gone wrong?

Various reasons could be cited. But I am convinced that if we are to discover what lies at the foundation of the problem, we need to examine two key assumptions that helped form the basis of Dr. King's views on racial equality. Both of these key pillars to King's belief system were rooted in the Bible, which should come as no surprise to us considering the fact that he was a pastor first and foremost.

The first assumption is that we as human beings have been created in the image of God. All of humanity has significance and value. Since every individual human being is created in the image of God, every individual is entitled to the same dignity and respect. This is what sets us apart from the rest of creation; we were created with the specific purpose of reflecting God's character. Because every individual of every ethnic group was created in the image of God, there's no room for racism. Racism is a sin that grieves the heart of God deeply and in no way can be supported by any responsible reading of the Bible.

The second assumption which acted as a pillar of King's belief system was the idea that all of us as human beings are ultimately accountable to God for the way in which we live our lives. There are consequences for the evil things that we do in this life. Because each of us must ultimately answer to God, we should make every effort to ensure that our society reflects the justice of God himself.

These two key assumptions helped form the basis of King's understanding of racial equality. The reason King did not mention these ideas very prominently in his speeches is the fact that these two key ideas were part of our cultural belief system thirty years ago. An overwhelming majority of our culture agreed that each human being bears the image of God and is ultimately accountable to God for his or her actions. Yet people have been slow to apply these two beliefs to the issue of racial equality.

And now, in our culture, many individuals no longer believe that every individual human being is created in the image of God. The tragedy of this conclusion is if life indeed is merely the product of a Darwinian struggle for the survival of the fittest, it would logically follow that racism would be acceptable, which it is not.

I wholeheartedly share Dr. King's dream of a society of people from many different ethnic backgrounds living together joyfully in a community. Yet I do not see how this dream will ever become reality if our culture continues to deny these two key pillars of King's belief system: humanity created in the image of God, and human accountability to God. It is my hope that our culture will once again embrace these ideas and move ever closer to the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream.

For more on Dr. King's Dream, see the feature article Let's Give the Dream New Life.

I have a question or comment...