Prophetic Legacy MLK

A soul generated by love.
The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Harvard Divinity School

Martin Luther King Seminar. 2011
Professor: Preston Williams.
Student: Jose M Segura S.J.
The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr
Jose M Segura S.J.
Contents
1.
Introduction: ......................................................................................................................................... 2
2.
Martin Luther King as a Prophet. .......................................................................................................... 4

a.
Nationwide, international, inter-denominational and inter-religious recognition. ............................ 4
b.
Interiorly configured as a prophet and recognized as such. .............................................................. 7
3.
The Image of God as source of dignity and the Beloved Community................................................. 11
4.
Image of God: ............................................................................................................................. 11
b.
Beloved community: ................................................................................................................... 15
Prophetic denunciation....................................................................................................................... 16
5.
6.
a.
a.
Maladjusted, dissatisfied ............................................................................................................. 17
b.
Trouble-rouser and agitator:........................................................................................................ 21
c.
Extremist ..................................................................................................................................... 22
My area of application: The social reality of Immigration in Spain. ................................................... 27

a.
International Media Reports on Spain: ........................................................................................... 28
b.
The report of a Catholic Ngo that work in Social Justice ............................................................... 29

As way of Conclusion: ......................................................................................................................... 32
Jose M Segura S.J.
1. Introduction:
The thesis of this paper is that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) was a
paradigmatic modern prophet of the Kingdom of God and that his prophetic ministry of
compassionate maladjustment could light the way for the mission of the Church today.1 The first
thing to be noted is that King was a preacher, an organizer, and a demonstrator, not a professor.
Thus he left us no systematic theology to summarize his ideas.2 In this paper I will try to flesh
out some of the terms King steadfastly used, in order to suggest ways his ministry can contribute
to illuminate the mission of the Church in 21st century Western Europe.
Since King was a genuine prophet, he developed an imagery of his own to awaken an
America sleeping through the revolution of social justice. Relying on his prophetic vision of the
Beloved community as universal brotherhood and on the theological concept of Imago Dei,
MLK grew maladjusted with the racial discrimination and with the suffering of the poor in a
wealthy America. The contrast between these prophetic visions and the reality of suffering and
discrimination triggered MLKs call for awareness and compelled him as a prophet to stand up
for social change. King performed his prophetic denunciation with Christian compassion, with
the extremism of love through the method of nonviolence. This is the great contribution that
MLK can offer to a public theology in Europe today: the prophetic determination to be called a
radical, an extremist, a rabble-rouser for the sake of the Kingdom of God, for the sake of the
Beloved Community.3
King thought of God as relentlessly compassionate and faithful in every moment. Such a God does not want evil to destroy
persons and communities. Kings God was defined more by goodness and compassion than by sheer power. (Rufus Burrow
2006, 98)
2
(Ramsay 1986, 45). Likewise In (Bryan 1999, 15) I am many things to many people: civil rights leader, agitator, an orator, but
in the quiet recess of my heart, I am fundamentally a clergyman, a Baptist preacher.
3
See Love, Law, and Civil disobedience, in (James M. Washington 1986, 47).
Jose M Segura S.J.
The example of Martin Luther Kings compassionate awareness which sought the healing
of persons while condemning the structures, and was concerned with the liberation of both
oppressors and oppressed, is a touchstone for the Church in general and for political and
liberation theology in particular.4 To demonstrate these points, I will single out some categories
of MLKs public theology that can define the prophetic role that Christian political theology
should have in modern society today. Effectively, we need to recover MLKs prophetic standing.
The existence in Europe of a large variety of second class citizens (Gays, Immigrants, Women)
gives painful actuality to Kings legacy.5 MLKs testimony is a cry for the Church to stand up
and march, denounce, advocate and identify her cause with the poor, the homeless, and those left
at the margins of modern societies as MLK did. I cannot stress enough that this cry to the
conversion of the Church came out of his love for her, is in that sense that he is an example.6
Concretely, I claim that those prophetic and provocative terms used by MLK that fleshed
out his prophetic Christian life (such as: maladjusted-dissatisfied, extremist, trouble maker or
rabble-rouser), are theological political categories that should be part of a political theology that
aims to be prophetic in our times. Methodologically, in order to limit the scope of a study
otherwise immense, I have applied two criteria to single out some specific references among
MLKs material. First, I have focused on MLKs homilies, speeches or writings from the last
stage of his life. Second, since the area of future pastoral application of this work is Europe, I
have applied, as second restriction over the first one, that the addressees of MLK comprised a
general audience. Eventually, I will make references to some especially prophetic acts that MLK
4
For King àgape is related to the defeat of social injustice by enabling persons to focus on defeating systems rather than
persons. (Baker-Fletcher 1993, 129); Kings vision of all human being created in the image of God demanded the
reconstructive force necessary to heal oppressed persons seeking to affirm their dignity, (ibid, 126). Restoring the dignity of
the oppressor deprived King of any resource to violence, it would erode the dignity of both aggressed and aggressor.
5
See (Young 1992, 174-95). See also (Schssler Fiorenza 1998, 28ff) vindication of the term oppressed.
6
The church is my life and I have given mi life to the church As one whose Christian roots go back through three generations
of ministers, I will remain true to the church as long as I live. The UnChristian Christian, Ebony 20 (August 1965): 75; as
quoted in (Bryan 1999, 15).
Jose M Segura S.J.
performed as an example of how his engagement in social change involved not only preaching or
writing, but also putting himself where the rubber meets the road.
2. Martin Luther King as a Prophet.

In this first section, I will summarily describe the main features that constitute MLK as
prophetic figure in the Judeo-Christian tradition. I am deliberately not focusing on the personal
skills that are needed to be considered a prophet but rather on the personal experiences and acts
that, when perceived by the community, earn someone the title of prophet for that very
community.7 I will subsequently highlight several features of MLKs public life that made him a
prophet. In concrete: His prophetic witness garnered nationwide, international, interdenominational and inter-religious recognition; he had a mystical experience that interiorly
configured him for a prophetic mission. He was anointed as a prophet, and; he developed the
self-conscience of a prophet.
a. Nationwide, international, inter-denominational and inter-religious
recognition.
In terms of nationwide and international recognition, MLK was granted a large number
of awards: here, I am highlighting some of special significance. Within the US, MLK was the
first African-American to be named Man of the Year by Time Magazine in 1963. He was
appointed as American of the Decade by the Die Workers International Union in 1963. He was
also granted the John F. Kennedy Award from the Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago, 1964.
Of special significance is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he was posthumously
MLK cannot be properly understood with the influence, support and spirituality of the Black Church. MLK had the ability to
mobilize the basement communities of the church but the Civil Rights Movement and the Poor campaign would have not been
possible with the previous leadership of others and without the commitment of the Black Church congregation. I do not have
room here to expand on this point.
Jose M Segura S.J.
granted. This extract from the discourse of this Presidential award recognizes Kings labor and
illustrates why King can be a reference for the prophetic mission of the Church:
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the conscience of his generation[] He spoke out against a war he felt
was unjust, as he had spoken out against laws that were unfair[] he continued to his last days to
strive for a world where the poorest and humblest among us could enjoy the fulfillment of the
promises of our founding fathers.8
In the international sphere, King also received wide forms of recognition. Although it
would probably suffice to note that he was the youngest person ever to be distinguished with the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, I am explicitly adding some non-Western references. For example,
the Magazine of New Delhi listed Dr. King as one of the sixteen world leaders who had
contributed most to the advancement of freedom during 1959. The Marcus Garvey Prize for
Human Rights was presented to King by the Jamaican Government. 9 Furthermore, if we consider
the American polls on popular mass appreciation, King is the second most admired person in the
20th century.10 All these features sustain my claim that Kings legacy has an universal scope.11
Of special significance for my purpose is the inter-denominational recognition, both
national and international, given to MLK. He was rendered as a prophet by religious leaders of
non-Christian traditions and by Christian theologians of other denominations. A paradigmatic
example is the award Pacem in Terris,
12
granted to him by the American Jewish Committee.
Moreover, King had a close relationship with Rabbi Heschel, who took part with him in several
Civil Rights Demonstrations and who considered him a prophet of conscience. May this extract
Posthumous award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 4 July 1977, as quoted
in (James M. Washington 1986)
9
["Biographical Outline of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." (http://www.thekingcenter.org/DrMLKingJr/Biography.aspx).
10
The person receiving the most votes was Mother Teresa: 49% of Americans said she was "one of the people I admire most
from the century." King was second, with 34% of the "most admired [Gallup, George; Alec Gallup, Jr. (2000). The Gallup Poll:
Public Opinion 1999. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 249.]. http://www.gallup.com/poll/20920/martin-luther-king-jr-revered-moreafter-death-than-before.aspx] 6th in the "Person of the Century"Poll by Time Magazine.
11
Consider (Bryan 1999, 25-6) for how different non-Christian movements seeking social justice have adopted Kings legacy.
12
Named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII calling for all people to strive for peace.
(http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2005/10/23/news/local/.
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of Heschels introduction of King to the Rabbinical Assembly serve as a summary of the Jewish
communitys recognition of Kings prophetic standing:
Where does moral religious leadership in America come from today? [...] where does God dwell
in America today?[...] Where in America today do we hear a voice like he voice of the prophets of
Israel? Martin Luther King is a sign that God has not forsaken the United States of America
Martin Luther King is a voice, a vision and a way.13
These words of Rabbi Heschel witness MLKs prophetic and spiritual leadership as a man of God, for what
is a prophet other that a person though whom God speaks?
In relation to different Christian denominations, King was several times invited to preach to
non-Baptist congregations. He was, for instance, the first non-Anglican ever to give an evensong
in St. Pauls Cathedral of London.14
Among Catholics, may the reference to two main liberation theologians suffice. King is
depicted by Jon Sobrino as a 20th millennium prophet, and he is equated with a token figure of
Christian militancy in social justice for the Catholic Church: the martyred Archbishop Romero.15
Moreover, Sobrino referred to MLK to exemplify that embracing the cross is a consequence of a
life devoted to fulfilling Gods will and refers to him as an example of Gods extremism of love.
Sobrino closes a discussion about how is Gods love understandable in the cross, saying in
reference to MLK, In this way God wishes to show us his love on the cross and save us.16
Ignacio Ellacura, one of the most important Western liberation theologians, refers to
King as a model of Christian redemption of violence. Ellacura depicts him as a martyr for the
13
[Conversation with Dr. Martin Luther King March 25, 1968 at the sixty-eighth annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly
interviewed by Rabbi Everett Gendler. 657-8 Testament of Hope] Antoher example in [King, Jr., Martin Luther. "Commemorating Martin
Luther
King,
Jr
Response
to
Award
of
American
Liberties
Medallion"
(http://www.
ajc.org/site/apps/nlkontent3.asp?c=ijM2PHKoG&b=843719&ct=1052923).] In 1965 the American Jewish Committee honored him with the
American Liberties Medallion for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty."
14
(Cone 1999, 86)
15
Jesus can be seen to be in the line of the classic prophets of Israel , and in that of the modern prophets, Archbishop Oscar
Romero, Martin Luther King, Jr in their confrontation with the anti-Kingdom and its idols. (Sobrino 2004, 179).
16
(ibid,232). And in (ibid, 231) we can read: Do to us what you will and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten
our children: send your hooded perpetrators of violence and drag us out on some wayside road, beating us and leaving us
half-dead, and we will still love you.
Jose M Segura S.J.
cause of social justice and liberation. Special emphasis deserves Ellacuras praise of Kings
engagement in achieving the liberation of both the oppressed and the oppressor. Like Sobrino,
Ellacura renders King as an example of Christian commitment in overcoming social injustice
through the implementation of the extremism of love.17 Ellacura saw in MLK a Christian
witness who creatively and aggressively loved the oppressors to liberate them.18 This is a rich
contribution that MLKs legacy can offer to Western liberation theology for liberation theology
usually does not stress enough the need of liberating the oppressors.
b. Interiorly configured as a prophet and recognized as such.
King understood himself to be the grandson of an enslaved African American, and he
recalled growing up in the midst of rigid forms of discrimination.19 When he challenged unfair
laws or the unequal distribution of rights, he positioned himself in continuity with the tradition of
abolitionists. Moreover, King belonged to a dissenting tradition of advocates of social justice
and activists of civil resistance, and he became the inspired voice of the oppressed.20 He
inherited from his family atmosphere the conception of the priest as a minister leading the
community in the work for justice. King grew up learning to minister from Daddy King, who
described his ministry as one of protest against the system, and himself as a chronic
complainer against the conditions segregation imposing on Negroes. 21 And MLKs father-inlaw, Reverend A. D. Williams, identified the ministers role as standing up for social change, as
17
(Ellacura 1976, 219-22).

The struggle was to enliven and deepen their oppressors sense of dignity as well, not seeking to humiliate or defeat the
white citizens of Montgomery, but rather by convincing them of the justice of the Negro cause. (Baker-Fletcher 1993, 36)
19
MLK Senior determination was rooted in his childhood experiences with poverty and racism. His grandfather Jim Long had
been used by his owner to breed slaves, conceiving children with several women. In (Clayborne Carson 1992, 19)
20
(Bryan 1999, 18)
21
(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 5-6)
18
Jose M Segura S.J.
being an advocate for justice, which in the 60s meant active involvement in changing the
social order all around US.22
King accounted for the importance of this family heritage when he stated that his
academic training gave him a metaphysical foundation for the concepts that he had already
`received from his ministerial family.23 Furthermore, from his own familiar tradition, King
inherited the conception that the dignity of a minister consisted in being a strong fighter and
advocate for justice.24 In this context, King was nurtured in understanding his ministry as a
prophetic call.25 Notwithstanding his heritage, King had his personal experience of confirmation,
referred to as the kitchen experience. King reported that one night in Montgomery after a very
tense period of social confrontation and of receiving continued threatening phone calls, he had a
melt down and sought refuge in a cup of coffee. And his desperation turned into prayer. In
Kings own words:
"Lord, I must confess that I'm weak now... And I can't let the people see me like this because if
they see me weak and losing my courage they will begin to get weak. [] I could hear an inner
voice saying to me, `Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for
truth. And too Ì will be with you, even until the end of the world[] my fears began to go. My
uncertainty disappeared.26
There are two emphases to be made here: not only is King searching for God as his
source of strength, but King is also addressing Him as a prophet of his people, as someone who
has to lead them to liberation and has to give witness to Gods will before them. In his essay
22
(Ibid, 8)
(Martin Luther King 1987, 100).
24
(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 166)
25
See (Clayborne Carson 1992, 10-33) for a detailed account of how Kings family influenced him. For instance: According to
Kings recollections, A. D. Williams inspired him in many ways. Both men preached a social-gospel Christianity that combined a
belief of personal salvation with the need to apply the teachings of Jesus to the daily problems of their black congregations. 26
and p 33 King, Sr.s activism shaped his sons understanding of the ministry and presaged King, Jr.s own career. Along with
other progressive black Baptist preachers, the elder King stressed the need for an educated, politically-active ministry.
26
(Branch 1988, 162).
23
Jose M Segura S.J.
Testament of Hope, which was published posthumously, King stated how his certitude in
Gods love kept him optimist and confident in the midst of the struggle.27
He is reported by others as having the self-conscience of being a prophet. May these
words of Seymour Siegel, who quoted MLK in his memorial (April 5, 1968), serve as example:
"If you go down in a movement to save the soul of a nation there is no death more redemptive."28
Another example is James Cone, who, being closer to Malcom X than to King, was also able to
recognize and prize King as a prophet and a man of God.29 King commented explicitly that he
understood himself as a priest called to be a Prophet.30 In the book Four modern prophets,
William M. Ramsay describes MLK as a prophet in the traditional sense of the term, for he
had an inspired vision of he future.31 And King behaved as a prophet when he led the marches
of the Civil Rights Campaign, when he criticized the Church for not engaging actively in
combatting social injustice, and when he annoyed half of the US population for opposing the
Vietnam War.32 Yes, King understood himself as a man of God with heavenly authority to put
pressure over any civil instance to gain dignity for Gods children. This self-understanding of his
prophetical vocation led him, for example, to send 31 telegrams to President J.F. Kennedy in the
course of the Civil Rights Campaign.33
27
People are often surprised to learn that I am an optimist. They know how often I have been jailed, how frequently the days
and nights have been filled with frustration and sorrow, how bitter and dangerous are my adversaries [] They have no
comprehension of the strength that comes from faith in God and man. It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure
in my knowledge that God loves us. Extract from A Testament of Hope Playboy 16 (January 1969): 175ff. Quoted as
reproduced in (James M. Washington 1986, 314). See also the Playboy interview transcript in (Ibid, 343), where King recalls
having said We must have the faith that things will work out somehow, that God will make a way for us when there seems no
way. This words linked him with Mosses leading Gods people in their Exodus.
28
Eulogy for Dr. Martin Luther King, April 5, 1968 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Siegel#cite_note-90
29
[King] was a man endowed with the charisma of God; he was a prophet in our own time [] Like the prophets of old, he had
a dream; a dream grounded not in the hopes of white America but in God. King was aware of the destiny of prophets as he said
the night before being killed Ive been on the mountain top. Cone goes on to comment, that Like Moses King did not enter
the Promised Land but retained the unshakable certainty that Gods righteousness will triumph. (Cone 2006, 108-9).
30
Consider for example I have been to the Mountain top, or the famous I have a Dream.
31
(Ramsay 1986, 46)
32
April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City.
33
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Search.aspx?nav=Ntk:SearchAll|martin+luther+king+telegrams|1|,N:15
Jose M Segura S.J.
The Black community recognized that God was upon him. What made of MLK a leader
of the Civil Rights Movement was not only his oratorical capacity, nor his own perception of
being a prophet called by the Lord, but also the wide recognition of the Black Church of Kings
prophetic witnessing.34 Like a biblical prophet, he was publically anointed by a significant
member of his congregation, Mother Pollard. This anointment was an important moment for
King, to which he referred on various occasions in his life.35 Mother Pollard assured King that,
even if the community failed him, the Lord would be by his side: Gods going to take care of
you.36 Neither the bombing of his house and church, nor the jails, nor the death threats could
erase this certitude of Kings heart: Gods going to take care of you.37
There were, of course, a lot of personal skills that made of King a charismatic leader, such as
his ability to sympathize with the congregation. However, King became a prophet because he
assumed the leadership. King was the right person to lead the social change. He employed his
homiletic skills to lead and mobilize an already disenchanted mass of black Americans. And he
recognized that he was the co-leader of a movement that had a large number of people working
anonymously for social change.38 King was the perfect combination of educated man,
rhetorically trained preacher, skillful leader and charismatic pastor. Besides, he belonged to a
family with a high status in the black church, and he had a great theological background that
allowed him to connect the current struggle of the black population with the biblical tradition of
liberation and the black spiritual tradition of resistance.
34
Martin Luther King was the moral figure and prophet divinely inspired to lead the movement.[] the masses associated King
with Jesus, Moses, and other biblical leaders strengthen[ing] Kings charismatic appeal. (Morris 1986, 60).
35
(Branch 1988, 149,163-4,490).
36
As referred by King in The Strength to Love, 1963, according to (James M. Washington 1986, 517); He refers to this in The
Three Dimensions of a Complete Life" Delivered at New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois, on 9 April 1967.]
37
Ibid.
38
Consider for example Kings Novel Prize acceptance speech: I accept this award in behalf of a civil rights movement [] I am
aware that this prize is much more than honor me personally [] you honor the ground crew without whose labor and
sacrifices the jet flights for freedom could never have left earth. And his last words are Today I come to Oslo as a trustee I
accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood.
10
Jose M Segura S.J.
This combination enabled Kings success in his leadership.39 Although Kings personal gifts
were significant, this paper will stress the communitarian aspects of MLK social revolution.
Kings ability to mobilize the base communities and the grassroots congregations and to lead
them in the Spirit, serving them in discerning the will of God, is one of the most pressing needs
of the Church in Europe.
3. The Image of God as source of dignity and the Beloved Community.
a. Image of God:
King inherited from his family and developed through his studies of Paul Tillich40 and
Personalism41 a personal understanding of the theological concept of the Imago Dei and of the
radical equality of all human beings as members of a unique family, the children of God, joined
in a common destiny. The notion that all human beings were created in image of God and,
therefore, deserved the recognition of their dignity, their somebodyness, was central to Kings
theology and prophetic standing. Living up to this image of God meant for King claiming
freedom and equal opportunities for all Gods children. Concretely in Kings prophetic mission,
it meant advocating, preaching and marching for the recognition of African Americans full
citizenship.
The correlate of MLKs theological centerpiece of the image of God is Kings
understanding of dignity. King made a synthesis of his theological understanding of all human
39
See (Morris 1986, 55-9,95-7).

MLKs got a PhD with a doctoral dissertation named "A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich
and Harry Nelson Wieman. See (Clayborne Carson 1992)The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr Vol I. Tillichs understanding of
creative love as love that acts justice pervades Kings speeches. See for instance (Tillich 1960). Sometimes King made explicit
references to Tillich like in The three dimensions of love others he quoted him without explicitly noticing it as in Where do
we go from here. Or in his conception of power, as treated in his book Where do we go From Here.
41
In a nutshell, minimal personalism is any philosophy that stresses God as personal and human beings as innately precious
because they are summoned into existence, sustained, and loved by God [] personalism also stresses the moral autonomy and
freedom of persons, as well as the fundamental communal nature of persons. (Rufus Burrow 2006, 70). In (Ibid, 75) the author
summarizes Kings personalism: God as personal and loving; the inherent dignity of persons as such; the importance of the
personal-communal spirit; and the need to protest injustice and social evil in order to create the conditions for the
establishment of a community consistent with the ideals of the Kingdom of God or what King referred to early in his civil rights
ministry as the beloved community.
40
11
Jose M Segura S.J.
beings created in the image of God, the Boston Personalist philosophy, Hegels view of
historical conflict, and Kants view of the inherent moral value of persons.42 To this synthesis,
King added a view of Gandhis non-violent philosophy43, Hegels view of historical conflict,44
and the tradition of the Black Church.45 The African American religious tradition contributed to
Kings understanding of dignity as standing up to struggle against the system of racial injustice.46
Consubstantial to Kings understanding of human dignity and image of God was the need of
freedom. He understood that a basic tenet of a human beings dignity was the freedom to choose.
Effectively, King took on Tillichs understanding of freedom as the capacity to deliberate, to
decide, and to take responsibility; without freedom to choose, human beings are reduced to an
animal.47 Therefore, being deprived of or limited in their realm of freedom was, for King, an
assault by the segregated system on the Negroes Image of God.48
For King, the public and active involvement in social justice reforms was a direct
consequence of his conception of the dignity of all human beings as children of God. The claim
for the recognition of negro personhood in a first moment and of human conditions of life for
all the disinherited later on, was deeply rooted in Kings notions of somebodyness and the
42
(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 166-8).

Referring to Gandhis non-violent method, King said I came to feel that thi was the only morally and practically sound
method open to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom. (Martin Luther King 1987, 97). However is worthy to note that
previously, in (Ibid, 84), King has acknowledged that for the African American Congregation It was Jesus of Nazareth that
stirred the Negroes to protest with the creative weapon of love. In (Bryan 1999, 9) explains how King embraced a
Christianized form of Gandhis philosophy, for he sought in Gandhi a prototype of modern-day equivalent of Jesus, that
could help to articulate a Christian response to the racial problem. And in (Ibid, 11) the author states that the combination of
Gandhian philosophy with Jesus Sermon on the Mount was his unique contribution to American Christianity.
44
King took from Hegel two main insights: the idea of the dependence of the master upon the slave that will transform in how
the master is enslaved by being a master of slaves and how the freedom is necessary for both. This can be read in Kings
understanding that by loving the oppressor the former slave becomes the master and triumphs over his oppressor. Another
idea of Hegel is the necessity of struggle for growing or process. This is an ever present theme in Kings speeches. (Rufus Burrow
2006, 80-5).
45
The Bible and the black church taught him that you reap what you sow. The sources of his opposition to oppression and
violence were as ancient as the Hebrew prophets, who insisted that the poor deserve justice, and the Sermon on the Mount,
which forbids hate and counsels peace. These were the convictions. The outlines provided a method of organizing the
convictions and applying them to the problem of race in twentieth-century America. In (Lischer 1995, 95).
46
(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 43).
47
Americas Chief Moral Dilemma.
48
(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 120-1)
43
12
Jose M Segura S.J.
image of God. This self-sense of dignity, African Americans inner thirst for living up to their
true identity as children of God, was the core of Kings call for African American self-assertion
and self-liberation.49
King repeatedly called for the Black church congregation to stand up for their rights. 50 An
essential feature of Kings call to a greater recognition of the African American populations
dignity was that the African Americans themselves had to able to affirm their value own. In
Kings words: [W]e must stand up and say, "I'm black, but I'm black and beautiful."51 In this
remark Cones call to claim the beauty of blackness resounds,52 yet the difference is that, for
King, it was essential that the means to achieve rights and dignity remained moral, non-violent.53
King will steadfastly insist that the means precede the ends and both have to be moral.54
Being a child of God meant having dignity and being somebody.55 To MLK, subsequently
assaulting someones dignity meant assaulting the image of God in her. Concretely, as James
Cone puts it, When man denies his freedom and the freedom of others he denies God.56 Cones
remark is of vital importance because, for King, the oppressor degrades Gods image in herself
by failing to recognize the Image of God in her oppressed neighbor. For King, the sacredness of
human life spills from being created and is granted by God: Man is a child of God, made in his
image, and therefore must be respected as such.57 For King, the African American, or the
disinherited Americans were not begging for dignity but claiming for their dignity to be
49
(Ibid, 156-9)
And with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abnegation and say
to himself and to the world, "I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. Where Do We Go From
Here?, Delivered at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention Atlanta, Ga. 16 August 1967.
51
(Ibid)
52
(Cone 2006).
53
See the explanation of King of how hatred, murdered, and darkness as the sum of evils cannot be pulled out by darkness;
only light can do that. Where Do We Go From Here?, Delivered at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention Atlanta, Ga. 16 August 1967
54
See for instance A Christmas Sermon on Peace, (James M. Washington 1986, 92); and See Playboy Interview and Kings
reflection on how moral ends cannot be met by in-moral means, in (Ibid, 361).
55
King repeatedly insisted we arent going to allow anybody to deprive us of our personhood and our freedom.
56
(Cone, Black Theology and Black Power 2006, 137)
57
(Wills 2009, 28)
50
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Jose M Segura S.J.
recognized. This certitude of being precious before God became in Kings oratory a hammer
against the white structure of oppression and social injustice.
An important part of Kings family heritage was this notion of directing the struggle against
the system of injustice rather than fighting the person. This understanding laid the foundations
for MLKs later development of a theology of fighting the evil structures rather than the
individual, focusing on defeating the oppressive system rather than the oppressor. 58 Kings
argued that, by denying the dignity and the personhood of the negro, the white man was
hurting both the Negros Image of God as well as his own. This conception allowed King to
engage positively in a non-violent struggle and to claim for the integral liberation of both
oppressed and oppressor.
Kings roots in Tillichs understanding of the creative Love that involves justice as well as
Kings formation in Personalism allowed him to perceive God as acting through love to care for
oppressed. This is a key point in Kings theology and core to his engagement in the non-violent
movement method to achieve social change. For King, the denial of full citizenship and other
forms of social injustice were not only a violation of a law but of ones personhood, 59 the
denial of ones dignity and the Image of God in her. King will indicate on numberless occasions
that the CRM was not aimed against the white people as he said, We aren't engaged in any
negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody, instead King asserted that CRM
were vindicating that, as Gods children, we don't have to live like we are forced to live.60 This
powerful understanding of human beings as children of God is the root for Kings prophetic non-
58
(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 6). See also Love, law and civil disobedience, in (James M. Washington 1986, 47).
(Ibid, 113-6)
60
"I've Been to the Mountaintop" delivered 3 April 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee.
59
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violent demonstrations and is the key to Kings insistence in avoiding anger or any sort of
violence even in language.61
The novelty that King brings to Western liberation theology is his understanding that the
negation of personhood was also eroding the personhood of the oppressor.62 King sought the
conversion of the white oppressor, not his condemnation. The vision of all human beings as
children of God undergirds Kings prophetic protests, sermons and demonstrations to denounce
that social injustice is incompatible with Gods shared image. In Kings words: [W]hen we truly
believe in the sacredness of human personality, we wont exploit people, we wont trample over
people with the iron feet of oppression, we wont kill anybody. 63 Kings non-violent approach
to social reform was deeply rooted in his religious understanding of human being as child of
God. This being children of God emboldened King to march to have the dignity African
Americans were endowed with as somebody under God recognized.64
b. Beloved community:
Part of Kings own understanding of personalism is the goal of the beloved community,
understood as the community of human beings living up to the standard of the Kingdom of God
and the goal towards what the moral law and goodness of the universe leans. 65 The beloved
community was Kings spiritual vision of interracial communion of the Children of God, about
which he constantly preached. This is radically opposed to early Malcom Xs separatism.66 The
61
In Kings words We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse [] We don't need any bricks and bottles. We
don't need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around and say "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not
treating his children right." In "I've Been to the Mountaintop." April, 3, 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ
Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee.
62
So long as the Negro is treated as a means to an end, so long as he is seen as anything less than a person of sacred worth,
the image of God is abused in him, and consequently and proportionately lost by those who inflict the abuse. The Ethical
dimensions of Integration. 27 December 1962. In (James M. Washington 1986, 119). See also (Wills 2009, 124).
63
Peace on earth A Christmas Sermon on Peace 1967
64
(Wills 2009, 118-9)
65
See (Rufus Burrow 2006, 75;93;113; 246-7).
66
See (Cone 1999, 84)Cone reference to Beloved Community as stead motive in King public discourses. Cone will argue in favor
of King later abandonment of the integration in power for separatism (Ibid, 226-7).
15
Jose M Segura S.J.
vision of the beloved community was Kings dream of the universal community of Gods
children, notwithstanding denominations or races. MLKs conception of human life as
interrelated and his theological principal of the dignity of somebodyness made him reject both
segregation and separationist politics.
For King, the imago Dei anthropological principle led him to broaden the Protestant
concept from a community of converts or saved persons to that of beloved community. 67 In
Kings understanding, the beloved community represented the goal of the human race, a
community woven among Children of God; notwithstanding the boundaries of church, masters
and former slaves, race or confessions, it symbolized the union of all the dispossessed.68 As a
horizon of brotherhood, the Beloved Community demanded of the means to achieve it to be
moral and peaceful: The Aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community,
while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.
69
Obviously, this prophetic dream met the
resistance from the well-established and powerful, who looked at it with suspicion, and also from
some disinherited who were pressing for a more assertive and violent approach.
4. Prophetic denunciation.
In this section, I am going to consider how Kings standing up for justice springs from his
prophetic vision (the beloved community), and how, because of his prophetic engagement he
led the revolution in the social and political structure of our world on the question of the equality of
man.70 For leading this social revolution, he was dismissed as an extremist and a rabble-rouser,
67
Martin Luther King, Jr., was faithful to Gods call. He believed that in the end, that is what will matter-that he was faithful to
his God and to the powerless and least fortunate. He tried to be their voice before the powers, and he gave his life in the quest
for the realization of that community in which every person, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, and class will be treated with
dignity and respect, for no other reason than the one God of the universe willingly, lovingly, and thoughtfully called them into
existence. (Rufus Burrow 2006, 244).
68
(Ibid, 124-5).
69
(Martin Luther King 1987, 102)
70
"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution," Address at Morehouse College Commencement 2 June 195 [Atlanta, Ga.]
16
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and he bragged of being maladjusted, dissatisfied. Furthermore, I contend that these terms that
flesh out the prophetic and militant re-identification with the masses of the poor and the
oppressed71 and disinherited are political theological categories that should be part of a
Liberation Theology that wants to be in challenging dialogue with our society today. 72 For the
sake of clarity, I will distinguish three main subsections joining terms that are more or less
interchangeable.
a. Maladjusted, dissatisfied
In the basis of Presbyterian Charles Templetons advocacy of maladjustment to the status quo,
King frequently justified his own prophetic maladjustment to injustice.73
There were several occasions in which King referred, practically in the same words, to
the need of being maladjusted for social change. In this paper I single out some of them: 1) A
Look to the Future74 2) The Power of Nonviolence75 - Where do we go from here.76 4) The
American dream.77 5) I have a dream.78 6) Letter From Birmingham Jail.
I refer to these speeches in particular because they cover ten years of MLKs active
involvement in the cause of social justice and therefore show the consistency of MLKs call for
maladjustment.79 This specific selection of speeches also demonstrates how the call for being
maladjusted is not only applied to the CRM in the South, as is the primary stress on the first
speeches, but also in Kings later engagement in changing the situation of impoverished Ghettos
in the North. In order to show this shift, I will refer to the interracial congregation attending the
71
(Bryan 1999, 19)

We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity.
And now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality. MIA Mass Meeting at Holt Street Baptist
Church. 5, December, 1955. Montgomery, Ala.
73
(Lischer 1995, 104)
74
Address Delivered at Highlander Folk School Monteagle, Tenn. 2 September 1957, in (James M. Washington 1986, 89).
75
Speech delivered at the University of California June 5 1957 before YMCA (Ibid, 14).
76
August, 16, 1967 SCLC convention
77
Delivered in several occasions, June 6, 1961;65; 68.(Ibid, 207).
78
August 28, 1963, Washington Lincoln Memorial.
79
The introduction to the Interview by Playboy (January 1965) gives a sense of the magnitude of MLKs involvement He has
been jailed fourteen times and stabbed once; his house has been bombed three times; and his daily mail brings a steady flow of
death threats and obscenities, travels 325.000 miles and makes 450 speeches a year throughout the country. (Ibid, 340)
72
17
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I have a dream speech and show how MLKs address to the CLC, Where do we go from
here, taps into problems that can be issues of interracial concern, such as poor housing and
insalubrity in the ghettos.
In his address A Look to the Future, King made maladjustment for the sake of the
Beloved Community into a prophetic call for the social revolution, as a prophet and a spiritual
leader. He writes, [T]here are some things in our social system to which I am proud to be
maladjusted.
80
King inventoried situations towards which a Christian should be maladjusted.
These include, the mob rule, the evils of segregation, or the effects of discrimination the
unfair economic system, which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the
classes. King here and elsewhere
81
condemned repeatedly the madness of militarism, not only
as part of his rejection of violence but also as a waste of money that could be better invested in
improving the condition of Gods children.
82
Sadly, these sinful situations that require
maladjustment are of fierce actuality, making Kings legacy of great applicability yet today.
As a spiritual leader, King challenged his congregation to join him in his maladjustment.
In his own words: I call upon you to be maladjusted, for it may be that the salvation of the
world lies in the hands of the maladjusted. 83 This last statement is not a fancy sentence. King
believed that the white men needed the love of the black for their salvation and thus urged,
The Negro must love the white man, because the white man needs his love to remove his
80
A Look to the Future, Address Delivered at Highlander Folk School Monteagle, Tenn. 2 September 1957
See his remark in the Nobel Peace acceptance speech I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral
down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation.
82
[I]f our nation can spend thirty-five billion dollars a year to fight an unjust, evil war in Vietnam, and twenty billion dollars to
put a man on the moon, it can spend billions of dollars to put God's children on their own two feet right here on earth. Where
Do We Go From Here?, Delivered at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention Atlanta, Ga. 16 August 1967. Also in the Current crisis
in race relations he gives sort of definition of Maladjusted, 1958, in (Ibid, 89).
83
81
18
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tensions, insecurities and fears.84 In line with the prophetic tradition, with the spirit of the
Sermon on the Mount and the universal judgment (Mt 25), King envisioned that the outcasts
were called to awaken America from her racial nightmare and eventually save her.
Maladjustment is thus understood as a prophetic quality shared by the Biblical prophets,
by Jesus, and by the former American advocates of abolition. In his address to the Higlander
School, King refers to Amos, Lincoln, and Jefferson and depicts Jesus not only as a
maladjusted but also as a dreamer. Interestingly enough, King frames Jesus dream as the
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, which closely resembles Kings own prophetic
vision: the Beloved Community. As it was for Jesus, so it is for King that the result of
contrasting Gods dream with the reality of injustice and oppression triggers maladjustment. As
Jesus, and as the prophets, King is called, and he calls to others to embrace maladjustment as a
salvific mission. Effectively, being maladjusted is the proper mission of the faithful follower of
Jesus for the salvation of the world: The world is in desperate need of such maladjustment.85
King envisions that maladjustment is the way towards a glittering daybreak of freedom and
justice, towards his messianic vision of the Beloved Community, towards the Kingdom of God.
He understood that his vision could become global, and he incorporated the word to his dream.86
In what was probably his most famous speech, I Have a Dream,87 MLK addressed an
interracial crowd of 300.000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial.88 As a messianic
prophet, King articulated his vision of an America that is, in fact, the fulfillment of the Beloved
community: [W]hen all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
84
An experiment of Love as quoted in (Ibid, 19).

86
(Bryan 1999, 22), quoting King in Strength to love.
87
I Have a Dream.August 28, 1963, Washington Lincoln Memorial.
88
Estimation of (Branch 1988, 878)
85
19
Jose M Segura S.J.
spiritual, Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last! This vision closes
MLKs speech and is what urges him to warn his audience, There will be neither peace nor
tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. 89
The Washington March was enacted to dramatize the sinful situation of the Negro in
America, and, as a prophet, MLK insisted on the urgency of the moment and claimed, now is
the time to make justice a reality for all Gods children. To his interracial audience, King
insisted on the need of non-violence, for in his vision, white and black people are tied together. 90
As has already been remarked above regarding the centrality of the Image of God in
Kings theology, freedom meant freedom for all; King conceived that the dignity of the white
was also eroded when she did not recognize the dignity of the black. It is this vision of being
created in the Image of God, of the Beloved Community in which all Gods children will be
united as one, that keeps King claiming to be maladjusted, or dissatisfied in this case.
Maladjusted or dissatisfied are political theological categories that King uses to stress the
urgency for social change. Until the Beloved community is a reality, and the Negro is no
longer victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality, until she can lodge in the motels
of the highways and the hotels of the cities, and she is granted decent housing instead of moved
from a smaller ghetto to a larger one, until her children are not stripped of their selfhood and
robbed of their dignity by signs stating For Whites Only, until then, We cannot be satisfied. 91
I want to finish this subsection on Kings call to be dissatisfied, with a quick reference to
his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Address,92 in which King spoke as a public leader and as a
genuine prophet. King spoke as a leader of the people, for he claimed to be the trustee of the
89
I Have a Dream, August 28, 1963, Washington Lincoln Memorial.

(Ibid)
91
(Ibid)
92
All the quotes are extracts of Kings Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Address. December, 10, 1964 (Oslo, Norway).
90
20
Jose M Segura S.J.
humble children of God who were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake. Dr. King spoke
as a prophet, because he referred to Isaiahs messianic peace vision to deploy a contraposition
between his image of the Beloved Community, his prophetic dream of a finer land, a better
people, a more noble civilization, with the situation of racial injustice his people were
struggling to subvert. In the Nobel speech, MLK juxtaposed what he refuse[d] to accept with
what he dare[d] to believe and proclaimed I still believe that we shall overcome. 93
b. Trouble-rouser and agitator:
King is considered to be one of the "prophetic radicals" who "uncompromisingly" sought

social justice through "confrontation and negotiation.94 For when the dream of the Beloved
Community was contrasted by the reality of injustice and the resistance of the powerful, it
demanded of a prophet to stand up for justice. King witnessed how those benefiting from the
status quo resisted any change that menaced their welfare and reacted by dismissing the activist
for social change.95 I claim that, in this context, these accusations of being a rabble-rouser and
an agitator, can be turned into positive qualities of a the Church and be constituted in
categories of a political theology in dialogue with contemporary society. This is the case because
it was their militancy in pursuing the dream of a fulfilled brotherhood that gained those involved
in the CRM these seemingly negative qualifications. In Kings words, they were called
dangerous rabble-rousers and agitators merely because they are standing up for what is right. 96
In the same sense, and nearly in the same words, King addressed a convention of a labor
93
Ibid.
(Toulouse 2006, 157)
95
It is sociologically true that privileged classes rarely ever give up their privileges without strong resistance. In, The Current
Crisis in Race Relations 1958. It was originally part of Kings 131 st annual meeting of the New York State Convention of
Universalists (NYSCU), Cortland, NY, October 16, 1956.(James M. Washington 1986, 86). Originally published in the Empire
State Universalist, November 1956.
96
Love, law, and civil disobedience, (Ibid, 52)
94
21
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organization.97 In address named The American dream,98 after explaining how America had
failed to fulfill her promises of equal opportunities for all her citizens, King warned that those
pursuing the realization of the American dream might be faced with physical retaliation, death,
jail, and misunderstandings. As a true prophet, King insisted in his willingness to take risks and
challenged his audience to be willing to do the same. Namely, to embrace the possibility of being
scarred, sent to jail, or even killed if it were to gain full citizenship for all Gods children. It is
in this context of civil militancy that King refers to the possibility of civil rights activist being
misunderstood and, therefore, dismissed as dangerous rabble-rousers and agitators. 99
It is in this context of standing up and advocating for social justice that one can be proud
of being labeled as agitator. It is in this sense that I claim that these terms should be part of a
political Christian Theology in Europe. Furthermore, I claim that, given the current situation of
oppression and disparity in Europe, if the Church wants to remain Christian (Ellacura), she
should stand up to claim the full dignity of Gods children and be willing to risk everything
(Sobrino), including being misunderstood, persecuted or dismissed, for Gods children sake.
c. Extremist
In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, 100 MLK responds to the critiques of a group of
white clergymen who have accused him of being an outsider agitator and an extremist.101
Although I could have joined this last category with the former, I opted for giving the extremist
term its own space considering the special significance of the context from which King is
writing, the importance of this Letter in American Public religion, and the further applications
97
Delivered in Bal Harbour, Florida on 11 December 1961, before the Fourth Constitutional Convention of the American
Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. (Ibid, 207).
98
Delivered in several occasions, June 6, 1961;65; 68. According to (Ibid, 207).
99
(Ibid, 207.)
100
st
(Bryan 1999, 13), the author praises the copy he conserves of the 1 publication of the letter by saying It is the first
recognition by the American public that we were dealing with a document that ranks alongside the Declaration of
independence and Lincolns Gettysburg Address.
101
All the quotes in this section belong to Letter From Birmingham Jail.
22
Jose M Segura S.J.
they can have for a Political Theology in Europe. MLK sought himself arrested to be arrested on
Good Friday and spent more than 24 hours in solitary confinement. In this sense, it is looking to
Europe that I am letting my reflection expand into MLKs critiques of the Church, as they are
related in the latter.
The response of MLK to this group of white clergymen constitutes an eloquent treatment
of how, when confronted by the extremism of rampant social injustice, a Christian is called to
react with extremism, but with the extremism of Christian love. It is impossible to overstress that
the situation of US in the 60s for the African American population was of extreme injustice,
humiliation and oppression. The white structure of power was applying extreme measures of the
police force and political-judicial coercion. It is in this context that, in words of MLK, the
question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be
extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of
injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause of justice? It cannot be overstressed, either, that
this is what makes MLKs legacy of such importance: instead of fomenting hatred or violence,
King sought the conversion of the whites by means of a non-violent social revolution to topple
the whole system of racial oppression.
Writing from a Birmingham Jail, Kings prophetic voice sounded loud and clear. He stated
his self-conscience as leader-prophet standing by Gods people when, to the accusation of being an
outsider, he replied that, like Paul, he had been compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond
my particular hometown. After this introductory hymn, King used the term extremist sixteen
times in a sixteen page letter.
In a masterful exercise of rhetoric, King turns the accusation of being extremist into the
paradigm of what should be the Christian and the moral attitude under struggle. As for that, King,
23
Jose M Segura S.J.
who at the beginning of the letter expressed being rather disappointed that fellow clergymen
would see my nonviolent commitment as extremist, conceded that he had gradually gained a bit
of satisfaction from being considered an extremist. King made the point that being an extremist
for love is the Christian attitude to develop when confronted by extreme injustice. In order to do so
he refers to paradigmatic examples of the Christian tradition: Amos was an extremist for justice;
Paul was an extremist for the Gospel he refers to Luther as an example of being extremist within
his own denomination; King even referred to prophets of the American Civil Religion as Lincoln
and Jefferson. Finally King refers to Jesus as extremist for Love and claims that the world is in
need of creative extremists.
Relying on these testimonies of true extremists about love and faithfulness to the Lord,
King gives room for his disappointment with the Church. I find that his prophetic call upon the
Church for conversion deserves special mention. It is my contention that these strong critiques of
MLK to his contemporary Church are, again, still and sadly of great actuality. It is in their
actuality that they deserve a space in a contemporary political theology that wants to be in
dialogue with the Western Church. It is once more in the face of a lack of the expected Christian
attitude that King develops his prophetic denunciation, in this case clearly undergirded by the
social gospel.
As a prophet, King expressed being disappointed with the white Church, for she
remained as spectator in the struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice and
diverted her congregation from the social crisis by committing herself to a completely otherworldly
religion which made a strange distinction between bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.
Kings voice strikes sharply when he complains, I have found myself asking: what kind of people
worship here? And out of love for the Church as body of Christ, he laments, How we have
24
Jose M Segura S.J.
blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and fear of being nonconformists. This is
once more a key conception of Kings legacy that is very useful for our current situation of a crisis of
credibility in the Church. I can imagine King asking, how many of the Churchs current scandals
(sexual, economical) could have been avoided had the Church put first the wellbeing of the Children
of God and not the wellbeing of her institutional reputation or good name.
It is also of great applicability in some parts of Europe King contrasts between 1) how the
Church becomes weak and conformist when, out of concern to keep her own status of privilege, she
associates with the structural power and 2) the prophetic standing of the Church in her origins.102 For
King, in its origins the Church was powerful for she was not merely a thermometer that recorded the
ideas and principles of the popular opinion. 103 King underlined once more how Christians should be
non-conformist by their own vocation. To make this point, he referred to the example of the first
Christians, who were often considered agitators by the power structure of the time.104 As a prophet, he
called the Church to conversion, warning, the judgment of God is upon the Church as never before
and saying she should turn to the example of the sacrificial spirit of the early Church, for otherwise
she would be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. In
contraposition with the early Church, the contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice
with an uncertain sound. Moreover, it is so often the arch supporter of the status quo, who gives to
the power structure vocal sanction of things as they are. These words are of fierce actuality.
My claim is that Kings understanding of extremism in this letter (as was the case for troublerouser, agitator, dissatisfied and maladjusted), constitutes a political theological category that should be
incorporated in Western political liberation theology. Moreover, I claim that in a moment in which
102
Similar remarks and comparison can be found in the Playboys interview. See (James M. Washington 1986, 344-6).
Letter from Birmingham Jail.
104
Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them
for being disturbers of the peace and outside agitators. But they went on with the conviction that they were a colony of
heaven and had to obey God rather than man. Letter from Birmingham Jail.
103
25
Jose M Segura S.J.
Gods people are being oppressed and millions are starving to death, the Church should put her
faithfulness in the Gospel in question if she is not being challenged by the powerful for her engagement
in a radical social change to achieve social justice (common good in Catholic Social Teaching terms).
I want to end this section referring to Where Do We Go From Here?, a speech in which
the problems addressed by King are applicable to the current situation of the disinherited in
Europe. In this speech, King summarized the achievements of ten years to improve the situation
of the African American population that has developed a new self-conscience of greater respect
for itself.105 He explained how, in Chicago and Cleveland, the SCLC campaigns had moved into
pursuing the improvement of jobs and housing for poor people.106 Despite prizing the
achievements already gained, his vision of the Beloved community kept him asking his audience
to push forward. By the end of his speech, King encouraged his audience to go out and keep
working with a divine dissatisfaction. From his prophetic vision, he derived a list of realities
about which they should be dissatisfied. Once more, the images he used to explain his call for
dissatisfaction were plainly and directly an adaptation of messianic images of peace, integration,
and shared welfare. Kings divine dissatisfaction clung to his vision of the Beloved Community.
This vision prompted him to be dissatisfied when confronted with the situation of blatant
economic injustice,107 poor people clogged into slums,108 segregated schools in a society fearful
of integration109 in which the color of the skin overrode the character of the person,110 governed
by a structure of white power that pervaded the justice and political institutions to defend the
105
In this decade of change, the Negro stood up and confronted his oppressor And in an image that he will repeatedly use
states the Negro decided to straighten his back up realizing that a man cannot ride your back unless it is bent. Where Do We
Go From Here?, Delivered at the 11th Annual SCLC Convention Atlanta, Ga. 16 August 1967.
106
Through economic boycott It simply says, "If you respect my dollar, you must respect my person." they have launched the
Operation Breadbasket we have now achieved for the Negro community of Chicago more than 2.200 new jobs. (Ibid)
107
Let us be dissatisfied until the tragic walls that separate the outer city of wealth and comfort from the inner city of poverty
and despair shall be crushed by the battering rams of the forces of justice. (Ibid)
108
Let us be dissatisfied until slums are cast into the junk heaps of history, and every family will live in a decent home.
109
Let us be dissatisfied until integration is not seen as a problem but as an opportunity.
110
Let us be dissatisfied until men and women [] will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not on the
basis of the color of their skin.
26
Jose M Segura S.J.
status quo over and against Gods children dignity. 111 As a summary of all that has already been
stated above, I am reproducing here a large quote of MLKs last essay, A Testament of Hope,
which was in fact published posthumously.112
A voice out of Bethlehem two thousand years ago said that all men are equal. It said right would
triumph. Jesus of Nazareth wrote no books; he owned no property to endow him with influence. He had
no friends in the courts of the powerful. But he changed the course of mankind with only the poor and the
despised. Nave and unsophisticated though we may be, the poor and despised of the twentieth century
will revolutionize this era. In our àrrogance, lawlessness and ingratitude, we will fight for human
justice, brotherhood, secure peace and abundance for all. When we have won these -in a spirit of
unshakable non-violence then, in luminous splendor, the Christian era will truly begin.113
5. My area of application: The social reality of Immigration in Spain.

As an example of how MLKs prophetic legacy could be applicable to Spain, I will give some
general characteristics of the harsh situation of immigrants in Spain today, to which MLK would
have something to say. By choosing the immigrants, I am deliberately narrowing the possible
application to one example of MLKs legacy implications in Spanish social justice that allows
me to limit the scope of this section to an area of my particular interest. 114 Despite the limitation
of the scope to immigration, the realm remains huge, thus, in order to reduce it, I will focus on:
1) Some news that, although at risk of being caricatures, give a quick sense of Spains actuality
and 2) the last report of a well-known Christian Social Work Ngo of Spain called Caritas.115
111
Let us be dissatisfied until every state capitol will be housed by a governor who will do justly, who will love mercy, and who
will walk humbly with his God.
112
A Testament of Hope Playboy 16 (January 1969): 175ff. As reproduced in (James M. Washington 1986, 313-328).
113
(Ibid, 328).
114
The first thing to clarify therefore is that these are main outlines nearly caricatures of the situation of Spain that do not
intend to exhaust the Spanish complex religious reality.
115
Caritas Spain defines its mission as consisting on providing assistance to the poor, the vulnerable and the excluded. Caritas
works on humanitarian emergencies, on human development, and on campaigning against poverty, exclusion, intolerance and
discrimination. Operates through 68 diocesan offices, which manage the work of 65,000 volunteers. In Spain, Caritas works to
support vulnerable and marginalized people, the poor and needy, immigrants and young people in difficulty, among others. It
supports research into the causes of poverty and regularly produces publications on related
issueshttp://www.caritas.org/worldmap/europe/spain.html
27
Jose M Segura S.J.
a. International Media Reports on Spain:

Spain is living a steadfast increase of its immigrant population that has been six-fold over
the last 10 years. 116 In 2010, the immigrant registered population accounted for 5.6 million or
12% of the population, up from 924,000 immigrants officially registered in 2000 and 1 % in
1990.117 The Spanish economic crisis is especially hard for the immigrant population because the
sectors in which the immigrants were being employed, such as construction,118 domestic health
care, and hostelry, are those most affected by the crisis.119 Therefore, unemployment rates are
particularly high among immigrants.120 In the current economic downturn, with an
unemployment rate of 20%, almost twice the average for the Euro zone, Spain has reached a
record figure of 4 million people out of work, and immigration is a hot issue in the Spanish
political arena. The economic crisis affecting Spain is accompanied by an increase in criminal
activities among foreigners, which is 10 times the figure among native Spaniards. And this fact is
increasing the uneasiness of the population with immigrants and can deteriorate into xenophobic
manifestations.121 The native population is pressing their politicians to put stricter limits on
immigration. As the law is nowadays, every town hall (Ayuntamiento o municipio) has the
116
Spain sees sixfold increase in immigrants over decade. guardian.co.uk,

Monday
8
February
2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/08/spain-sixfold-increase-immigrants Spain sees sixfold increase in immigrants
over decade. guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 February 2010 1
117
Forty per cent of immigrants now living in Spain came from EU countries like Romania (759,000), UK (356,000); South
America (1.6 million) and Africa (902,000).
118
Dozens of Spanish construction companies have gone under since the crisis took hold in 2007. From 2000 to 2007, Spain
added 1.2 million direct construction jobs, only to shed them over the past two years, according to a governmentcommissioned study of immigrants in the labor force that was released earlier this month. That doesn't include the layoffs from
jobs indirectly connected to the construction sector. Time report.
119
Joaqun Arango Vila, professor of sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, "Many of the 5m jobs created here
between 2000-8 were in sectors favorable to immigrant workers, such as construction, the hospitality industry and care." See
guardian o.cit. And according to Time The construction sector is the hardest-hit. From 2000 to 2007, Spain added 1.2 million
direct construction jobs, only to shed them over the past two years, according to a government-commissioned study of
immigrants
in
the
labor
force
that
was
released
earlier
this
month.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2013057,00.html
120
More than a million migrants have lost their jobs, homes and small businesses. More than 30% of foreigners in Spain are out
of work almost double the rate of jobless natives, according to government figures released in July. Times magazine Aug. 26,
2010 Spain's Immigrants Suffer in Economic Downturn By Andrs Cala
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2013057,00.html
121
It was a familiar cry against immigration. There is just not room for everyone, proclaimed Alicia Snchez-Camacho, leader of
the Peoples Party (PP) in Catalonia.
28
Jose M Segura S.J.
obligation to register all its citizens, illegal immigrants included. The key point and source of
rising friction is that, by being registered, any resident in Spanish territory gains access to basic
health and social security aids.122 Currently, in an uprising of uneasiness, some cities are trying
to ban immigrants from registering in the municipal census, which deprives them of access to
other rights.123 As a consequence of the economic unrest, Spain has issued a new bill on
migration to adjust the inflow of migrant workers to the demands of the job market in the new
economic cycle.124 In other words; Spain (and Europe) will admit only immigrants who can
work in the type of jobs Spaniards do not want or will import immigrants with high profile
academic formation. In order to prevent the rising number in the immigrant population more
pressure is being put on migration restrictions and in borders control.125
b. The report of a Catholic Ngo that work in Social Justice
Caritass report126 describes the situation of the population of immigrants when they are
accompanying and attending in their facilities. The report from Caritas raises several concerns.
In a nutshell, it makes evident how the economic crisis has made immigration into a social and
122
Critas Spain and the Spanish Jesuit Service for Migrants in Spain, denounce this practice in their analysis of the situation
of migrants in Spain conclude, points 6 and 7; (6) Enrolment is a necessary instrument, which has as its principal objectives the
elaboration of a census of population, the facilitation of good policy planning, and the improved distribution of human and
economic resources. (7) Restricting immigrants access to the registry would be to defeat its purpose, and it would also, as a
direct consequence, make it difficult for foreigners (whether regularized or not) to exercise their rights as recognized both in
international
legislation
and
in
our
own
legal
and
constitutional
framework.
http://www.intermigra.info/extranjeria/archivos/revista/Empadron.pdf
123
Examples are the Town of Vic, in Catalonia or Torrejn de Ardoz near Madrid, sparked outrage by attempting to ban illegal
immigrants from the municipal register. Some politicans are campaigning for tougher measures against immigration. They
include the PP and Convergence and Union (CiU), the mainstream Catalan nationalist party. The law must be changed, says the
PPs national leader, Mariano Rajoy, who says there are too many illegals. CiU, meanwhile, proposes an ill-defined system of
rewards for well-behaved immigrants. http://www.economist.com/node/15464909
124
Secretary of State for Immigration Anna Terron. Interview: Spain aims to match immigration to job market Feb 22 2011By
Iciar Paneda and Judy MacInnes, MADRID (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/22/us-spain-immigrationidUSTRE71L3T320110222
125
With the new immigration bill, which already has the support of unions and business leaders, the government now plans to
focus on consolidating the situation of long term immigrants. `We want to focus on those immigrants who pay taxes," Terron
said, flagging that in Spain there are over 1.7 million foreign workers contributing to the Social Security system, or 36 percent of
the 4.7 million legal foreign residents. Ibid.
126
La Situacin Social de los lnmigrantes acompaados por Caritas. Informe 2010 Observatorio de la Realidad SocialCaritas Espaola. 17 marzo 2011. Report realized on the basis of the information gathered by 54 Caritas Diocesanas (CCDD) all
over Spain, that account for 80 % of Caritas Spain Confederation.
29
Jose M Segura S.J.
political conflict. Concretely, it shows how there is a growing social perception of the immigrant
as competitor, and how this perception has been translated into a hardening in the public and in
political speeches on immigration. Caritas warns that another direct consequence of the
economic crisis which is linked to the increasing unpopularity of the migrant issues, is the
reduction of the social budgets to favor the social integration of immigrants.
a.
Difficulties to access to the Town Hall registration (Padron Municipal): In some Town
Halls, immigrants are facing active opposition when they try to register. This is considered by
Caritas to be a practice derived from a dubious interpretation of the current legislation, which
is a polite way of avoiding stating that some Town halls are bordering on illegality. 127 Caritas
underlines how this practice in fact deprives the immigrant population from access to other
services such as health, education, household and jobs which would hasten their economic,
social and political integration.128 In an European context in which the multicultural model in
German and France has failed, and when Spains Secretary for Immigration has explicitly
rejected this model, the Spanish government should at least for its self-interest apply Caritas
observations. Caritas is warning in its information that either Spain approaches the immigration
as cultural enrichment and as an opportunity for economic growth, or the economic crisis will
degenerate in a crisis of racism and degradation of social relations.
b.
Unemployment, poor conditions and labor exploitation of immigrants: The unemployment
rate is higher among immigrants, and their jobs, when they have them, are typified as short term, for low
wages, without contracts, and, therefore, without social security or insurance. In this context, labor
127
Caritas report.
The government's main challenge is to make a success of the integration of long term immigrants, focusing on individuals
rather than championing "multiculturalism." The interview goes on to mention that British Prime Minister David Cameron,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have recently warned that multiculturalism had failed
to integrate immigrants. Secretary of State for Immigration Anna Terron. Interview: Spain aims to match immigration to job
market Feb 22 2011By Iciar Paneda and Judy MacInnes, MADRID (Reuters) http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/22/usspain-immigration-idUSTRE71L3T320110222
128
30
Jose M Segura S.J.
exploitation is rising, for the immigrant workers are being concentrated in a submerged economy as housekeepers or crop workers.
c.
Poor housing: The failure to face the mortgage crisis has impelled an ever-rising wave of immigrants
to leave their homes for rentals, to share overcrowded flats, or to live on the streets and in municipal shelters
in poor health conditions. Caritas denounces municipal policies that are criminalizing this called wetback
flats129 as an indirect measure of harassment against immigrants.130
d.
Supervened irregularity: There has been an increase in the immigrants who have all of the
sudden become illegals.131 This situation is due to the linkage between having a regular job and an
immigrants legal situation. In Spain, a labor contract is one of the conditions to obtain legal residence
and some temporary jobs are correlated with temporary legal status; once finished or ceased with the
job, the premise of residence expires. The economic crisis has left immigrants without jobs and,
therefore, they are considered ilegales; suddenly their situation in the country has become illegal.
Besides, the hardening of legal regulations has made it more difficult for them to keep their legal status
or to recover it after losing it. According to Caritas, this supervened irregularity affects nearly 1/3rd of
the immigrant population in Spain. This situation is grave, for it does not only affect the individual
immigrant turned into an irregular, but also her family, which had previously been legalized base on the
criterion of familiar rejoining (reagrupacin familiar).
e.
Massive Identification controls: Caritas denounces that there has been an increase in the
identification controls not only in public spaces but also in Caritas centers. This policeman attitude of
129
The refusal to enroll persons living in dwellings that are considered overcrowded by the social services because of data
supplied by the Registry Service, but without actual verification of how persons really live in the apartment. The apartment is
considered wetback for an indefinite period. In a document published in November 2010 called Enrolment of Foreigners
and Social Cohesion. Juridical Analysis and Practical Reflections. A Perspective with respect to the Directive of Return.
http://www.intermigra.info/extranjeria/archivos/revista/Empadron.pdf
130
Critas Spain and the Spanish Jesuit Service for Migrants in Spain, denounce this practice: It is imperative that we analyze
the situation of housing in Spain and how difficult it is for a large part of society to obtain housing. Substandard housing and
wetback apartments were here long before immigrants arrived. Using the wetback apartments as an excuse to justify
restriction of access to the registry will not prevent this reality from being reproduced; it will only cause greater vulnerability for
the persons living in that situation. Ibid.
131
The legal terminology in Spanish is irregularidad sobrevenida.
31
Jose M Segura S.J.
persecuting the immigrants is seen as worrisome by Caritas, since it fosters the perception of the migrant
population as outsiders, illegal, and competitors, triggering xenophobic feelings among the native
population.
f.
Reduction of services: Caritas report also denounces the suppression of services aimed at the
social integration of the immigrants, their first aid attendance and shelter, and even their juridical
assistance. The budget designated to these needs (Fondo para la Acogida, Integracinn y Refuerzo
Educativo de los Inmigrantes) has been cut by 70 % (decreasing from 200 million in 2008 to 61
million in 2011).
g.
Xenophobia in political proposals: Specifically urgent in the actual electoral context is Caritas
claim against the use of migration as an electoral issue. The pre-electoral confrontation climate among
parties favors the escalation of racism in the electoral discourse of some political parties. These
attitudes in the political class are fostering the popular negative perception of immigrants. Caritas
understands that Spain is facing a crucial moment for the future integration of her immigrant
population and that some direct action should be undertaken to diminish the perception of the
immigrant as a competitor on social resources and job offers.
What should be, then, the role of the Church when confronted by this worrisome news on the
immigrant population in Spain? In the last part, as a way of conclusion, I reproduce a letter that MLK could
have written challenging the Spanish church to react.
6. As way of Conclusion:
Instead of a classic conclusion that summarizes what has already been stated in the main part
of the paper, I am presenting here a possible letter from Martin Luther King, Jr., to the Church in
Spain. MLK was, first and foremost, a priest, a public preacher who loved the church. It is,
therefore, conceivable that, out of concern for the news he would have received from Spain, he
32
Jose M Segura S.J.
would have written to his brethren priests in Spain. In this sense, although MLK was aware of
the support and the dependence of the whole CRM and Poor Campaign on the lay congregation,
he would more likely have understood that his equivalent partners in dialogue in Spain, were the
clergy. Moreover, since MLK considered himself a prophet, invested by the divine authority of
the priestly vocation and by the moral authority of doing what is right, I imagine MLK writing a
letter to the bishops in Spain as an equal. To them, namely to the Spanish bishops conceived as
ultimately responsible for the Church in Spain are written these lines that could be part of an
hypothetical letter from MLK:
My brothers in Christ:
I have recently received news about the critical economic situation in Spain.
My prayers are with you and the people of Spain. As a minister of the Church, I am
writing to encourage you, as pastors, to stand for the rights of the disinherited in
Spain, those whom I have learned are suffering more harshly the consequences of the
economic crisis. I invite you to call with a prophetic voice, as Amos, as Jesus, to the
conversion of those who have caused this economic downturn out of the lure for money
and social prestige. My brothers, I hoped that you were the trumpet of God sounding
loud in Spain to condemn the idols of economic and social prestige that have triggered
this situation. However, it has not been the case. I regret to tell you that I wish you
had been tougher on these issues before; I missed your voice sounding loudly to
denounce how the idol mammon is requiring the sacrifice of human beings as cheap
labor in new forms of enslavement.
33
Jose M Segura S.J.
I am writing you with deep concern and disappointment. I am amazed by your

preoccupation with and mobilization on moral issues. Indeed, the pastors of the
Church must be concerned by moral issues; however, I am deeply disappointed, for it
seems that only sexual moral issues are of your interest! Effectively, you have been
able to organize large campaigns and mobilizations, of large and massive
demonstrations, of handouts, banners and commercials sponsored by the Church,
mostly (if not exclusively) related to moral sexual issues. I wish, my fellow pastors,
that you had shown the same determination to condemn the abuse of children inside
and outside the Church, to condemn the favoritism and bribery in Spanish society
that has provoked the current economic situation.
Perplexed, I wonder if putting more stress on and effort in promoting dignifying
living conditions for those recently born to mothers of low income instead of in guiltmaking anti-abortion campaigns wouldnt have been closer to our duty of
announcing a God friend of life. As ministers of the living God, you should be public
advocators for the dignity of life in all its spheres instead of being focused in the moral
sexual aspect of life. I wish your voice had sounded loudly to denounce how some have
used the idol of nationalism to spark anger among compatriots. Particularly, I wish
the Church had led the nation on the path of reconciliation. Shall I remind you that
as priests we are called to be ministers of reconciliation? We are called to heal the
brokenhearted, to heal the wounds of the hatred and anger.

I wish, my brothers in Christ, that you had gone to demonstrate against the
war in Iraq, which your country got involved in seeking some international
34
Jose M Segura S.J.
recognition or a share in the international pie. As ministers of the prince of peace,

you should have stood up against these idols of death, willing to risk anything in
your defense of life. I pray that the Church in Spain awakes from her lethargy and
with the grace of God almighty keeps up with the brave witness of the 20th
millennium prophet Pedro Arrupe or the missionary boldness of St.Francis Xavier.
Regarding your concern about being persecuted or dismissed, I couldnt
sympathize more with you, if only you were dismissed for good reasons! But on this
issue I am also deeply disappointed. As that of someone who has been called an
extremist, rabble-rouser and agitator, my heart is in deep communion with yours.
Believe me when I say that I do understand how it feels to be criticized and even
persecuted or dismissed. However, it has not been the Spanish Churchs zeal for the
poor what has triggered this situation.
If the Church in Spain is ranked among the least valued institutions in
Spaniards popular appreciation, it is precisely because her pastors have not sought to
work for the poor, the disinherited and the needy. According to the polls, your Church
is considered as linked to the powerful and wealthy people and to the political right
and, moreover, the young people are at best indifferent to the church. There have been
alarming reports in the newspapers of youngsters organizing aggressive campaigns
against the Church, for example, in a civic procession to ridicule Holy Week or a plan
to profane chapels in the Universities! My brothers, my heart and my prayers are
with you in your suffering and humiliations. I feel deeply sad about that. I am sad
and sorry that the Church is being attacked and deprecated for the wrong reasons.
35
Jose M Segura S.J.
I pray for the Church in Spain to awake, and become indeed the least of the
most valued institutions, but for very different motives. I hope that the Church in
Spain from now on is not well esteemed by the powerful, that she is in the news for
receiving immigrants in her temples, that she is associated with the powerless, that
she mades the front pages for leading demonstrations against the war and corruption
and the boom in the construction industry that has produced so much harm to the
people of Spain. For those reasons, I wish the Spanish Church a bad name. I am deeply
concerned if the Church in Spain is losing young people; they were at the heart of the
CRM here in the U.S. Hopefully, walking humbly with the Lord, the Church in
Spain will be able to bridge points of dialogue with them. Brothers, I urge you, I beg
you, I encourage you to love your young people. Maybe if they could hear in the
Church something different from a NO in answer to anything they consider
important in their lives and maybe if they could see a Church open to dialogue
instead of closed in her dogmatic strongholds, they would not leave us.
Dear brothers, with this I am not suggesting that the Church blesses everything
the society does. We are not the thermometer or the mirror of society; rather, as pastors,
we have to lead society towards the Beloved Community. What I do suggest is that
the Church must recover the willingness to walk a long road to meet their young
neighbors where they are, talking in their language, being close to them in their
preoccupations and taking their criticism seriously. For the Spirit of the Lord is also
talking through Gods young children and their eagerness to demonstrate against the
36
Jose M Segura S.J.
reduction in poverty aid, corruption, the mistreatment of immigrants, the

toughening of immigration laws, the awful war in Iraq
The Church must be the prophetic voice yielding in the wilderness of the idols of
death and take the lead in demonstrations and public actions to denounce these
structures of death that are dismissing the dignity of Gods children. I pray and hope
that for taking this lead, in favor of the disinherited, the Church is relinquished to
the caboose of the value polls. For what God is the Church serving when she shows not
concern with social justice issues?
But, I must concede that I have also heard good news about the Spanish
Church. I have recently learned about her ongoing collaboration, brotherhood, work
in common, logistic organization, and foreseeing. I have been amazed by the effort
that your Church has been able to coordinate the visit of the Pope. Although my
denomination does not have such papal devotion, I can understand that for the
Church in Spain, it is a big event. Congratulations for being able to coordinate
something of that magnitude. It is said that you expect between 2-3 millions of
visitors for the gathering with the Pope. Wouldnt it be a great testimony of Christ
poor and humble, if you were able to put all that efforts together to challenge the
Spanish society for the common good?
I wish that you were able to articulate such a coordinated response to the
unyielding situation of the so called illegal immigrants among you. Dear brothers,
I wish the Church in Spain invested more of her intellectual and economic resources
to form the conscience of the Spanish population in order to help them understand
37
Jose M Segura S.J.
that a child of God can never be considered illegal. I wish that the Church of Spain
showed that impressive logistical capacity to welcome the poor, the homeless, the
immigrants under her protection and was ready to stand up for the recognition of the
dignity of all Gods children.
Dear brothers, I pray you become more Jesus-like. I wish you persecution and
being called names, unrest and front-pages in the newspaper, making the news and
occupying the last position in the polls for public opinion. But I wish you all that for
standing by the disinherited among you, who in this moment of economic crisis are
mostly the immigrants. Brothers, allow me to call you to conversion. Allow me to
remind you of the words of our Lord in Matthew 25: I was poor and a stranger and
you did not welcome me. For it seems that I can hear the Lord saying to the Church
in Spain: You were too concerned about your own prestige and security. You were too
concerned about controlling theology and sexual moral issues, and you didnt do
enough for my children. Today is the time of conversion; the time of salvation.
My dear fellows in the priesthood, I wish you to awake from the deep sleep you
have been in, that you might react with all the strength of your many means to
help the preferred of the Lord among you. I shall not end this letter without
reminding you that the Lord has promised that if you are persecuted, misnamed,
dismissed, attacked, or caused to suffer in any form for Gods childrens sake, God will
be by your side.
Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
38
Jose M Segura S.J.
Bibliography
Baker-Fletcher, Garth. Somebodyness: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Theory of Dignity. Minneapolis:
Harvard Dissertations in Religion, Number 31 Fortress Press, 1993.
Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1988.
Bryan, G. McLeod. Voices in the Wilderness, Twentieth-Century Prophets speak to the New Milenium.
Macon: Mercer University Press , 1999.
Clayborne Carson, ed. The Papers of M.L.King, Jr., Vol. I, Called to Serve January 1929-June 1951. .
California: University of California Press, 1992.
Cone, James H. Black Theology and Black Power. New York: Orbis Books, 2006.
. Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare. New York: Orbis Books, 1999.
Ellacura, Ignacio. Freedom Made Flesh. New York: OrbisPress, 1976.
James M. Washington, editor. A Testament of Hope. The essential writtings and speeches of Martin
Luther King Jr. New York: HarperCollins, 1986.
Lischer, Richard. The preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the word that moved America. . New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Stride Toward Freedom. Boston: Beacon Press , 1987.
Morris, Aldon D. Origins of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: The Free Press, 1986.
Ramsay, William M. Four Modern Prophets. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1986.
Rufus Burrow, JR. God and human dignity . Notre Dame: Univeristy of Notre Dame Press, 2006.
Schssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth. Sharing her word. Boston: Bacon Press, 1998.
Sobrino, Jon. Jesus the Liberator. NewYork: OrbisPress, 2004.
Tillich, Paul. Love, Power and Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960.
Wills, Sr. Richard Wayne. Martin Luther King Jr and the Image of God. New York: Oxford University Press,
2009.
Young, Iris Marion. "Five Faces of Oppression." In Rethinking Power, by editor. Thomas E. Wartenberg,
174-195. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
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A soul generated by love.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Harvard Divinity School

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

Martin Luther King as a Prophet. .......................................................................................................... 4

Nationwide, international, inter-denominational and inter-religious recognition. ............................ 4

Interiorly configured as a prophet and recognized as such. .............................................................. 7

The Image of God as source of dignity and the Beloved Community................................................. 11

Image of God: ............................................................................................................................. 11

Beloved community: ................................................................................................................... 15

Maladjusted, dissatisfied ............................................................................................................. 17

Trouble-rouser and agitator:........................................................................................................ 21

My area of application: The social reality of Immigration in Spain. ................................................... 27

International Media Reports on Spain: ........................................................................................... 28

The report of a Catholic Ngo that work in Social Justice ............................................................... 29

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

2. Martin Luther King as a Prophet.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

granted to him by the American Jewish Committee.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

(Ellacura 1976, 219-22).

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

See (Morris 1986, 55-9,95-7).

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 166-8).

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

Obviously, this prophetic dream met the

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

(Bryan 1999, 19)

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

King inventoried situations towards which a Christian should be maladjusted.

condemned repeatedly the madness of militarism, not only

Sadly, these sinful situations that require

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr

Jose M Segura S.J.

An experiment of Love as quoted in (Ibid, 19).

The prophetic Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr