You know, the radical conservatives do a great job distorting religion into a threatening, non-inclusive divide. Interpreting a vague and ancient text is one thing. But now, they've crossed the line. The National Black Republican Association, a group representing a small minority of African Americans (who vote overwhelmingly Democratic) have been running an ad saying that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. This has been the reaction: "To suggest that Martin could identify with a party that affirms preemptive, predatory war, and whose religious partners hint that God affirms war and favors the rich at the expense of the poor, is to revile Martin," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which the slain civil rights leader helped establish.
Here's some historical context:
In 1960, King was arrested for trespassing during a sit-in and held in Georgia's Reidsville prison. Fearing for his son's life, Martin Luther King Sr. appealed to presidential candidate John F. Kennedy to secure his release.
When King was freed, his father vowed to deliver 10 million votes to the Democrat, even though Kennedy was only a reluctant supporter of civil rights. That began four decades of black people voting for liberals.
The younger King voted for Kennedy, and for Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson four years later. In that election, King publicly denounced the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater.
It's one thing to debate economic and social policy in the prism of how it affects African Americans, but to make obviously false claims about late great leaders who cannot respond.
What do you think? Should they pull the ad? Should they appologize? Should MLK Jr. come down from heaven and scold them?
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