The Interfaith Wisdom of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I Have Never Been a Religious Bigot”

Dr. King received criticism in 1961 after making statements about America “rising to the heights of a Democratic and Christian nation.” He was accused of condemning other religions and asserting a national organized religion. Again, King responded beautifully. In his reply to a letter from a Mr. M. Bernard Resnikoff, he stated that his intended meaning was America’s need to strive for the “heights of noble ethical and moral principles” as demonstrated by Christ. King makes a significant distinction between organized Christianity and a manner of living that is true to Christ, nothing that they are not always one and the same.

“A Narrow Sectarianism That Causes Me Real Concern”

As part of his ongoing civil rights work, MLK partnered with an organization called the Gandhi Society for Human Rights. King was greatly influenced by the Hindu leader Mohandas Gandhi, but once again received criticism from within his own faith group. The Christian Century had published an editorial accusing Dr. King of breaking from his own religion and joining a new sect, which King responded to in his letter “A Narrow Sectarianism That Causes Me Real Concern.” In this letter, he once again condemns the evident religious bigotry and intolerance of his time, while maintaining his loyalty to Christianity and his belief that Christ most truthfully embodies God’s spirit.

“Buddhists and Martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement”

Many skeptics of interfaith harmony claim that while the three Abrahamic religions at least share a common monotheistic deity, reaching understanding with more Eastern religions is nearly impossible. Fortunately, Dr. King had no such doubts. In 1966, he released a joint statement with Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hanh for the International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam. This statement acknowledged that the self-sacrificing Vietnamese Buddhists and the Christian and Muslim civil rights activists in America faced a common enemy. The enemy was not man itself, but “discrimination, dictatorship, greed, hatred and violence, which lie within the heart of man.”