When Martin Luther King Jnr. was assassinated in Memphis on 4 April 1968, the world mourned a champion of freedom, a principled campaigner against segregation in the American South. In the years since then he's become a kind of secular icon of human rights, celebrated as an oracle and visionary of a better society.
On the 40th anniversary of his death, politician and campaigner Oona King goes in search of a side to Martin Luther King that the world is in danger of forgetting: King the preacher, the raging prophet of God's judgement on America, who warned his nation that if it didn't stop its reckless course God would rise up and break the backbone of its power. The fact is that, before he was a civil rights leader, King was a Baptist pastor and remained one to the end of his life. He described his religious calling as the key to his identity.
So what kind of religion did King believe in? What made him tick? Why is his Christianity being air-brushed out of our picture of him? And what are we in danger of losing if we ignore his deeply spiritual and mystical world-view?
I have been searching for the name of a piece of music for years. It was played in the funeral procession scene in this documentary. As asked by Jim Thompson on March 29th Is there any way to find out more about the sound track?
March 29th - 9:39pmJim Thompson said...
Saw the very good program tonight. Would really like to know more about all the sound tracks. There was some brilliant blues playing. Can you help?
March 29th - 9:15pmJanet RANDELL said...
I am sorry that Oona King has throughout the programme until a few seconds before the end, tried to play down and underplay the Christian faith and biblical background that obviously inspired Martin Luther King's whole life. Oona unfortunately seemed to have missed both the whole spiritual and biblical nuance of religious and inner political freedom reflected in the theology of the Old Testament prophets, which Martin Luther King drew upon to inspire his momentous and groundbreaking leadership in America.
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