Copyright by James Carlson
The genius of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior (MLK) was to approach American society in terms of transcendent moral truths. MLK sought to persuade people by reaching in to their conscience was well as their intellect. Moving past vain rationalizations and other prevailing bigotries, MLK found a path to success with respect to those principles that affect us all in our lives and our nation.
Sadly, as I have written before, the Dream of Dr. King is being destroyed by groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM). BLM is killing the Dream of Dr. King by offering the Black community only a voice for their anger and frustration but not offering them any concrete proposal for improvements to their situation. The Dream of Dr. King was not just to be heard, but to be a part of American society respecting American values, traditions, and laws. And this is what led to the outstanding work of the modern Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of MLK.
MLK was the right man at the right time in the right place. He was trained by his father in standing up for Black Americans in defense of their rights. He had recently graduated with his PhD and was a paster in Montgomery at the time Rosa Lee Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. MLK was available with the right tool kit to reach out to a nation with his arguments of matters transcendent. Reaching into the conscience of a nation, MLK spoke to our collective conscience and moved us further along the path of social justice for all Americans.
MLK’s arguments included at least 3 points:
Jesus is for everyone regardless of color,
People are people regardless of color, and
The Law should be applied equally to everyone regardless of color.
Civil Rights is a large concept based upon a larger notion of what the law is all about. The Civil Rights movement focused attention on the voting rights of Black citizens (one application of civil rights) but the larger scope of interest was to secure the blessings of Law and Order among all Americans to include Black Americans as well. This was back in the days of Jim Crow legislation where Blacks were historically mistreated by the law instead of supported and protected by the law. MLK and others sought the full application of Law to the Black community for their growth and protection.
Matters transcendent needs to be underscored here. This is what led to the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. But these transcendent values have lost their currency in modern cultural debates and discussions about the plight of many in ‘Black America’. Losing sight of transcendent values is a problem for the modern Civil Rights movement who spend more time arguing for abortion than to limit the disproportionate killing of Black babies. The disparity is very apparent here but has a deeper vein. Losing sight of transcendent moral values is actually killing the Black community.
The great thing about matters transcendent is that transcendence truly transcends. That means, people can access it but they cannot dominate it. We all have access to moral truths within our God given conscience but no one can own or command our conscience despite the pressures they may impose upon us. The rights and freedoms of our conscience is something God gave to us, not the state.
MLK graduated with his doctorate degree in 1954, just one year after Russel Kirk published his seminal work, The Conservative Mind. In his book, Kirk said the first canon (principle) of conservatism is a:
Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience.
I do not know if Dr. King studied the work of Dr. Kirk but they both approached the conscience in terms of transcendent moral truths to affect change on the individual and society at large. The convergence of their work in the 1950s speaks loudly to our modern generation that is adrift in moral relativism.
Dr. Kirk was the father of modern political conservatism and led to the modern political conservative movement that eventually gave us President Ronald Reagan. Dr. King was the campion of the Civil Rights Movement that eventually gave us the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. Their advocacy of matters transcendent should be an indication of where we are going wrong and where we can pick up to start moving in the right direction again.
Sadly, the modern libertarian movement in American conservative thought is a cancer that is set to kill America’s ‘body politic.’ Instead of advocating the Patriot’s Dream of 1776 (the Right to do what is Right in the Sight of God), which is where the Dream of Dr. King came from, modern libertarian philosophy advocates for the Right to do whatever is Right in their own sight. Another way of saying it is, ‘we have the right to do whatever we damn well please whenever we damn well please.’ This is the dream of modern libertarian philosophy of social liberal/fiscal conservatism. Reagan, in contrast, was a social conservative, fiscal conservative, defense conservative libertarian. This is where the Reagan Coalition came from.
The Declaration of Independence speaks of the Rights given to mankind and the God who gave them to humanity. We also find in the Declaration the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God as a definition of what is Right in the Sight of God. The Laws of Nature refers to general revelation with our human conscience (telling us what is right and wrong). And the Laws of Nature’s God is special revelation with the Bible (telling us what is right and wrong). We often need Gods Word helping us improve upon our conscience if/when it goes astray. These are the matters transcendent that will help us grow as individuals and a nation. This is where we get the freedom to do what is right in the sight of God.
Abraham Lincoln even spoke of this in his Second Inaugural Address when he said:
With malice toward none with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right…
The genius of America as presented in the Declaration is the idea of Liberty under Law. Not the mindless anarchy of modern libertarianism that advocates a removal of laws that prosecutes abortion, sodomy, and recreational drug abuse. Revolutionary France is more like modern libertarianism with its advocacy of liberty without laws.
The Revolution France divided the French Parliament into 2 groups, the Traditionalists (conservatives on the right side of the isle) and Revolutionaries (liberals on the left side of the isle). The idea of left/right liberal/conservative came from the divide of a society and nation over matters transcendent in France. That is why you see ‘defund the police’ on the left and ‘law and order’ on the right here in America. This is nothing more than a witness in America of our Cultural Wars, similar to the divisions found in the legislature of Revolutionary France.
Today, we are fighting a great cultural war with the war of words. We need to add value to the discussions and debates by acknowledging matters transcendent and practicing civil discourse. The Dream of Dr. King and the Patriot’s Dream need to merge as conservatives get behind the principles that built our nation and led to the successes of the Civil Rights movement.
The national socialists in the Democrat Party are just as bad as the modern Libertarians in the Republican Party. Instead of pursuing the Dream of either Dr. King or the Founding Fathers with matters transcendent, they are seeking to dissolve the Constitution, the rule of law, and basic moral principles of right and wrong. They too need to get on board with the Patriot’s Dream to do what is right in the sight of God and advocate for matters transcendent in a guided pursuit to achieve the Dream of Dr. King. Here, liberals and conservatives need to join forces to move the civil rights movement forward as Dr. King wanted. The Rule of Law should apply to us all for the protection of everyone’s liberty and promoting everyone’s security.
Liberty under Law! Liberty and Justice for All!!!
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