Of all the stupid claims that Christopher Hitchens makes in his God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, surely the stupidest is his claim that on account of the commitment of Martin Luther King Jr to nonviolence, in “no real as opposed to nominal sense … was he a Christian.” Wherever King got his understanding of nonviolence from, argues Hitchens, it simply couldn’t have been from Christianity because Christianity is inherently violent.
The best response that I can give to such a claim is turn to that wonderfully candid account of the diverse influences that shaped King’s understanding of nonviolence in his Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story, and then demonstrate how his Christianity gave these influences in peculiarly Christ-like form.
This is an excellent reflection. It points us in the direction of a true understanding of Christian orthodoxy. That is, an orthodoxy that takes the Bible’s central message of the Kingdom of God seriously. Jesus Christ is King, and we are called to live according to the principles of the Prince of Peace. Christ’s ministry of overcoming the works of sin by his sacrificial death on the cross is a ministry of reconciliation. We are called to take up our cross, the cross of the ministry of reconciliation, and follow in the footsteps of our Savior.
As we are faithful, we will be called fools because we are impractical. Hopefully, we will be fools for Christ. Perhaps we will be seen as unpatriotic. However, we will be doing battle with the powers and principalities that continue to oppress and enslave the people of God.