THE RUDE PUNDIT'S ANNUAL MLK WOULD MESS UP GEORGE BUSH EDITION

The Rude Pundit says a whole lot more, but I pulled out the relevant excerpts from Dr. King's interview with Alex Haley in 1965:

Check out King in a January 1965 interview with Alex Haley in Playboy:

"PLAYBOY: Can you recall any other mistakes you've made in leading the movement?
"MARTIN LUTHER KING: Well, the most pervasive mistake I have made was in believing that because our cause was just, we could be sure that the white ministers of the South, once their Christian consciences were challenged, would rise to our aid. I felt that white ministers would take our cause to the white power structures. I ended up, of course, chastened and disillusioned. As our movement unfolded, and direct appeals were made to white ministers, most folded their hands -- and some even took stands against us.

"PLAYBOY: Their stated reason for refusing to help was that it was not the proper role of the church to 'intervene in secular affairs.' Do you disagree with this view?
"MARTIN LUTHER KING: Most emphatically. The essence of the Epistles of Paul is that Christians should rejoice at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believe. The projection of a social gospel, in my opinion, is the true witness of a Christian life. This is the meaning of the true ekklesia -- the inner, spiritual church. The church once changed society. It was then a thermostat of society. But today I feel that too much of the church is merely a thermometer, which measures rather than molds popular opinion."

King tells Haley that it's specifically the "white church" that has failed: "As the Negro struggles against grave injustice, most white churchmen offer pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. As you say, they claim that the gospel of Christ should have no concern with social issues. Yet white churchgoers, who insist that they are Christians, practice segregation as rigidly in the house of God as they do in movie-houses. Too much of the white church is timid and ineffectual, and some of it is shrill in its defense of bigotry and prejudice. In most communities, the spirit of status quo is endorsed by the churches."

Not only did white preachers diss Dr. King, Black Preachers, such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's father, dissed him as well, and wouldn't allow him in their pulpits. And these are the same Rent-A-Preacher Negroes who are in their pulpits on this day, citing what a wonderful man Dr. King was, and what sacrifices he made.

To which I remind them, "Sacrifices you, yourself weren't willing to make, you bastard..."

What is worse is preachers who are Pastors of "Mega-Churches" like Rod Parsley and Creflo Dollar. Both pimp the poor for money like Rev. Ike, while using their pulpits as campaign staff for election candidates like J. Kenneth Blackwell or Michael Steele. Instead of doing what God called them to do.

Or, maybe God hasn't called them, but they are showing that they are in it for the money.

Yeah, the MLK would mess Up George Bush edition is a must read. Hat tip to His Rudeness, and another tip to blogger Steve Gillard on the Rent-A-Preachers.