Matyrdom

It was the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King last Friday. I am a huge fan of Dr King, I think he was an amazing man for lots of reasons. If you read Dawkins' The God Delusion you will find a completely ridiculous argument that King's pacifism and dramatic impact on history particular in terms of race relations had nothing to do with his religion. Not only is this ridiculous but it takes about 10 seconds of examining the facts to discover that it is plainly wrong. King was a modern prophet, he was first and foremost a Christian minister. I would strongly encourage everyone to read or listen to his sermons - they are amazing. But none of that is the actual point of today's blog.

Today's blog is about my idle wondering.

I was wondering whether what we think of Dr Martin Luther King Jnr is affected by the fact that he was murdered. Do we think more of him because he was assassinated for what he stood for. And if we do, is this a good thing or not? For that matter, if we don't, should we?

Martin Luther King's murder was a personal tragedy for all who knew and loved him. In terms of the major cause that he is associated with - equal rights for black Americans - it may well have been a positive thing.

I think that anyone who is willing to lay down his life for his friends is worthy of respect and honour. But if he hadn't actually been murdered, would we still laud him as we do?

As I said, Idle wondering....