The Deep Prayer Life of Martin Luther King

Today, as we remember Dr. Martin Luther King's great speech that changed our nation, I am reflecting on my understanding of him. When I first read Martin Luther King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" I was deeply moved. How beautiful and eloquent, how persuasive and biblical it is. I remember thinking how I rarely heard the media talk about King's deep faith in Jesus while they applauded his civil rights actions. But only a spiritually deep person could write the kind of letter King wrote.

Dr. King had a deep prayer life that formed the foundation for his social activism. It would be a great mistake to speak of Dr. King's activism without looking at his indebtedness to the God he encountered in prayer.

Lewis Baldwin of Vanderbilt University has written about this in Never to Leave Us Alone: The Prayer Life of Martin Luther King Jr. (See Baldwin interviewed here at cnn.com.) The impetus for his book lies in the following story.

When King accepted a request to lead African-Americans during a bus-boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, he began to receive death threats. One night, after yet another such threat, King began to doubt his decision. The CNN article reads:

"As the threats poured in, his fears increased for his wife, Coretta, and their infant daughter, Yolanda. He now wondered how he could relinquish his role as the boycott leader without appearing a coward. Then something happened that King would talk about for years afterward. He bowed over his untouched cup of coffee, and prayed aloud in desperation. King said he heard an “inner voice” that addressed him by name, and encouraged him to stand up for justice."

It was this prayer that inspired Baldwin to write his book. Yes, King was a brilliant orator. But he also had a deep prayer life. Baldwin says: "So much has been written about King's preaching and pulpit style… but strangely enough, scholars who have treated these subjects ignore King's prayer life. The experience reminded King that he could not depend on the resources of his talents and intellectual training to make it in the struggle. He came to see more clearly that religion had to be real to him in a special way as he confronted the pressures of the movement."

"After the kitchen experience, King felt a special divine companionship, or what he called cosmic companionship, and this sustained him. Fear left him and he was assured that if he continued to stand up for justice and righteousness, God would be with him."

Baldwin is certain that much deep prayer and meditation preceded King's writing of "Letter from Birmingham Jail." The kind of writing in that letter only comes out of a deep soul, one that had spent much time in the presence of God and in dialogue with God. God spoke to King, and King was in a place to hear.

Today's "too busy to pray pastors" who want to do great things for God without dwelling daily in God's intimate presence should not wonder why they are not part of the Revolution.

The Preface to All Our Idolatries: Approaching Scripture as a Mirror Rather than as Revelation

I'm out of touch with "Christian TV." I don't watch it. I am thankful for some of the programs, which give shut-ins help and hope and truth. On those rare occasions when I stumble on a TV preacher and stay there a few minutes I find myself thinking, "What the heck does this have to do with the actual good news of Jesus and his kingdom?" Sometimes there is such a cognitive disconnect that I conclude "Whatever this is, it is not actual Christianity."

For example, watch this for something that has nothing to do with Christianity. This video is not making fun of Christianity since what you see here is not actually "Christianity." Call it, as Soren Kierkegaard would have, "Christendom."



James K.A. Smith, in his Foreward to David Crump's Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture: Reading the Bible Critically in Faith, writes:

"In some places, the Bible actually functions as a bookend to uphold the status quo of American civil religion or whatever sort of domesticated spirituality passes for "Christianity." In a sense, that grotesque dinner table prayer in Will Ferrell's NASCAR parody, Talladega Nights, ends up functioning as a back-handed Kierkegaardian critique. While we all purport to be praying to Jesus the Christ,  risen and ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father, instead we end up praying to whatever domesticated version of Jesus suits our tastes and preferences. So everyone around the table starts to share: "I like to picture Jesus as..." This is the preface to all our idolatries. And it functions as a debilitating filter when we read the Bible. The Scriptures are no longer revelation; they are simply a mirror. Instead of encountering Jesus there, we simply see ourselves. This is what Kierkegaard liked to call "Christendom." And in his delicious Danish irony, Kierkegaard warns us: it's hard to read the Bible in Christendom." (vi-vii)

Philosophy Season Begins! (Slow Thinking About Big Questions)

Monroe County Community College

This week I'll begin my 13th year of teaching philosophy at Monroe County Community College. I'll teach three classes - two sections of Introduction to Logic, and one section of Philosophy of Religion. At this stage of my life I am able to walk into these classes, without notes or preparation, and teach, with enthusiasm. Yet, because I love philosophy, I never stop studying it. Here are a few thoughts I have today about my classes.

Logic

• Most students today lack critical thinking skills.
• The ability to think logically helps in any field. In law, e.g., to be able to intuit the claim of inference from premises to a conclusion is necessary. 
• Logic is about evaluating arguments and formulating arguments. In logic, an "argument" is: one or more premises that, if true, make a claim of inference to a conclusion. Premises and conclusions are "statements." A "statement" is a sentence that describes a state of affairs that obtains. Or, a statement is a sentence that is either true or false.
• I'm going to do my best to make this intrinsically boring class interesting for my students. One way I do this is to present arguments that are relevant and, I think, fun. For example, tomorrow in my first class I'll argue for the conclusion Dogs are smarter than cats. In another class I will argue for the conclusion We are alone in the universe (using Ward and Brownlee's Rare Earth theory). Later in the semester I may present philosopher Francis Beckwith's logical argument against abortion. This is a particularly good argument to give in a logic class, since in logic emotive arguing adds nothing to an argument. I really enjoy presenting these arguments as exemplary of logical thinking.
• Because most students are postmodernists without knowing it they will have a hard time grasping the idea that: If a statement is true it is true for everyone, and if a statement is false is it false for everyone. The DNA of today's adolescent is relativistic. In logic, subjective and collective relativism is irrational (illogical).
• I am personal interested in Daniel Kahneman's thesis that there are, basically, two kinds of "thinking"; viz., "thinking fast" and "thinking slow." Most thinking is of the first kind; critical thinking (logic) is of the second kind. I'll be teaching my student to "slow-think."

Philosophy of Religion

• I love teaching this class! Over the years most students seem captivated by the material.
• We'll never escape metaphysical, "Big Questions" thinking. Most students (nearly all, in my experience) want someone to dialogue with about these questions. 
• I'm going to do my best to release students from the mental bondage of Facebook-reasoning. None of the arguments Facebook atheists and theists use are used by scholars to defend their worldviews, whether atheistic or theistic. OK, I'll back off that statement a bit. But not much. The real discussion is found in the academic literature. Here, e.g., is the standard philosophy of religion textbook I use in my class - Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings. 
• This course is not only about introducing students to philosophy of religion issues, but is also an extended exercise in critical thinking and logic.

In both classes we'll talk about "worldviews." Everyone has a worldview. I'll let the class know that I am a Christian theist. Then I'll share the various worldviews and let them know that, no matter who they had as a professor, that professor would also have a worldview. Just as they, the student does. A "worldview" is comprised of a set of beliefs. A "belief" is a "statement." A "statement" is a sentence that is either true or false. Beliefs make truth claims which, if true, are true for everyone. Therefore all beliefs marginalize. This must be understood to make any progress in philosophical thinking. (Of course students are not evaluated on whether or not they agree with my worldview. A few of the atheists in my class have earned 'As' and I have a failed a few Christian students who are from my own church.)

The Bible - Grow Deeper!

How Deep Do You Want to Go in the Bible? 

Grow deeper tonight, Wed., and Thurs.

Greek 102 (taught by former professor of biblical Greek Paul Albrecht) 

6:45 - 9 each night. 

No cost. Love offerings will be taken. 

At Redeemer Fellowship Church

5305 Evergreen, Monroe, MI. 

734-242-5277.

Prayer as Involvement in His-Story (Prayer Summer)

Redeemer sanctuary

Following Dallas Willard I'm defining prayer as: talking with God about what we (God and I) are doing together. In prayer, we converse with the King of heaven and earth.

Every Jesus-follower is on The Mission of Redemption with God. Mixing headship metaphors, God is our Shepherd, God is our King. The New Testament's Big Idea is that our King died, was raised, and now lives to build his kingdom people on earth, as it is in heaven. In prayer with God we learn how to build lasting things.

This is a privilege, as Wayne Grudem writes:

God wants us to pray because it allows us to be a part of a story that is greater than our own. It allows us to be involved in activities that have eternal significance. When we pray, God’s kingdom is advanced as his will is done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6: 10). (Grudem, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know, Kindle Locations 600-602)



Prayer is involvement in His-Story. That's what's happening as you pray today.

There Is a Prize Worth Leaving Everything For

First of all, a plug for the best non-bookstore in the area: Ollie's. Bookophiles - get in your car and go to Ollie's right now! What a wild, crazy, eclectic, ever-shifting collection of "inspirational" books they have! At Ollie's you'll find everything from Bibles to devotional books to Christian fiction to Jesus-books to hyper-academic theological treasures - mostly for $3.99. Ollie's is better than your basic Christian bookstore, and more fun. See Ollie's Bargain Outlet - "Good stuff Cheap!" (This is a chain - in Monroe it's on North Telegraph next to Lowe's.)

I picked up (for only $3.99) Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne's Red Letter Revolution: What If Jesus Really Meant What He Said?. This is a great read, even if I think it still needs more red-lettering since I'm guessing I'll give it a grade of "Incomplete" because (I suspect, as a result of reading Shane's Jesus for President) it is very light on healing and deliverance, which Jesus did tons of. You don't think that when Jesus tells his disciples that if they abide in him they will do the things he has been doing that he intends to leave out the healing and deliverance he has been doing (which form much of the gospel account)?

Nevertheless, the book is very good, and I have always liked Tony Campolo. Shane's voice is very important, since he not only has Jesus' views on money and things correct, he and his community are living this out. And let's not forget - love is the greatest.

So, e.g., consider this. Shane writes (he once lived and worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta):

"We opt for survival, security, and comfort rather than the cross and suffering love of Jesus. We choose the American dream instead of the gospel dream. But the freest people I know are the folks who have learned to live like the lilies and the sparrows. Once a reporter said to Mother Teresa that he couldn't do what she did if he was paid a million dollars. She answered, "Yes, for a million dollars I wouldn't do it either." I think Jesus is showing us that there is a pearl, a prize, worth leaving everything for. So it's not about what you've left, but what you've found." (Red Letter Revolution, 16)

And, presumably, Mother Teresa couldn't do what she did if she was a bazillionaire, since the management of her wealth would weigh her down.

Higher Education is Not the Enemy of Religiosity

Clay pots by Gary Wilson

76 percent of kids who don’t go to college end up attending church less often, a higher percentage than those who do go to college. “Higher education,” as they put it, “is not the enemy of religiosity.”

Another study published in The Review of Religious Research in 2011 found that kids who went to college were slightly more likely to pray and read the Bible more often.

- From "Religion, Intelligence, and Socialization"

Jordan Monge writes:

"Things are changing. The Social Science Research Council stated in 2007, "the academy is no longer the bastion of secularism it was once assumed to be." Those who attend college are actually more likely to stay religious now than those who forgo higher education... 

If these trends continue, I can imagine a world in which the prevailing narrative is not "go to college and lose your faith" but "come to college to save your faith." For just as the university taught me to think rationally, to question well, to delight in knowledge, it was the best place I could come to learn how to worship God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind."

Well... that's where God found me, while I was a student at a university.

PrayerLife - Viva la Relación (Prayer Summer)

Speaking at Green Lake Conference Center, Wisconsin

My estimate is that 80-90% of North American pastors do not have a significant prayer life.

I get this statistic from teaching 2000+ pastors and Christian leaders in seminary classes and conferences/seminars over the past 36 years.

By "significant prayer life" I mean something approaching the prayer life of Jesus who, early in the morning as was his custom, went to a lonely place where he prayed.



By "prayer" I mean: talking with God, in conversation, about what you and God are doing together.

Do these statistics get any better if, say, a pastor takes a class like my week-long spiritual formation course? Yes. I estimate that, after a week of praying, sharing with colleagues in ministry, and biblical and theological reflection on prayer and spiritual formation, 30-40% now have a significant prayer life. (Again, this relates to North American pastors and, I think, European pastors as well. For Third World pastors the statistics invert.)

This is why I have been offering Prayer Summer. My prayer is that, out of the 400+ who have been engaging in 30-60 minutes of praying, 5 days a week, many will have a significant prayer life. My prayer is that a significant prayer life will stick, for the rest of a person's life.

I believe that not having a significant prayer life is a main reason for the North American Church's relative inauthenticity and irrelevance.

This Prayer Summer experiment is nearly over. But hopefully for many who began with me in June, a new, vibrant PrayerLife has taken root.

¡Viva la Relación!

Moral Relativism: No Real Way to Condemn Nazis

American atheist president David Silverman is here unable to make sense of atheism's logical inference to moral relativism. I don't think he understands the philosophical issues.

Francis Beckwith on Abortion and Human Beings as Moral Subjects

Here's Baylor University professor of philosophy and jurisprudence Francis Beckwith on abortion and human beings as moral agents.

If you've taken my logic class or any logic class, note Beckwith's use of logical terminology and reasoning.