King Would Be Against King Day

I am a fan of Martin Luther King, Jr. I've read three of his biographies, listened to, read and watched a number his sermons and I've even taken a grad. school course on him. Now, I am no expert on the man but I do have to say, I think he'd be against MLK Day. Afterall, it was King himself who said he didn't want an elaborate funeral or an ornate memorial. I have to wonder if King, who fought so hard for vocational and educational eqauality, would love the fact that on his "day" everyone stops working and learning? I agree with Vernon Harding that, at this point, King's "day" proves nothing more than the fact that America has amnesia. Indeed, on this day we hear sound-bytes and clips, segments of speeches and interviews. We only see and hear the tamed down, memorable stuff. This man's life is reduced to a few good quotes from lectures. We don't see clips of white's torturing and murdering blacks and we don't see footage of the KKK burning crosses and throwing bombs. No, we domesticate all that the Civil Rights Movement and King stood for, into one day that gives some people time off of work and some kids time off of school. Honestly, it is sickening.

Perhaps some poetry will capture what I'm trying to say best. I offer to you, the words of C. W. Himes, Jr.:

Now that he is safely dead,

let us praise him,

build monuments to his glory,

sing hosannahs to his name.

Dead men make

such convenient heroes; They

cannot rise

to challenge the images

we would fashion from their lives

And besides,

it's easier to build monuments

than to make a better world.

So, now that he is safely dead,

we, with eased consciences

will teach our children

that he was a great man......knowing

that the cause for which he lived

is still a cause

and the dream for which he died

is still a dream,

a dead man's dream.

"Praying With My Legs" : Abraham Heschel

Last night, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly did an excellent piece on the life of Abraham J. Heschel. Heschel was a Jewish theologian, a social activist and a mystic among other things. If you've never read his stuff, you really should. Heschel spoke out loudly against the Vietnam War and he walked boldly and proudly on the front lines of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s marches. In fact, it was during these marches that he said: "I felt like I was praying with my legs." So, on MLK Day, I speak not so much about King himself (many others have already done that in the blogosphere and rightly so) but rather of one of the lives he touched: Abraham J. Heschel. To learn and see more, check out the following link: Life of Heschel.

Jim West Has Missed The Boat

Jim West has requested prayer for myself and Nick Norelli. I am tempted not to respond to Jim's cry but I just cannot resist. For the record, 1) I did compare Tupac's work (not just hip-hop in general) with Israel's prophets and, 2) I did compare King and Pac. To call either of these a "gross bastardization of comparison" is to either skew the comparisons or to be completely ill-informed of the prophets, King or Tupac. My comparison of Shakur and the prophets was not the same as Norelli's. I do not take the view that these rappers were speaking self-fulfilling prophecies (btw, this sounds way too much like lingo from the Word of Faith Movement for me to ever use it).

My comparison, Jim, was that like Israel's prophets, Tupac spoke about oprression, social injustice, political and religious corruption, poverty, spirituality, etc. Either you are ignorant of Tupac's music and have never listened to it or you misread the prophets and miss these elements. Perhaps both. Because he addresed so many of these issues, there was a prophetic element in Tupac's work. That was the comparison, nothing more and nothing less. Again, to call this a "gross bastardization of comparison" only reveals: 1) that you are prejudiced towards the rap culture (which you make clear in your post) and fail to see any beauty or good in it, 2) that you have little ability to see the poetic and social beauty of Tupac's work, 3) that you read my blog with a gloss and didn't really think about it, or 4) you just completely misunderstood what I was trying to say.

All-in-all, the gross bastardization falls on you. It's unfortunate that a culture other than your own, which you lack information on, makes your skin crawl. Sure, there are things that I don't embrace about that culture but there are good things about it. The fact is, Tupac, however much you don't want it to be true, spoke a lot of truth. His insight into the human situation was incredible and he put it into words like few poets can do. If you've ever read or studied Israel's prophets, you see similar things. Their poetry is beautiful and contains much truth. They speak deeply about the human situation and often times wear their sleeves on their shoulders. The fact is, when one takes the time to realize the contexts out of which persons like Tupac and the prophets spoke, their skin does not always crawl (it may sometimes, everything both had to say was not pretty) but they are profoundly touched.

As far as Martin Luther King, Jr. being compared with Tupac Shakur, I'm afraid you've just missed the point again. The comparison was that they both spoke about social justice issues, religion, etc. Both of these men confronted a corrupt government, prejudiced people, spoke out about equality and were a voice for black people. To say that the only comparison is that they were black is shortschrift (Nick). That was not a main comparison of mine!

Finally, the problem I have with all of this is that you (Jim) failed to take into account which prophetic element I was speaking of. I never said that Pac was predicting things. Neither did I say his works should be canonized or something like that. I was saying that Tupac was a prophet, in the sense of forthtelling (not foretelling). Indeed, Pac preached in his songs. Not that I should expect a fellow your age to listen to Tupac but Jim, if you were open enough to Shakur and his context, you might actually find some value and insight from his music. But then again, in the end, maybe that's what needs praying for, not me or Nick. Much love to you Jim but buddy, you've missed the boat on this one.