Chicago Tribune Op-ed: What Martin Luther King Jr. Taught About Embracing Our Enemies

A Sculpture of MLK in White Marble Photo by Bee Calder on Unsplash
Eboo Patel , IFYC President and Founding
January 15, 2021

This year’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day comes less than two weeks after a violent white mob, inspired by entrenched racism and dressed up in Christian symbolism, attacked American democracy, leaving five people dead.

As a Black Christian minister leading a nonviolent movement for civil rights, Martin Luther King Jr. came to know such mobs well. He faced them across the American South, and also right here in Chicago.

What might we learn from how King dealt with such mobs in his own time? It is reasonable to believe that King would support holding people accountable for crimes committed, but King also held a higher hope for at least some of those who were part of the mob. Namely, that they might be changed, and then included in the beloved community of American democracy.

Read the entire op-ed here

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The opinions contained in this piece are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Interfaith Youth Core. Interfaith America encourages a wide range of views and strives to maintain a respectful tone with a goal of greater understanding and cooperation between people of different faiths, worldviews, and traditions.