‘The MLK Cult’

Someone has to tell the truth about the “orgy of guilt-tripping and pseudo-Christian penance, one that seems to become shriller and more robotized with the passing of time”: Martin Luther King, JR. Day. Someone has to expose the unanimity with which this “post-Christian form of Lent” (MLK Day) is celebrated by both “the establishment Right … and the Left.” Trust Prof. Paul E. Gottfried to do the dues, pointing out, first, that “the rapturous tribute” Martin Luther King (1929-1968) receives is “no longer extended to the founders of our country,” or to such figures as “the gallant Southern leader Robert E. Lee, whose birthday coincides with King’s.”

“King’s birthday,” writes Gottfried at AltRight, “is the only national holiday devoted to an individual American whose public observance has been commanded by Congress, and in 1983, this honor was accorded, with more or less bipartisan support.” This “sacral calendar” “goes on through Black History Month and is then resumed for another putative victim group during Women’s Month.” Oy vey.

When it comes to MLK, don’t expect theological or historical illumination from “GOP operatives and neoconservative journalists,” as they sing from the Left’s hymn book here. Glenn Beck has succumbed too. In fact, nobody will contort in greater agony, on January 17, than Beck.

“The Patron Saint of White Guilt” is an important essay. Read it.