By Wayne Stapleton
VP of Cross-Cultural Engagement & Emerging Leader Engagement
In the United States of America, January 20, 2025, is not only the day of the presidential inauguration, it is also the recognition of the ministry and message of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For me, MLK Day has always been a little bit bigger than just focusing on the person; it is a reminder of an era.
This year, I will be 60 years old. My birthday has always understandably been meaningful to me, but only a few years ago it took on a deeper significance when I realized the very day of my birth, Sunday, March 7, 1965, also marks another event taking place in Selma, Alabama – Bloody Sunday. While my mother was in labor, which I am sure involved pain and blood, this peaceful march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge featured pain and blood as well, the result of Alabama State Troopers and members of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan violently confronting those who were demonstrating on behalf of voting rights.
While he was not in Selma that day, Dr. King led a march from Selma to Montgomery later that month. Our day for remembering him calls to mind the forces he and many in the Civil Rights movement faced. Many Americans take voting rights for granted, part and parcel of being an American, and yet all Americans have not always had this privilege.
It is meaningful to me that Bloody Sunday is not ancient history – it took place during my lifetime and the lifetimes of millions of other Americans.
It is meaningful to me that this kind of history is what we are encouraged to remember when we think about the ministry and message of Dr. King, not to create conflict or foment fear but to celebrate how far we have come and to honestly acknowledge what we are capable of.
It is meaningful to me that the biblical doctrine of imago Dei – the image of God in all people – drove Dr. King’s passion and preaching. He once taught “And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls ‘the image of God,’ you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude” (“Loving Your Enemies,” November 17, 1957).
It is meaningful to me that in Jesus Christ all people can be reconciled to one another, overcome hostility and division, and experience true oneness in the family of God. In Christ, the message Dr. King preached about unity and the content of our character is more than speech; it is to be reasonably expected because of the power of the Holy Spirit working among his people.
This January 20, while the US acknowledges a new President, as well as another year of looking back on the ministry and message of Dr. King, both can remind us of our past and help each of us take seriously what kind of future we are building together.