I am reading 'Soul Survivor' by Philip Yancey. He is a christian writer. In this book he speaks about various people who have inspired him in his christian walk - one of them being Martin Luther King.
By now it is well known that King was an adulterer - and apparently unrepentant as according to Rev. Abernathy he was sleeping with other women up until the night before his death.
Yancey says that in spite of his human failings he was a good christian. He also mentioned others in he Bible who sinned but were men of God, David was one.
My thought is this, yes, even Christians stumble and sin, as stated by Yancey, so did David when it came to adultery. However, he repented. As far as I know if you repent and as Jesus said on many occasions 'sin no more' then this is acceptable to the Father. But if over a period of time you consistently sin, sin of the flesh plus you are a leader in the church, effectively the 'deacon' the Bible speaks of then this is wrong.
If as Rev. Abernathy stated, King was having sex with a woman who was not his wife even the night before he was killed it doesn't seem likely to me that he was repentant in feeling or action.
No matter the other christian trappings of his persona, I find it hard to believe his behaviour was pleasing to God in and of itself, much less the hypocrisy that went along with his public reputation being so godly. Plus there was a very real danger his behaviour could be a stumbling block for others as the authorities who had been bugging him knew about his predilections.
I know many revere him but I feel that morals, especially for a christian and especially for a christian leader are very important. And the Bible is explicit in its condemnation of adultery and other sexual sin - it is also clear on running after evil.
Maybe King's pastor associates and friends did call him to account - maybe they didn't. They should have.
So civil rights activity or not, in a christian context we should not ignore our leaders failings but call them to account on them.
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