Theologically Sound. Culturally Relevant.

Compromise Today

Christianity Today Attacks John MacArthur Over MLK Criticism

Russell Moore helped usher in an era of wokeness at the Southern Baptist Convention with MLK50. It’s not a surprise that after moving to the liberal Christianity Today, Russell Moore would publish a woke activist piece attacking John MacArthur for daring to question the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Justin Giboney was a speaker at MLK50 and continues to be in the liberal Evangelical political scene. His piece Why John MacArthur Is Wrong About MLK fails to deliver a rebuttal to MacArthur’s views. Giboney argues, “The prominent pastor’s claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was ‘not a Christian’ is not only ahistorical. It misses God’s heart for justice.”

Yet his article includes no meaningful rebuttal of MacArthur’s historic claims.

MacArthur may take issue with some of King’s early theological work, which did question Christian doctrine. However, as Mika Edmondson—himself a pastor and systematic theologian—insightfully explained, “King’s early seminary papers don’t reflect his final fully formed theology.” Not unlike Abraham Kuyper and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, King wrestled with theological liberalism but later seemed to “shift back toward the faith of his conservative Black Baptist upbringing.”

Yet where is the evidence of this other than another woke pastor’s characterization? Nowhere.

MLK did not get better over time, he grew worse. His ideology was increasingly violent and Marxist, even after major civil rights legislation was passed. The late 1960s was a violent time and MLK was fond of race riots, rather than opposed. Essentially, he was the precursor to Black Lives Matter.

That said, though MacArthur’s concerns about the ideological Left’s impact on the church are often exaggerated, they are not completely unfounded. The far Left has distorted social justice and disfigured its redemptive form. It’s become more about individual autonomy and self-indulgence than equality under the law and social order. I too lament when Christian leaders imitate secular activists and academics in the public square and fawn for their validation.

But rejecting King is no solution to this problem; he is the model of the unabashedly, unmistakably Christian activism we need—the exact kind of public, Christian faithfulness that the dysfunctional corners of the Left have eschewed. Condemning King and evangelical groups who are trying to show contrition and repentance is a move toward “bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander” (Eph. 4:31), not redemption.

The rest of the article proved to be a woke screed, devoid of a meaningful analysis of MLK’s later work and ideology.

Support the Evangelical Dark Web

By becoming a member of Evangelical Dark Web, you get access to more content, help drive the direction of our research, and support the operations of the ministry.
Facebook
Twitter
Telegram
Reddit
LinkedIn

Leave a Reply

Join 7,244 other subscribers

Receive the Evangelical Dark Web Newsletter

Bypass Big Tech censorship, and get Christian news in your inbox directly.

Trending Posts