Martin Luther King Jr.: How His Christian Faith Contributed to His Civil Rights Movement

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Critical Reasoning
Martin Luther King Jr. is arguably the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement. Right from his childhood, King’s life was surrounded by the Christian faith. It is his background in the faith that contributed to his approach to the Civil Rights Movement. In his works, King makes reference to God and many aspects that characterize the Christian religion. Through his works, we can get to understand his view of the Christian faith and how it informed his approach to the Civil Rights Movement. This paper seeks to explain King’s understanding of the Christian faith and how it influenced his approach to the Civil Rights Movement.
The Christian faith characterizes King’s background significantly, and it nurtured the person he turned out to be as well as his actions. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, were all preachers (Bruns 2). It is evident that he came from a family that had generations of preachers. Bruns informs that King’s family had strong religious roots whose preaching history dates back to the years of Civil War (2). Furthermore, his education was characterized by more experiences of the Christian faith. He followed the footsteps of his father and grandfather and attended Morehouse College, where he got to learn more about the Christian faith. During his time at the college, his spiritual development was influenced to a great extent by Benjamin Mays, the college’s president (Bruns 11). His life at Crozer, Boston University, and Dexter was filled with further learning and practicing of the Christian faith. It is without a doubt that King’s background and education had an immense impact on his understanding of the Christian faith. King had a vast knowledge of the faith, which he had gained throughout his younger years. Therefore, it is deducible that King’s extensive learning of the faith, as well as the influence of his family, contributed to his understanding and practice of the Christian religion.
The works of King clearly show how he perceived the religion and how it impacted his role in the Civil Rights Movement. He not only mentions God but he also makes key references to biblical stories. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail perhaps portrays well the impact of the faith on Civil Rights Movement. In the letter, King explains that “I am in Birmingham b...