{"id":177435,"date":"2021-01-18T12:02:52","date_gmt":"2021-01-18T12:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=177435"},"modified":"2021-01-18T05:52:59","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T05:52:59","slug":"mlks-warning-of-americas-spiritual-death-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/01\/mlks-warning-of-americas-spiritual-death-2\/","title":{"rendered":"MLK\u2019s Warning of America\u2019s Spiritual Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Archive:<\/strong> A half century ago, The New York Times<\/em> accused Martin Luther King Jr. of \u201cslander\u201d for decrying the Vietnam War and The Washington Post<\/em> detected \u201cunsupported fantasies\u201d in his speech, recalled more favorably here by Gary G. Kohls–originally published on 19 Jan 2014 and slightly edited for time element.<\/p>\n

**************<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s Riverside Church speech was titled \u201cBeyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.\u201d It was delivered exactly one year before his April 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis.\u00a0In the speech, King declared, \u201cA nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A mug shot photo of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The people who heard that speech recognized it as one of the most powerful speeches ever given articulating the immorality of the Vietnam War and its destructive impact on social progress in the United States. In explaining his decision to follow his conscience and speak out against U.S. militarism, King said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But King went farther, diagnosing the broader disease of militarism and violence that was endangering the soul of the United States. King said,<\/p>\n

\u201cI could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today \u2014 my own government.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Poisoning America\u2019s Soul<\/strong><\/p>\n

King knew very well that the disease of violence was killing off more than social progress in America. Violence was sickening the nation\u2019s soul as well. He added,<\/p>\n

\u201cIf America\u2019s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read \u2018Vietnam\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

King urged his fellow citizens to take up the causes of the world\u2019s oppressed, rather than taking the side of the oppressors.\u00a0He said:<\/p>\n

\u201cI am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a \u2018thing-oriented\u2019 society to a \u2018person-oriented\u2019 society.\u00a0When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity.\u00a0We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality and strength without sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

King pointed to an alternate path into the future:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautiful struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response.\u00a0Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Signing His Own Death Warrant<\/strong><\/p>\n

By denouncing so forcefully the war crimes that the U.S. military was committing daily in the killing fields of Vietnam, some of King\u2019s followers understood that he had just signed his own death warrant.\u00a0But King, being a person of conscience, was compelled to express his deep sense of moral outrage over the horrific maiming, suffering and dying of millions of innocent Vietnamese civilians in that unjust war that afflicted mostly unarmed women and children and that was going to leave behind lethal poisons in the soil, water and unborn babies that would last for generations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Washington DC.
(Photo by Robert Parry)<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\n<\/div>\n

He knew that non-combatants are always the major victims of modern warfare, especially wars that indiscriminately used highly lethal weapons that rained down from the air, especially the U.S. Air Force\u2019s favorite weapon, napalm \u2014 the flaming, jellied gasoline that burned the flesh off of whatever part of the burning adult or child it splashed onto.<\/p>\n

King also connected the racist acts (of American soldiers joyfully killing dispensable non-white \u201cgooks\u201d and \u201cslants\u201d \u2014 often shooting at \u201canything that moves\u201d) on the battlefields of Southeast Asia to the oppression, impoverishment, imprisoning and lynching of dispensable, deprived non-white \u201cniggers\u201d in America.<\/p>\n

King saw the connections between the violence of racism and the violence of poverty. He saw that the withholding of economic and educational opportunities came from the fear of \u201cthe other\u201d and the perceived need to protect the white culture\u2019s wealth and privilege with violence if necessary.<\/p>\n

King knew, too, that fortunes are made in every war, and the war in Vietnam was no exception. In his speeches, he talked about that unwelcome reality that the ruling class preferred not be discussed.\u00a0That meant his well-attended Riverside Church speech threatened not only the powerful interests already arrayed against his civil rights struggle but also the interests of the war profiteers and the national security establishment.<\/p>\n

War is Good Business<\/strong><\/p>\n

The longer the Vietnam War lasted, the more the weapons manufacturers thrived. With their huge profits, there was a strong incentive for these financial elites to continue the carnage. And therefore the Wall Street war profiteers financed, out of their ill-gotten gains, battalions of industry lobbyists and pro-military propagandists who descended upon Washington, DC, and the Pentagon to claim even more tax dollars for weapons research, development and manufacture.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nick Ut\u2019s famous photo of terrified South Vietnamese children fleeing from a napalm attack on the village of Trang Bang in 1972. The girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, has ripped off her burning clothes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With that funding secured, armies of desperate jobs-seekers were hired to work in thousands of weapons factories that were strategically placed in congressional districts almost everywhere, with weapons research grants likewise being awarded to virtually every university in the nation. Thus, weapons-manufacturing and R&D soon became vitally important for almost every legislator\u2019s home district economy as well as for the household budgets of millions of American voters who indirectly benefitted from the U.S. military\u2019s killing, maiming, displacement, starvation and suffering of non-white people in war zones.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s anti-war stance was based on his Christianity and on the ethics and life of Jesus, but it was also based on his standing as a revered international peace and justice icon. Those factors made him a dangerous threat to the military\/industrial\/congressional\/security complex.<\/p>\n

The powerful forces that were working hard to discredit King had already infiltrated the civil rights movement. Their efforts, cunningly led by the proto-fascist and racist J. Edgar Hoover and his obedient FBI, accelerated after the Riverside speech. The FBI ramped up the smear campaigns against King. Eventually he was \u201cneutralized\u201d with a bullet to the head.\u00a0[The case for believing that King\u2019s murder was not simply the act of lone gunman James Earl Ray is laid out in many studies, including attorney William F. Pepper\u2019s An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

King\u2019s Prophetic Vision<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, five decades after his anti-war speech (which was widely kept from the public), it is clear how prophetic King\u2019s observations were. America is indeed losing its soul. Violence, racism, militarism and economic oppression are still American epidemics.<\/p>\n

Both upper- and middle-class investors of get-rich-quick schemes in America have succumbed to predatory lenders, cannibalistic corporate mergers and acquisitions, psychopathic multinational corporate schemers, corrupt crony capitalists, and the rapist\/exploiters of the land and water by extractive industries all schemes that will eventually burst as part of predictable economic bubbles.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos of victims of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam galvanized public awareness about the barbarity of the war. (Photo taken by U. S. Army photographer Ronald L. Haeberle)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Those busted bubbles regularly wipe out investors (except for the large, deep-pocketed \u201cinsiders\u201d who, usually being forewarned, will have sold their holdings just in time, before the publicly revealed \u201cbust\u201d), leaving the taxpayers to bail out the financial messes that were created by the so-called \u201cinvisible hand of the market\u201d but are really caused by the cunning work of corporate gamblers.<\/p>\n

King was trying to warn us not just about the oncoming epidemic of violence toward victims at home but also about the tens of millions of people around the world who were and are still being victimized by U.S. military misadventures.\u00a0King was also warning us about the multinational corporate war profiteers whose interests are facilitated and protected by the U.S. military whether they are operating in Asia, Latin America, Africa or the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon budget averages well over $700 billion per year, including wars that are often illegal and unconstitutional. That amounts to $2 billion per day with no visible return on investment, except for the military contractors, the oil industries and Wall Street financiers.<\/p>\n

Vast sums also are needed to address the physical and mental health costs needed for the palliative care for the permanently maimed and psychologically-traumatized veterans. Hundreds of millions of dollars more are spent paying down the interest payments on past military debts.<\/p>\n

All those potentially bankrupting costs represent money that will never be available for programs of social uplift like combatting racism, poverty and hunger, or paying for affordable housing\/healthcare, universal education or meaningful job creation. Can anyone else hear a demonic laugh reverberating down Wall Street?<\/p>\n

King was warning America about its oncoming spiritual death if it didn\u2019t convert itself away from military violence. But most observers of the U.S. see America still worshipping at the altars of the Gods of War and Greed. Our children may be doomed.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of American Christian churches (whether fundamentalist, conservative, moderate or liberal, with very few exceptions) have failed King\u2019s vision, despite the lip service they sometimes give to King on MLK Day. Churches whose members were brought up on the Myth of American Exceptionalism (and the myth of being \u201cGod\u2019s chosen people\u201d) consistently refuse to take a stand against the satanic nature of war.<\/p>\n

Past the Point of No Return?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If America is to avert future financial and military catastrophes, King\u2019s central warnings about the \u201ctriple evils\u201d of militarism, racism and economic oppression must be heeded. That means a retreat from worldwide network of budget-busting military bases. And, if America wants to shed the justified label of \u201cRogue Nation,\u201d the covert killing operations of its secret black ops mercenary military units all around the world must be stopped, as should the infamous extrajudicial assassinations by America\u2019s unmanned drones.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the start of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. military to conduct a devastating aerial assault on Baghdad, known as \u201cshock and awe.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If King\u2019s 50-year-old warning continues to be ignored, America\u2019s future is bleak. The future holds the dark seeds of economic chaos, hyperinflation, unendurable poverty, increasing racial\/minority hostility, worsening malnutrition, armed rebellion, street fighting, and perhaps, ultimately, institution of a reactionary totalitarian\/surveillance police state in order to control citizen protests and quell rebellions.<\/p>\n

In 1967, many Americans considered King hopeful vision for a better future as irrational idealism. He was told that the task was too great, the obstacles were too imposing, and there was no will for even the churches to reverse their age-old, conservative pseudo-patriotism and society\u2019s institutional racism. I suspect that many of the churches that called King a communist and therefore ignored him back then wish that they could turn back the clock and give King\u2019s (and Jesus\u2019s) path a try.<\/p>\n

King finished his speech with these challenges:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cWar is not the answer. We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace and justice throughout the developing world a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality and strength without sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And he had these sobering words for the churches that are immersed in a polytheistic culture (the worship of multiple gods, including the gods of war and mammon) and thus are tempted to quietly ally themselves with those gods rather than the God of Love that King was devoted to:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. I have looked at her beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlay of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over again I have found myself asking: \u2018What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today, the task is even tougher, the obstacles much more imposing, but the path that King outlined remains.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr Gary G. Kohls is a retired rural family physician from Duluth, MN, USA and a member of the TRANSCEND Network<\/a>. Since his retirement in 2008, Dr Kohls has written a weekly column for the <\/em>Reader Weekly, Duluth\u2019s alternative newsweekly magazine. His column, titled <\/em>Duty to Warn, has been re-published and archived at websites around the world.\u00a0 He practiced holistic mental health care in Duluth for the last decade of his family practice career, primarily helping psychiatric patients who had become addicted to their cocktails of dangerous, addictive psychiatric drugs to safely go through the complex withdrawal process. His <\/em>Duty to Warn columns often deal with various unappreciated health issues, including those caused by Big Pharma\u2019s over-drugging, Big Vaccine\u2019s over-vaccinating, Big Medicine\u2019s over-prescribing, over-screening, over-diagnosing and over-treating agendas and Big Food\u2019s malnourishing and sickness-promoting food industry. Those four powerful, profit-seeking entities combine to seriously affect the physical, mental, spiritual and economic health of the recipients of the prescription drugs, medical treatments, toxic vaccines and the consumers of the tasty, ubiquitous and disease-producing \u201cFrankenFoods\u201d \u2013 particularly when they are consumed in combinations, doses and potencies that have never been tested for safety or long-term effectiveness. Dr Kohls\u2019 <\/em>Duty to Warn columns are archived at, among many other websites:<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/author\/?a=Gary%20G.%20Kohls,%20MD<\/a><\/em>
\n\u00a0http:\/\/duluthreader.com\/search?search_term=Duty+to+Warn&p=2<\/a>; <\/em>
\nhttp:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/author\/gary-g-kohls<\/a>; <\/em>
\nhttp:\/\/freepress.org\/geographic-scope\/national<\/a>; and<\/em>
\nhttps:\/\/www.lewrockwell.com\/author\/gary-g-kohls\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Archive: A half century ago, The New York Times accused Martin Luther King Jr. of \u201cslander\u201d for decrying the Vietnam War and The Washington Post detected \u201cunsupported fantasies\u201d in his speech, recalled more favorably by Gary G. Kohls–originally published on 19 Jan 2014; slightly edited for time element.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":126568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[867,657,260,1780,70],"class_list":["post-177435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-anglo-america","tag-civil-rights","tag-history","tag-martin-luther-king","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}