What Sanctity of Life Has To Do With MLK Holiday

Some of my readers may be shocked to know that the 3rd Sunday of January was not always deemed sacred by Protestants. In fact, Evangelicals used to wholly turn a blind eye to the ways of Planned Parenthood. In the last two decades or so, PP has garnered much negative attention from the Christian conservatives that served as a ferry to the Sanctity of Life Sunday service.

The irony of picking the 3rd Sunday for Evangelicals has seemed to fall deaf on many ears over the years. Before there ever was a sacrilegious label being dolled out, there was this 3rd Sunday before the MLK holiday. Businesses, banks, and schools profited from this holiday. Most of the church attendees benefited or even traveled thanks to this holiday. However, not a peep was made from the pulpits of Evangelicals.

In other words what society-at-large celebrated on Monday had zero bearing the day before in churches across America. The ideals which brought about the need to recognize the man connected to the holiday were fully ignored and perhaps thought to be disconnected from the teachings of Scripture. Ironic. The once Baptist preacher who wrote and fought for human dignity and economic equality had no merit in the eyes of Evangelicals. His life and his legacy were far from scared, much like the target population of Planned Parenthood from its origin. And yet, Evangelicals finally decided to ‘assign’ human dignity to babies being aborted within the very Planned Parenthoods that were being built in black and brown neighborhoods all over the world. I mean . . . have you ever seen a PP in a white neighborhood before?

Laughter is what comes to mind when considering how a majority group can choose to ignore a God given sense of value, dignity, and significance until it has found ample evidence and so-called logical reasoning to once and for all attribute time, money, attention, and sermons to the least, the lost, and the last. This atrocity is akin to the welfare narrative in America. A governmental system erected to extend aid to a precious group of individuals deemed worthy of handouts and social programs that went completely unnoticed. Thanks to one president and his desire to ‘get to the bottom of this’ attitude did a black woman become the dictionary definition of welfare queen.

Whites were then and quite possibly still are the majority group being aided by the welfare system, but you’d never know if you believe everything the media broadcasts.

Hopefully the present day Evangelicals will begin to see their hypocrisy in their own lens brought to their attention by their allies and insiders, and then maybe a change will come. Then maybe people will be judged by the content of their character and obvious extended periods of lapse judgement, rather than the color of their skin. Then maybe Evangelicals will be able to proactively utter the all lives matter phrase knowing that MLK and others they once shunned also valued life before their politically – driven group did.

What does sanctity of life have to do with the MLK holiday? Besides being a day late and a dollar short . . . these two ought to be combined more and more on Sunday mornings by preachers. Tell how men cherished life of all before the label was slapped on church bulletins. Tell how many chose not to value life despite the pleas and spilled blood that cried out. Tell how there’s a way forward to join arms with those inside and outside the church to do every bit to remove the majority of Planned Parenthood buildings from minority stomping grounds while acknowledging the good that Planned Parenthood actually does offer to communities.

Tell the truth on both sides. Tell how Margaret Sanger was accepted within the evangelicals of her day. Tell how God has a pair of scales that weigh out justice and injustice. Tell how God is impartial. Tell how God can forgive. Tell how God sent his son Jesus to die a sacrificial death for all the valued babies, adults, elderly, veterans etc that place their faith in him as Lord and Savior.

It goes without saying that MLK’s I Have a Dream Speech spoke to the sanctity of life before Evangelicals did . . . but I wanted to make sure you knew it explicitly.