I did not know that Martin Luther King was a womaniser, and an unpleasant one to boot. I learned this yesterday while listening to Prof. Susan Mendus’s giving a lecture on politics and morality. Prof. Mendus was a guest of The Strickland Foundation.
I always admired King a lot. In one of my commentaries to The Sunday Times of Malta a couple of years ago I had written the following about a 1992 visit I had made to the motel where King had been assassinate in 1968 and which has now been turned into a museum which documents the history of the USA Civil Rights Movement.
“Walking from one hall to another I could feel the pain and misery of so many who were so cruelly treated by the callous who abused fellow humans for money, power and their other whims. At moments I experienced the sense of hopelessness that the victims must have felt. However, little by little I could perceive that hope, courage and determination got the upper hand. The victims stood for their rights believing that a better world was possible, if not for their generation, then for their children’s generations. This struggle for justice was one worth making.
"Gradually I arrived in the room on the top floor where one of the seminal moments of the movement was lived. On April 4, 1968 the Reverend Martin Luther King, the champion of the movement through non-violence, was on the balcony of his motel room. It was then that the vile assassin pulled the trigger. The target was not missed King, quickly losing blood, was placed on the bed inside waiting for the ambulance. Death was not far away.
"I stood for a long while in prayerful silence in that place where the blood of a martyr was shed. I had with me King’s book: Strength to Love. That book has accompanied me for many years, and still does. When faced by hate, King practices love in the certainty that Love even when crucified rises again triumphant. He is not alone in this struggle and belief.”
Will I change my opinion of King following Prof. Mendus’s lecture?
I will not.
Recently Pope Francis repeated a millennial truth about the Church stating that ours is a church of saints and sinners. Therefore, there is a place for both but, he added, there is no place for the corrupt who do not repent.
King was a sinner, like the rest of us. But he was not corrupt.
He gave hope to those who were mired in despair; the courage to forgive to those who had been grossly wronged; and offered forgiveness to the perpetrators of great injustice.
His contribution to the enhancement of the dignity of millions of men and women; his political programme which shunned hate and violence even when he was the victim of the same; and his inspiring writings and speeches absolve him of his sins.
Martin Luther King was not perfect but he was more than decent. He was and still is a great man.