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Extremism In Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter

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In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and imprisoned in Birmingham regarding his protest activities on segregation. While in jail, King wrote an open letter in response to eight white clergymen who were criticizing his actions. In the letter, King defends the use of nonviolent protests and demonstrations against segregation and racism through the use of allusions to religious figures and values. Throughout his letter, her makes various references to symbols of religious authority and uses the ideas of extremism and togetherness to show the clergymen the reasoning behind his passionate cause. King begins his letter showing his authority in the Christian denomination as he states that he serves as the president of the Southern Christian …show more content…

In response to this, he alludes to the Apostle Paul, who left his home to carry the gospel to the ends of the Roman Empire, just as he, himself left his home to campaign for civil rights across the South (King 1). King refers to Paul as “an extremist for the Christian gospel” and then compares his own pursuit to freedom to Paul’s actions as he says “so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own hometown” (King 7, 1). This allusion can prove to have a powerful effect on the audience as most of the clergymen whom he was responding to were Christians like himself. By comparing his “gospel of freedom” to Paul’s gospel of Christ, King directly appeals to the Christian clergymen, basically saying that standing against the civil rights movement would be like standing against the gospel. In another instance, King alludes to Jesus Christ as the biggest example of extremism. He argues, that Jesus was “an extremist for love, truth, and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment” (King 8). By referring to such an important figure in Christianity as an example of extremism, King strengthens his words, as he is comparing himself to a divine being. In other words, King suggests that if the clergymen were to consider themselves true followers of Christianity, then they should follow the example set by Christ by spreading love, fellowship, and equality to all men, including the Black

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