The Gettysburg Dream

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Such pathos and poetry. Such eloquent inflections and skillful blending of patriotic themes that celebrated the past and inspired hope for the future. Such audacious faith that America could become the elusive Beloved Community. While preparing this speech, Dr. King told his colleagues that he wanted it to be as moving and memorable as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Why else would he begin with the line, “Five score years ago”?

“Though [King] was extremely well known before he stepped up to the lectern, he had stepped down on the other side of history” said Clarence Jones, who assisted Dr. King with the first draft of the speech. Not only did it become the defining moment of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but “I Have a Dream” has served as a model for students in public speaking classes across America for decades.

However, is it possible the speech became too memorable?

Comic-King

Is there a potential problem when so many people’s knowledge of Dr. King is 30 seconds worth of quotes from a 16-minute speech? Does remembering the line about “content of their character” cause us to forget he said the reason the crowd had “come to our nation’s capital” was “to cash a check”?

Sometimes, it seems MLK’s ministry has been reduced to a one-page comic strip of him at the Lincoln Memorial with three or four speech balloons coming from his mouth. Of course, those blurbs don’t include lines like this from the very same speech: “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.” These faulty and selective memories make him a caricature and cause a state of confusion.

A Dream Devolved?

Why would anyone kill a Christian minister for describing such a dreamy dream in such a sing-songy way? That doesn’t seem to add up. There had to be more motivation for murder than that. Was MLK’s demise due to the nightmare he shared in a May 8, 1967 NBC interview?

“I must confess that dream I had that day has in many points turned into a nightmare. . . Some of the old optimism was a little superficial and now it must be tempered with a solid realism.”

What realities were tempering his optimism? How did the dream devolve into a nightmare in 3 ½ years? And what led 72% of White Americans and 55% of Black Americans to view Dr. King unfavorably by the end of his life?

Dr. King’s Diagnosis

On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech called “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” He argued that the war in Vietnam was undermining the War on Poverty and subverting the nonviolent means of problem solving he had been advocating for a dozen years. One of the most shocking soundbites the audience of 3,000 took home from the Riverside Church was when King described the U.S. government as “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”    

Dr. King also diagnosed America with three interrelated, terminal diseases: racism, extreme materialism, and militarism. He described how these comorbidities were being viewed by millions of people from the comfort of their living rooms: “we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago.”

Prophetic patriotism?

Dr. King further detailed the interconnected nature of “The Three Evils of Society,” a few months later in August, 1967. He explained that his words arose from “a common concern for the moral health of our nation.” He felt compelled to speak because he and others “have seen through the superficial glory and glitter of our society and observed the coming of judgment. Like the prophet of old, we have read the handwriting on the wall. We have seen our nation weighed in the balance of history and found wanting.”

Yet, he wasn’t delivering this prophetic rhetoric from a sense of celebration or vindication, but that of lamentation. He believed that racism wasn’t just bad for Black people but that “racism can well be that corrosive evil that will bring down the curtain on Western civilization.”  Dr. King’s MLK’s exercise of dissident patriotism sought to redirect a nation he believed might be heading to hell, which was the subject of his next sermon had he lived a few more days. Tragically, it was his “Mountaintop” sermon that turned out to be his last. Poetically, he delivered his own eulogy.

Drum Major Dies, but the Beat Goes On

The nation whose soul King sought to save took his diagnosis of its condition very hard and exhibited some common symptoms of grief: shock, denial, and anger. Many civil rights advocates abandoned him; President Lyndon Johnson reportedly called him that “g-dd–n ni**er preacher;” and over 150 newspapers published scathing rebukes of their formerly preferred civil rights spokesperson.

Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, exactly one year after “Beyond Vietnam” – to the day. Some have wondered if the date of his death was merely coincidental or if it was meant to serve as a warning. However one may try to solve that mystery, another plot was being hatched.  As the “drum major for righteousness” was silenced, a whole new band with a more discordant sound was tuning up.

Early that year, they called themselves The Polka Tulk Blues Band. Then they renamed themselves Earth. Then in September 1968, they permanently branded themselves after the horror movie “Black Sabbath.” These pioneers of heavy metal would be accused of being Satanists for decades to come but thrived on keeping that tension alive by both denying it verbally and feeding it through album art, song titles, and other stunts.

Only God knows if they are true, practicing Satanists, or merely perceptive marketers who recognize that horror and controversy sell. Either way, one of their most well-known songs is an 8-minute-long, eschatologically stinging critique of the military industrial complex.

            Ironic ministry?

Anyone who thought killing King would quell conscientious objections to the Vietnam War was mistaken. The year King was assassinated, another voice against militarism and classism was born in Birmingham, England. Black Sabbath’s 1970 song, “War Pigs,” hit on two of the themes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at Riverside Church: militarism and economic exploitation.

Politicians hide themselves away

They only started the war

Why should they go out to fight?

They leave that role to the poor. . .

Treating people just like pawns in chess

Wait til their judgment day comes. . .

Isn’t it ironic that a group labeled as satanic would prophesy a judgment hour warning on warmongers while many American clergy blessed the Vietnam War (and most every other military venture)? There have been and always will be war protest songs as long as there are wars, but few have ever preached with such fire and brimstone lyrics like these.

No more war pigs have the power

Hand of God has struck the hour

Day of Judgment, God is calling

On their knees, the war pigs crawling. . .

Light from the darkness?

God always preserves a witness in the world. Is it possible that he sometimes speaks through the darker corners of society to enlighten those who claim they can see? Can God use the shock value of those who seem to mock God to quicken the consciences of those who profess to love God?

God spoke to Moses through a bush, to Balaam through a donkey, and to rigid religious leaders through singing children during Jesus’ time. He declared he would speak through rocks, if necessary. Why not an irreverent rock band originally named after the brand of talcum powder the lead singer’s mother used on his bum as a baby? But how could God use something or someone so profane? Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?

Joking all the way to Judgment Day?

The ‘joke’ doesn’t seem to be going away either – because neither have wars. Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” videos have over 250 million views on YouTube and over 100 million streams on Spotify. In addition to that, several “War Pigs” YouTube reaction videos collectively have multiple millions of views.

Many people laughed at first when they heard the rapper and singer, T-Pain, had performed a cover of “War Pigs” in 2023. Skeptics were immediately converted once they listened for themselves. Amazed that he could sing without autotune, people from different generations and musical preferences other than Black Sabbath’s original audience were hearing their message. Many bands have tried playing tributes to “War Pigs” over the decades, but the original singer, Ozzy Ozborne, called T-Pain’s cover the best ever.

Same sheet, different singers

I haven’t had a chance to ask Ozzy or T-Pain if they’ve thought about the song’s overlap with “Beyond Vietnam” (since they don’t know me from Adam). Nor do I imagine Dr. King thrashing his head to “War Pigs.” However, these messengers of different backgrounds and generations issued a call for accountability. Whether it was King singling out the Vietnam War or, according to Ozzy, Black Sabbath singing against war in general, all were essentially singing from the same sheet of music.

From pulpits in the late ‘60s, to heavy metal concerts since the ‘70s, to a rapper proving he can perform across multiple genres, to the online replays and reactions of it all, voices of clarity are making the stakes plain. Crucifying one Messenger, shooting another, and discrediting others won’t make the judgment’s fierce urgency go away. To those capitalizing off of wars and rumors of war all around the world, the searing question of the last 20 centuries is repeated: What does it profit to gain the whole world and lose your soul?