Happy King Day

Dear Dreamers:

There’s something comforting about having a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Like all holidays, it domesticates any awkwardness into a focused moment of time, an extra three-day weekend unrecognized in my childhood. What was once a drumbeat for justice is now reduced to a tap on the shoulder, reminding us there’s no mail delivery on Monday.

This pause of recognition places Dr. King on the shelf next to the other volumes of the American ideal. It slides nicely into the index of recognition alongside Presidents' Day and, uniquely in Illinois, Lincoln’s Birthday and a school break to recall good ol’ Casimir Pulaski. Some have tried to resuscitate the recognition by calling for a National Day of Service, but organizing anything of substance in the middle of January risks cancellation due to foul weather. Those food pantry shelves can be repainted later in the spring, and we can’t go read to the children if schools are closed.

It’s a reminder that we prefer our prophets after they have died. It’s easier to appropriate our self-interpretation as an inheritor of a legacy if there’s no one around to contest the will. So, we proudly recall the dream but conveniently remain oblivious to the national waking nightmare unfolding around us. Fortunately, our contemporary attempts at voter suppression are framed less crassly than those encountered by Dr. King; police dogs and fire hoses are replaced by more genteel conversations about the nobility of legislative tradition.

But alas, I fear I’ve become too political in today’s ramblings. Pastors, I have been told, should stay in their lane of personal salvation and avoid the oncoming traffic of social transformation. Heaven forbid I politicize a National Holiday.

Feeling we’ve missed the point, I remain,

With Love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor