In Martin
Luther King´s Letters from Birmingham
Jail, he uses a very diversified approach to appeal to the interests of two
members of different faiths. Judaism and Christianity are faiths that are
against the segregation and persecution of a certain race. They, unfortunately,
as of late, have been reinterpreted by white ministers to denigrate their
African slaves. This de-ranking of a whole culture and race is the lowest form
of religious practice, yet many white men are filling the pews every Sunday. As
a member of the Christian faith, Dr. Martin Luther King is very disappointed
and feels betrayed.
I have
never been exposed to the utter marginalization of a human but after MLK’s
essay I feel as if I have. I cannot imagine being betrayed by my fellow humans.
I say this because we are all human and the only difference between us all is
the way light reflects the pigment of our skin to other people. This is
unacceptable. But MLK is suffering from something even more difficult than
that. Humankind hasn’t only subjected him; he has been betrayed by his faith.
The only thing that separates man from beast is the fact that man has something
to believe in. Man has something that wakes him up in the morning and puts him
to bed at night, apart from the desires of the flesh. Martin Luther King’s
ministers of his faith and others have all betrayed him.
Based on
that, now let us examine the structural integrity of his argument. First his
tone: MLK uses a tone consistent with the mood that he is trying to bring
across to the reader. When he mentions the Church-how he expected the white
ministers to agree with him, how he referred to them as brothers in the faith
and how he was utterly disappointed when they did not. All of these hopes are
conveyed in a hopeful and longing tone and in the end, that tone is met with a
more resentful and disheartened tone. Second his ethos: MLK established sundries
of ethos in this letter, considering the fact that he wrote this from a jail cell.
He quotes Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, The Bible, St. Augustine, Moses, the
Apostle Paul, and Amos among others. If he can quote the most influential men
of faith from memory, he must then be devout in his argument. Quotes come from
the heart and reason from the brain. If he can hold onto some words, then they
are very meaningful to him. Lastly, lets examine his call to action. Though
implied, the letter was laced with an underlying call for movement and the
termination of stagnancy. He states that the majority of people living in the
south are indifferent to segregation. They, in his eyes, fail in their societal
roles of standing up for what they believe in. He is calling them to action.
Also he is calling the Christian and Jewish ministers to not stand for
segregation. He touches on the fact that, as ministers, they should preach the
true word of God, suiting nobody in particular.