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Celebrating MLK: A Non-Moderate Justice Saint

Posted January 21, 2008

You’ve heard it said, “Moderation in all things.” (Often this is followed by, “except moderation.”) Nonsense! Such facile aphorisms must not go unchallenged.

What does it mean to prefer moderation? Moderation as opposed to what? Sometimes this phrase is used as an excuse to have one or two glasses of wine, but not three and—more to the point—not none. In that case, moderation is preferred over excess. I acknowledge the sensibility of this. But you need not look far to find exceptions even to this case. For example, shall we be moderate in our smoking of cigarettes? How about the use of methamphetamines?

But we hear, “Moderation in all things” in other contexts as well. This is when the true insidiousness of moderation raises its ugly head. In cases of controversial social justice issues, moderation is not the opposite of excess. It is the opposite of taking a stand.

Martin Luther King, Jr. makes this point exceptionally well. In April of 1963, he found himself in jail in Birmingham, Alabama. He was there for leading non-violent protests of racial injustice. While there, a group of eight clergyman published a statement in the local paper denouncing King’s actions. From their position of moderation, they viewed King’s work as “untimely and unwise.” King responds,

“I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action’; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’ Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”

Moderation in all things? I guess not. Happy MLK Day!