On January 15th in the United States, they celebrate Martin Luther King Jnr Day. This day was signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1983 to commemorate the life of the civil rights leader.
Here in the UK on January 24th I will be helping to unveil a new plaque to commemorate where MLK preached his first message in the United Kingdom. He preached at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, Shaftesbury Avenue on 29th October 1961.
Accounts from those present tell us that the sermon King delivered at Bloomsbury was “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life,” in which he used the image of the new Jerusalem from the Book of Revelation to call people to a life of equal length, breadth, and height.
By King’s exegesis, a “long” life is one where a person’s talents are harnessed and developed to the full, a “broad” life has an outgoing concern for the welfare of others, and a life of “height” intentionally includes God as the pinnacle of a complete life, recognising that personal and humanitarian concerns are too small without this third dimension.
It is very likely that you will have both heard of and quoted those famous words spoken at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th 1963. “I Have a Dream''. The Rev Martin Luther King Jr led 250,000 people on a march on Washington for jobs and freedom singing ‘we shall overcome’. It would go down in history as the significant moment in the civil rights struggle.
It was not the first protest in Washington and was not his first speech. It was, however, a moment where preparation met performance like never before. In 2024, with elections taking place across many of the most significant democracies in the world including the United States, United Kingdom, and India, political leaders will hope that the preparation for their campaigns will meet performance resulting in victory. But the difference between many of these leaders and Rev King is that more important than his preparation and performance were his purpose and principles.
Rev King was fighting for a just cause. The hope of a secure and liveable world where justice, equality and freedom could reign supreme. This was something that he was willing to dedicate his whole life to and ultimately to die for. Contrast that with a political class that often is focused on winning at any expense.
In the United Kingdom, since the arrival of the spin doctor under Tony Blair and the subsequent importation of Australian electoral expertise; there has been a hyper denigration of how our politics is done. Wedge issues is the aim of the game. The focus is simply exploiting the fears of citizens in order to win with no thought of the long-term ramifications of what will be left behind when an election has long passed.
I remember going to see a famous election guru after giving a television interview in my early 20s. I explained to him why I was warning about the demographic changes in the United Kingdom and what this could mean for the long term if the party he was helping did not adapt. His response was “Samuel, you’re right. But my job isn’t to worry about the long term. My job is to win the next election.” He delivered on that objective but since then we have had some turbulent and divisive years as a nation… not his problem he would argue.
Many are expecting this year to bring some of the most brutally fought political contests we have ever seen. Elections should not be fought like an Ultimate Fight Championship match with fighters beating each other to a pulp and then shaking hands afterwards. In a general election we are all participants. We all feel the effects of a punch.
Whatever the outcomes of the elections ahead, I think we must somehow get to a moment where principled people are able to rise to the top of our politics and those that govern recognise the weight of responsibility that comes with leading a party during an election. We do not want any more members of parliament to lose their lives at the hands of someone radicalised by rhetoric. Our politicians must campaign responsibly.