Preacher John MacArthur faces backlash after saying MLK was "not a Christian at all"
The conservative pastor doesn't think Christianity used for social justice is real Christianity at all.
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A few weeks ago, on February 19 during Black History Month, fundamentalist Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in California was asked how he felt about conservative Christian groups like The Gospel Coalition and Together for the Gospel.
MacArthur called The Gospel Coalition “woke”—which just shows you how unhelpful that word is since TGC routinely spreads decidedly right-wing, anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-sex propaganda—and he condemned Together for the Gospel (also an extremely conservative group) for honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. in 2018.
Yes, really.
MacArthur told the audience that MLK was “not a Christian at all” and that the late civil rights leader was “a nonbeliever who misrepresented everything about Christ and the gospel.”
… Both of those organizations, well, T4G [Together for the Gospel], is basically nonexistent. They bought into the deceptiveness of the woke movement and the racial baiting that was going on a couple of years ago, and it literally put them out of existence...
… A year later, they did the same thing for Martin Luther King, who was not a Christian at all, whose life was immoral. I'm not saying he didn't do some social good, and I've always been glad that he was a pacifist, or he could have started a real revolution. But you don't honor a non-believer who misrepresented everything about Christ and the Gospel in an organization alongside honoring somebody like R. C. Sproul.
This was a symptom of the impact of the woke movement that basically displaced that whole organization. That was really—it was over after that. And some of the effects of those men who were leaders there are still going on, and it had a negative effect on their leadership. And I think even the role they play in evangelicalism today…
Both of those statements are obvious lies. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—excuse me, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—wasn’t perfect but his faith-based fight for social justice and civil rights was hardly an anomaly. Many Black leaders before him and since then have also used religion to justify their push for equality. Pastor Charlie Dates, of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, said of MacArthur’s comments, “If you ain’t gonna raise a finger to help us get the right to vote, to live where we want to live, to go to school where we want to go, keep Martin King’s name out of your mouth.”
Even if he wasn’t Christian, the values he fought for were important enough that they ought to override any personal foibles. But the argument doesn’t even make sense on MacArthur’s terms. As a writer at Christianity Today pointed out, “I spoke at [Together for the Gospel’s] MLK50, and I don’t recall seeing any speakers who weren’t unambiguously orthodox. MacArthur’s accusations aren’t only too lightly made. They are plainly slanderous.”
To claim MLK wasn’t a True Christian™, and therefore shouldn’t be honored by any decent Christian organization, is nothing more than a right-wing talking point that has moved from the fringes to the church. Conservatives have spent years trying to discredit King; now they have MacArthur joining their crusade. It’s not enough, apparently, that white evangelicals have largely been voting for someone who opposes civil rights at every turn.
And since MacArthur is a powerful Christian leader whose words carry a lot of weight, it’s worth reminding people what he’s said about MLK in the past and how he regularly lies to his congregation.
Consider a bigger lie MacArthur has told about MLK: He previously said, on multiple occasions, that he (MacArthur) was preaching in Mississippi with Black church leaders, including Medgar Evers’ brother Charlie, the night MLK was assassinated. MacArthur said, “literally within hours after Dr. King was assassinated, we were at the Lorraine Motel, standing on the balcony where he was shot.” But that account has been thoroughly discredited by many of the people who would have been there.
MacArthur has also argued that the “Curse of Ham” was justification for slavery. (In Genesis, Ham curses his son Canaan by saying all his descendants would be slaves.) Other Christians in the past have used this story to justify racism against people with dark skin.
That’s not all. MacArthur has also defended slavery in other ways:
… There can also be benefits [to slavery]. For many people, poor people, perhaps people who weren’t educated, perhaps people who had no other opportunity, working for a gentle, caring, loving master was the best of all possible worlds. … So we have to go back and take a more honest look at slavery and understand that God has, in a sense, legitimized it when it’s handled correctly. … Slavery is not objectionable if you have the right master. It’s the perfect scenario.
Beyond all this, MacArthur has a long history of lying in the name of Jesus to gullible Christians who just accept it as truth. He has previously denied climate change, saying “God intended us to use this planet” and that “it is a disposable planet.” He openly celebrated the lack of social distancing and face masks in his congregation during the height of COVID, once telling a packed house, “the good news is you’re here, you’re not distancing, and you’re not wearing masks.” In August of 2020, he falsely claimed, “There is no pandemic.” (That October, there was an outbreak at his church.) He has also said “no one is gay.”
The point is: He’s a conspiracy theorist who regurgitates lies and tells ignorant people they are actually facts.
He’s one of the most famous fire-and-brimstone preachers in the country… and he believes Black Christian preachers who promote social justice aren’t good Christians. The question is how many other conservative Christians agree.
Attempting to sort out who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian kept Europe soaked in blood for centuries. That history is why the American founders did not give religion any role to play in the government of their new country. No one in their right mind would want to live in a world where people like John MacArthur got to make the rules. Theocracies are never bastions of human rights and intellectual freedom.
"Slavery is not objectionable if you have the right master."
Hey MacArthur:
Are you ready to be a slave? I am pretty sure we can find you the right master.