Martin Luther King Writes Barack Obama

Dear Beloved Barack,

Congratulations on your inauguration as the 44th president of the United States of America. Words alone could not express the joy of your victory. Here in heaven, we are still celebrating your historic win against all odds. Before and after the election we had prayer vigils for you. And it is astonishing how prayer said in faith could move mountain. A toast to you my dear boy!

You are a politician but I will be writing to you as a preacher. Fundamentally, I am a preacher, a Baptist preacher, the son of a Baptist preacher, the grandson of Baptist preacher and great-grandson of a Baptist preacher. My graduate studies program was in systematic theology at Boston University and throughout my lifetime, I applied theological understanding to every challenge I faced as a social activist. I want to teach you some Christian homiletic devises that will write your name in marble as the best American president ever. Here in heaven I am privileged to have access to spiritual information you do not find in the world. Remember that when I was in the world, I was audaciously against American embrace of excessive capitalism and materialism. Now you could see the backlash in the ongoing financial meltdown in all American cities.

Barack, American democracy, if you must know is a test of spiritual convictions. My often repeated wisdom is that the essence of democracy is the belief that each person is created in the image of God. You will know one day when you arrive here that God desires us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man. But the message to us here is that America is still the evil empire. Self-centredness is still the scaffolding where America hangs its national interest.

I was once the moral leader of the United States. I developed an abiding devotion to reconciliation and not victory. As a result, a grateful world gave me a deserved Nobel Peace Price, a national holiday and my name imprinted forever on the conscience of humanity. In order to change the world and after post-Montgomery, I changed from my old florid style to Hegelian dialectic for persuasive engagement with the reactionary forces arrayed against me as a civil right leader. I proclaimed truth through my personality. Because you are now the leader of the free world, you need to know the problem facing the world. It is this: man has not learned how to be just, honest, kind, true and greatest of all, loving.

The conviction that you must develop from now on as the President of the United States is to stand up for right and be ready to oppose wrong, wherever it is. From henceforth, your reality must hang on moral foundations as opposed to the Darwinian tradition of the survival of the fittest which American adopted as a philosophy. Resist the presidential mentality from outrunning your morality.

Barack, do you still remember the words I uttered in Mars Hill? “God that made the world and all things therein also made us of one blood all nations of men who dwell on the face of the earth”.

So, my boy, I must urge you to get rid of every aspect of segregation. Segregation is a blatant denial of the natural unity which we all have in Christ. When I open the window of heaven and looked down on America, I am sad that its soul is still darkened by segregation. Don’t you realise that the segregator relegates the segregated to the status of a thing rather than elevate him to the status of a person? Barack, you are specially assigned to heal the wound of segregation from the records here in heaven. Let me remind you that anybody who stands against integration, not only stand against your noble victory but also against the eternal edicts of God himself. So as you press for justice, be sure to do it with dignity and discipline, deploying the weapon of love. Let no man pull you as to hate him. You must guide America to eschew violence against itself and against other nations.

You must not despair if you are condemned and hated in seeking to eradicate the evil of segregation. Often the racist will call you an impractical idealist or a dangerous radical. Remember that I laid down my life for this noble dream. You should be prepared to lay down your life to free American children from a permanent life of psychological death. Christ was our divine example. I am another. My pain, my suffering, my dream, my legacy, my aspiration and death gave you freedom which has now translated to your becoming the first African-American President of the United States. Christ’s pain, his suffering, his dream, his aspiration and death gave Christians the freedom from Lucifer and the chance of eternity which I now enjoy in heaven.

Dear Barack, during the last conversation I had with angel Gabriel, he revealed to me the summom bonum of life. Love. That‘s all. You have to love your enemies. I am certain that you must have read about the life of Abraham Lincoln, our great president whom you are on the verge of beaten if you will adhere to my voice. Do you also know about Mr Stanton? Stanton was a great enemy of President Lincoln. He hated him. He even called him a lanky, ugly man. When eventually Lincoln became the president, he had to choose his cabinet. Barack, would you believe that President Lincoln hired his greatest enemy, Stanton, as his war secretary? He was branded a fool for his decision but he stuck to his gun.

If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton and answered to all his derogatory comments about him, Lincoln would not have redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have slipped into his grave hating Lincoln and Lincoln likewise. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to transform Stanton. You could see that there is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Now Barack do you get the bottom line of my epistle? Do you see how my love for fellow man transformed America? Do you see how Mahatma Gandhi perfected non violence and changed India and the world?

Barack, know what, check out what Napoleon, the great military strategist, had to say: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I have built great empires. But upon what did it depend? They depended upon force. But long ago, Jesus started an empire that depended on love and to this day millions will die for him.” Meditate on the tenets of our Declaration of Independence nightly to gain insightful wisdom. Remember those majestic words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” You are today the physical fulfilment of the moral foundation of our Declaration of Independence.

Today the shape of the world does not permit more wars. Rather, Barack, the world under your watch needs peace, healing, liberty, happiness and love. Free the world from its present airtight of hate, racism, oppression and wars. And now finally, my boy I know that you can face any man or woman when your feet are solidly placed on the ground and your head in the air because when you are right, God will fight your battle. Darker yet may be the night, harder yet may be the fight, Barack, please just stand up for what is right. May the weeping of the world bring forth joy in the morning. My warm greetings to Michelle, Malia and Sacha. May God bless America.

Yours in the dream,

– Martin Luther King Jr.