The Success of the Beck Rally

Could you please show me in that speach where he said it should be the government that takes care of the blacks. He has said that a Christian cannot be a communist.

That speach says that there are greedy people and he is exactly right. Those that do well are Biblically instructed by God to share. But no where in Kings speach or in the Bible can you find that it says it is the responsibility of the government to take from those who produce and give.

There is a call for redistribution and government control all through his letter:

” I wll never be content as long as somebody over here can make five hundred thousand dollars a year, “

The last time I checked there is only one way to make sure that someone can’t make more money than others think they should.

“And I see hungry boys and girls in this natlon and other natlons and think about the fact that we spend more than a million dollars a day storing surplus food (Yes) And I say to myself, “I know where we can store that food free of charge-in the wrinkled stomachs of the millions of people in our nation and in this world who go to bed hungry at night ””

How would that surplus food get moved from storage to millions of hungry people? Who would pay for it?

I know how the answer came a short time later. Through food stamps paid for by tax payers. If you know of another way King was thinking of accomplishing it then describe it.

“There is another thing Marx reveals the danger of the profit motive as the sole basis for an economic system “

What do you suppose that means? Free people try to profit from their labor. It’s the engine of the market economy. Marx wasn’t famous for leaving a legacy of freedom, economic or otherwise, behind him.

It’s not hard to find examples of King proposing policies that can only be implemented by government power. When he praises communism for having a dream that we should admire, I believe he means it. Considering that Hunter Pitts O’Dell and Stanley Levison were two of his principle advisors it takes a real talent to think otherwise.

“We are challenged to dedicate and devote our lives to the cause of Christ as the communists do to communism We cannot accept their creed, but we must admire their dream “

After reading most of this exchange, I bump wardaddy and Pelham to the tippy top!

I know this is OT, but I was born in 1951. I spent the very early part of my life in Montgomery, when Dr. King was a nobody pastor of an unknown church.

I was raised to live my life in a certain way...to judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I learned those things well before Dr. King’s speach.

He didn’t have a monopoly on those sentiments.

>>The last time I checked there is only one way to make sure that someone can’t make more money than others think they should.<<

Remember that back when he made that speech there were many racial obstacles to the blacks having equal opportunities. From a Christian perspective one can imagine that if you view all people as equal that obstacle would not be there. If all were viewed as “Gods children”, as he called them, whites would not avoid patronizing a black owned business and blacks would feel equal and not be intimidated from starting businesses or feeling they have the same opportunities.

>>How would that surplus food get moved from storage to millions of hungry people? Who would pay for it?<<

I grew up in an area where it didn’t matter what the skin color was. It was a farming community. When someone needed help, the first thought was “who needed the work”. The attitude was different. They didn’t think of who can we “give” to, it was more “who needed the income”. King saw a time when all would have the same opportunity. Emphasis on opportunity.

>>“There is another thing Marx reveals the danger of the profit motive as the sole basis for an economic system “<<

Read that sentence with emphasis on “as the sole” basis. In a Christian community where the motivations are right the emphasis is on how to benefit all. The real concept of building a business is to build a product, supply a service, or in some way develop something that people need or want. If there is a demand, or desire that people have for something you can supply there is a market for it. The focus is supplying that need or want. The money one will make from that is the consequence of supplying the need, not the sole focus.

>>“We are challenged to dedicate and devote our lives to the cause of Christ as the communists do to communism We cannot accept their creed, but we must admire their dream “<<

The idea he was trying to address is the equality of people. His focus was the equality of opportunity rather then sharing regardless of input. He was directing his comments to blacks also in that all should do their share to earn what the overall community enjoys.

I know I didn’t fully explain because this would have gotten way too long. I hope I gave enough “food for thought”.

Bump back to you. I’m done with this. It’s times like these where this forum is kind of depressing in a way.

They can have their Beck moment.

I prefer the Jeff one myself.

“Remember that back when he made that speech there were many racial obstacles to the blacks having equal opportunities.”

If you think that blacks were inhibited from opening businesses back then then I question your knowledge of history. Big American cities all had black business districts. That’s all gone today. One of the perverse effects of civil rights legislation was that it killed off the thriving black business community. There were more black owned businesses in the era of segregation than exist today. They didn’t depend upon a white clientele as they enjoyed a virtual monopoly from black patrons.

“I grew up in an area where it didn’t matter what the skin color was. It was a farming community.”

That’s a nice feel good anecdote. But that has absolutely nothing in common with the problem of feeding millions of hungry people from stockpiled surplus American food production, which is what King brought up. I can understand why you want to avoid that problem, because there is no answer to it other than a large scale government program. But you want to insist that King wasn’t advocating government handouts. Your suggestion that the answer is the same as neighbors helping each other is either disingenuous or foolish. Scale matters.

“Read that sentence with emphasis on “as the sole” basis. In a Christian community where the motivations are right the emphasis is on how to benefit all “

I know what Christian teachings are. But King cited Marx on the profit motive, not Christ. You have a funny way of simply ignoring what comes directly from King’s own writing and diverting your comments to something else entirely. Do you even know that you are doing it?

“The idea he was trying to address is the equality of people.”

Oh? And in your experience communism delivered equality, did it? Which communist society do you suppose King had in mind when he wrote that sentence? Castro hadn’t yet popped up to enslave Cuba.I believe Stalin was still alive. And eastern Europe was under the heel of the Soviet Union. Yeah, that dream of communism was surely something to praise in a sermon.

“I know I didn’t fully explain because this would have gotten way too long.”

You didn’t fully explain because you spent your time avoiding the uncomfortable quotes I took from King’s sermon, and wrote instead about your own imaginings. No wonder you share Beck’s enthusiasm for the fellow traveller. You ignore the real man and concoct a fantasy.

nice post...some folks act like blacks were still slaves prior to the entitlement and preference era

or they didn’t own land or business or ever vote

man....how folks are so brainwashed

i would like to be a fly on the wall hearing Beckites and libs argue all this out..lol

Good posts bump!

I would simply suggest that you keep your perspective then. It really matters little to me. I simply take Aleda Kings words to help understand what her father and uncle taught the family to try to understand. Believe as you wish.

I follow the evidence. I leave imagination to you.