The thing about King

Martin Luther King was one of the greatest Americans of my lifetime. I cannot possibly express my admiration for the man.

However, the ELCA celebrates the day of his death as "Martin Luther King, Renewer of Society and Martyr."

Balderdash.

"Renewer of Society," yes. But in order to be a martyr, you first have to be a Christian.

Martin Luther King was not a Christian. He not only denied the Resurrection of Jesus, but he denied his divinity.

Christianity- like every other religion- gets to define its own foul lines. Dr. King, tragically, lies outside the foul lines Christianity has drawn for itself for two thousand years.

None of this makes Dr. King any less great a man. In no way does it detract from his importance to American history or to our society. But we need to get this straight, for the sake of honesty and accuracy: as a great a man as he was, he was not a martyr. Nor was he a Christian, as the Christian Church has defined the term for two thousand years.