Martin Luther King Jr.

===Christianity===
[[File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mathew Ahmann in a crowd.) - NARA - 542015 - Restoration.jpg|thumb|King at the 1963 Civil Rights March in Washington, D.C.]]

As a Christian minister, King's main influence was [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ]] and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his speeches. King's faith was strongly based in the [[Golden Rule]], loving God above all, and loving your enemies. His [[nonviolence|nonviolent]] thought was also based in the injunction to ''[[turn the other cheek]]'' in the [[Sermon on the Mount]], and Jesus' teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/liberation-curriculum/classroom-resources/king-quotes-war-and-peace |title=Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Without Violence&nbsp;– April 3, 1957 |publisher=Mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu |access-date=July 9, 2013 |archive-date=September 8, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908025618/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/liberation-curriculum/classroom-resources/king-quotes-war-and-peace |url-status=dead }}</ref> In his [[Letter from Birmingham Jail]], King urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus' "extremist" love, and also quoted numerous other [[Christian pacifism|Christian pacifist]] authors. In another sermon, he stated:

{{blockquote|Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don't plan to run for any political office. I don't plan to do anything but remain a preacher. And what I'm doing in this struggle, along with many others, grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the whole man.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-06-11|title=Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project|url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/about-papers-project|access-date=2022-03-18|website=The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute|publisher=Stanford University|language=en|archive-date=November 1, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101092930/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/voter_education_project/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-gift-of-love-martin-luther-king-sermons-from-strength-to-love-excerpt_n_2499321 | title='A Gift Of Love': Martin Luther King's Sermons From Strength To Love (Excerpt) | first=Josh | last=Fleet | work=[[HuffPost]] | date=January 21, 2013 | access-date=April 26, 2020 | archive-date=April 27, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200427213240/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-gift-of-love-martin-luther-king-sermons-from-strength-to-love-excerpt_n_2499321 | url-status=live }}</ref>}}

King's private writings show that he rejected [[biblical literalism]]; he described the Bible as "[[Christian mythology|mythological]]", doubted that Jesus was [[virgin birth of Jesus|born of a virgin]] and did not believe that the [[Book of Jonah|story of Jonah and the whale]] was true.<ref>{{cite web |work= [[San Francisco Chronicle]] |url= https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Writings-show-King-as-liberal-Christian-2623685.php |first= Matthai |last= Chakko Kuruvila |title= Writings show King as liberal Christian, rejecting literalism |date= January 15, 2007 |access-date= June 5, 2019 |archive-date= June 29, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220629204128/https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Writings-show-King-as-liberal-Christian-2623685.php |url-status= live }}</ref>

Among the thinkers who influeced King's theological outlook were [[L. Harold DeWolf]], [[Edgar Brightman]], [[Peter Bertocci]], [[Walter George Muelder]], [[Walter Rauschenbusch]], and [[Reinhold Niebuhr]].<ref name=Ansbro>{{cite book|last=Ansbro|first=John J.|title=Martin Luther King, Jr.: Nonviolent Strategies and Tactics for Social Change|publisher=Madison Books|date=2000}}</ref>

==== ''The Measure of a Man'' ====
In 1959, King published a short book called ''The Measure of a Man'', which contained his sermons "[[What Is Man? (King essay)|What is Man?]]" and "The Dimensions of a Complete Life". The sermons argued for man's need for God's love and criticized the racial injustices of Western civilization.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/measure-man |title=Measure of a Man, The |encyclopedia=King Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Stanford University#Research centers and institutes|Stanford University {{!}} Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute]] |date=June 2017 |access-date=December 18, 2018 |archive-date=December 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212105149/https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/measure-man |url-status=live }}</ref>