Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God. Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore." I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore.

Amen. I need say no more.

Amen again.

Well, how much should TBMs heed his words since MLK is not white and delightsome.

TBMs LOVE MLK.

Of course, back when he was alive it was standard TBM
conventional wisdom to despise MLK. First off, he was a knee-
grow who was a descendant of Cain and bore the CURSE from God.

And, second of all, he was a liberal.

Our beloved late prophet, even Ezra Taft Benson had this to say
about MLK a year after his assassination:

May 1, 1969 - Apostle Ezra Taft Benson writes to LDS Hotel-
magnate J. Willard Marriott, "The kindest thing that could be
said about Martin Luther King is that he was an effective
Communist tool. Personally, I think he was more than that."

Then, of course, there's the famous 23 Jan. 1964 letter from
Apostle Delbert L. Stapley to George Romney (father of Mitt,
and then governor of Michigan) where he points out that the
things Martin Luther King fought for did not "accord with the
expressions of the Prophet Joseph Smith."

http://mormonmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/delbert_stapley.pdf

And, of course, there's the famous anti-integration talk of
August 27, 2954, by Mark E. Petersen where he says that the Lord
is against racial integration--the very thing Martin Luther King
was fighting for.

http://www.mormonthink.com/files/race-problems-affect-the-church-mark-e-peterson.pdf

I, for one, do not worship at the tomb of MLK. I think this idolization of, and recreation of, a living and flawed man (albeit a great orator) encapsulates what is wrong with "culture".

While I do agree that MLK was a flawed man like the rest of us (he was a womanizer, for one thing), I do not agree that his public statements were not worth quoting and following. Basically, he told his fellow African-americans in the face of white denial that they had a right to live as whites do without fear of retribution. He rightly argued that laws denying African-americans the right to vote were prima facially wrong. He argued that the post-Civil War south's system of separate but equal was prima facially wrong, and again, he was correct. For everyone (and this is what irks conservatives, especially Mormons and members of the wealthiest class in the U.S.), he argued that for all poor people to participate more fully in society, wealth must be more equitably distributed.

As I read comments like yours and some recent legislative and court rulings, I can't help but think that we are now backsliding towards a more medieval society where race (as well as the amount of money you initially have) will ultimately determine your destiny.

I, for one, have never shied away from the fact that MLK was a flawed man, but he was exactly what our country needed in the 1960s. Most of the country was satisfied with the status quo, a minority wanted a violent revolution. We needed change, and without King’s ability to inspire, and his commitment to nonviolence, there would have been a lot more destruction and bloodshed—and far less social progress.

Throughout the history of this nation, flawed men (some with serious flaws) stepped up to do what was needed at the time. If we refuse to “idolize” flawed men, we might as well tear down every monument, remove pictures from our currency, and cancel a few holidays.