Jordan Paul

Your ultimate allegiance is not to the government, not to the state, not to nation, not to any man-made institution. The Christian owes his ultimate allegiance to God, and if any earthly institution conflicts with God’s will it is your Christian duty to take a stand against it. You must never allow the transitory evanescent demands of man-made institutions to take precedence over the eternal demands of the Almighty God.
—Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul’s Letter to American Christians

Friends,

Today the Church celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.

Paul’s Letter to American Christians—which King delivered as a sermon multiple times between 1956 and 1962—is not his most well-known work. But I do find that it helps to break away from the normal, generic, and secular statements that are normally quoted to paint a more muted, less radical, and less religious picture of him.

In Letter, King goes on to do much as St. Paul would have done, both commending and criticizing American Christianity. King also reminds us of how our citizenship in the Kingdom will inevitably come into conflict with our national citizenship and who we ultimately owe our allegiance to when it does.

The prophet Jeremiah also delivers some political advice. God, he writes, knows about bad rulers. He knows about them, will bring justice to them, and will deliver a ruler that will allow his people to live in peace.

One hundred years ago this year, with Europe still reeling in the aftermath of the First World War and when Christianity faced threats from the outside by a time of rising secularism, nationalism, and active questions over whether the Church should engage in or retreat from society, Pope Pius XI proclaimed the Feast of Christ the King.

In so proclaiming, he wrote that Christ must reign in our minds, wills, hearts, and bodies. More than that, we are to accept Christ as an actual king to whom we owe actual allegiance.

At times we may find ourselves aligned with a specific political agenda. Yet we must never lose sight of the implications of our political actions on our most vulnerable siblings nor sacrifice the inheritance of the Cross for a pursuit of secular power.

We have been given our directive: love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind while loving our neighbors as ourselves.

In Christ,

—Jordan