GOP Governor's MLK Day Speech: Only Christians Are My BrothersMartin Luther King, Jr made some of civil rights' most important milestones in Alabama, organizing, marching, and spending time in jail there. But yesterday, on a day meant to commemorate MLK's strides for equality, the current governor of that state had some strangely partial things to say. GOP Governor Robert Bentley, in a speech to a Baptist church, via Salon:
''I was elected as a Republican candidate. But once I became governor ... I became the governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind."
...
''But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister."
Bentley added, ''Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."
Aside from the evangelical undertones of his speech (okay, he was in a church, but still...) it'd be interesting to know what he thought of “other people” before he became “governor of all the people.” Happy MLK Day everyone; shout out to equality. But if you're not “saved,” don't expect to end up in Governor Bentley's will or anything.
By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | Sourced from
AlterNetPosted at January 18, 2011, 10:01 am
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/441317/gop_governor%27s_mlk_day_speech%3A_only_christians_are_my_brothers/