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Dr Martin Luther King'S Letter From Birmingham Jail
Thomas Aquinas on Natural law
Critical analysis martin luther king letter from birmingham jail
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In the "Letter from a Birmingham jail", Martin Luther King Jr uses Thomas Aquinas to distinguish between human law and eternal law. He does this to explain the injustice that is all around the United States. The use of the Treatise of Law is used to justify King when he discussed that human's persons can know the eternal law and that human law is able to be "in harmony" with eternal law.
In the letter King wrote, he states that everyone has a legal responsibility to obey just laws (MLK). This correlates with Thomas Aquinas when he says, "every rational creature knows the eternal law," and "everyone knows the truth" (q.93, a.2). Evidently, one should follow just laws because they know that they are correct. Also, in the letter, King references
Thomas Aquinas when he said, "An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law"(MLK). This relates to Aquinas when he says, "if a humanly made law conflicts with the natural law, then it is no longer a law, but a corruption of law"(q.95, a.2). King references Aquinas to show how the segregation law is an unjust humanly law that is not rooted from the eternal law. King also assumes that human persons can know the eternal law which consists of the natural law, moral law and law of God. Accordingly, Aquinas says that, "the rational creature's mode of participation in the eternal law is called natural law" (q.91, a.2). This shows that the natural law is not only in correspondence with the eternal law, but also, in it. The human law can be amicable with the eternal law because the eternal law is God's being and God created humans to be morally right. Martin Luther King Jr clearly used Thomas Aquinas' thoughts to help him persuade people to end the injustice that was going around at the time.
Martin Luther King guilts the clergymen for the first time when he brings up their moral wrongness. King says that he has a “moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” (4). He summarizes why laws are just or unjust by stating, “A just law is a man-made code that
In the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, written by Martin Luther King Jr., King delivers a well structured response to eight clergymen who had accused him of misuse of the law. During this letter, King then uses the time to unroot the occasion of nonviolent protests in BIrmingham and the disappointing leadership of the clergy. King relies heavily on the two rhetorical devices, juxtaposition and parallelism, to bolster his argument and aid to make his reasoning more compelling.
...lse. “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’” Everything that Hitler did was legal, but immoral and wrong, and things that Hungarian Freedom Fighters were doing was illegal, but was the right thing. This alludes to King doing the right thing, but having it is illegal, and doing the right thing and doing the legal thing do not always go hand in hand. In addition to that, he also makes reference to the “Boston Tea Party” showing that civil disobedience as not a new idea.
King viewed civil disobedience as an obligation if laws were unjust, especially if the proponents of the unjust laws were not willing to negotiate as well as compromise the laws and situations. King states “You are quite right in calling for negotiation.
up until he got caught for marching without a permit because King was not doing anything wrong up until that point. King was trying to change the law, persuade the law for African Americans. King was trying to persuade the people, not because he wanted to ultimately overthrow the laws, but because he wanted to help change. He and his following got to the point where sitting down and talking and trying to propose their ideas simply did not work. So, they began to try and persuade in a different light. It was another take of persuasion that they took to try and spread. This is something Socrates consistently insisted on, “You must either persuade or obey it’s [the laws] orders,” (Crito 51b). By King trying to persuade they law, he is in fact following Socrates guidelines for living under the
In “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King is able to effectively argue against criticisms through the use of passionate and calm tones, vivid metaphors, and biblical and historical allusions. King uses numerous biblical allusions to resonate with his clergymen audience and to make them realize that they were condemning a righteous movement. The vivid language in metaphors captures emotion and expands understanding. Mr. King was able to do anything to end the injustice in Birmingham and his commitment was shown in his tone.
Martin Luther King Junior's letter from a Birmingham Jail was an expression of his encouragement for protest against tradition and established laws and a justification for his actions. King, a leader of a civil-rights group that supported protest against traditional views, encouraged protesting against tradition and established laws that are unjust. In his letter from Birmingham Jail King states: "It was illegal to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti-religious laws." This excerpt shows that King encourages protest because in some situations he deems it necessary, be it in Hitler's Germany, a Communist country, or any situation in which injustices are occurring. In the last sentence of the excerpt King openly admits that he would protest against established laws or traditions. King was against the traditional views and unjust laws, which discriminated against him and his fellow people.
Dr. Martin Luther King addressed many topics in, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. He answered all the issues that were aimed towards him in a very skillful and well thought out manner. These issues came from, “A Call For Unity”, which was a letter published by eight local clergymen expressing their feelings about what Dr. King was doing. One concern in particular that King did an outstanding job of confronting was that of the clergymen’s anxiety about him breaking the law. King addresses the question of, “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” by clarifying that there are just and unjust laws. He also goes on to explain the difference between the two, the effect of unjust laws on the people that they are aimed towards, as
The ideas of King are very similar to the ideas of Thoreau. Moreover, the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” shows that King, read the writings of many famous people. From these two reasons, King had probably read “Civil Disobedience” as an important document regarding justice and injustice. Therefore, the positions of the two writers are very close, and they cite conscience as a guide to obeying just laws.
King went on in his letter to say that it would be against man. made law to help Jews in Nazi Germany. What King said in his letter has to make a person think that not all laws are good for the group in society and morality is a justifiable excuse for breaking the law. Those who oppose my view on this question may be quick to ask me how. come we go by law and not morality in society.
He expresses his concerns about what happens in Birmingham, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘ outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives in the United States can never be considered an outsider” (King 1). King argues that people who live in the United States should think of each other as equal and not segregated by race. By treating a certain race with cruelty leads to an injustice government and unfair laws. Racial injustice was increasing in the neighborhood of Birmingham and most crimes were left unsolved. Martin Luther King provides examples of the cruel injustice acts, “ Its unjust treatment of Negroes in the courts is a notorious reality. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in this nation. These are the hard, brutal, and unbelievable facts” (King 1). Negroes were targeted for cruel harmful acts, which were regularly practiced towards them. They could not get legal help because most the time the police had a hand in the brutality they faced. Therefore, just laws were demanded. Martin Luther King argued the differences between a just and unjust law. Frankly, an unjust law is not considered a law
When MLK was taken in to custody, he was charged with “parading without a permit”(King), which really means he was doing wrong because it was a parade against segregation. He was holding a peaceful protest on behalf of the people who did not have a voice for themselves, and he was going to stop at nothing to be heard. MLK, while in jail, was receiving criticizing letters from all over about his protest, he never responded to them until he came across one. Eight Alabama clergymen entitled, “A Call For Unity”, which explained that he should be fighting in courts only and not on the street, wrote the letter. When King writes back that taking direct action is the only way to achieve the true civil rights even if it goes against what is morally right.
In a Public Statement released by Eight Alabama Clergymen, there were a lot of shots taken at Martin Luther King Jr. and his work during the Civil Rights Movement. These claims aim towards his peaceful protests and work as an “outsider”, but each can be proven false with basic knowledge of the Civil Rights Movements. As result of these claims, Dr. King responded with his famous letter “A Letter from Birmingham Jail”.
Additionally, it is important to understand Luther’s distinction between the Law and the Gospel in order to further explore Luther’s understanding of human freedom. The Law is God’s commands; it allows humans to coexist, limits chaos and condemns sinfulness, though it is not God’s road...
The first example of the morality issue Dr. King raises is a just law, verses an unjust law. In his essay Dr King describes to his readers the difference between the two. “A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law." Here Doctor King is defending his belief that there is a moral issue in some laws. He defends his statement by giving an example of Germany during the Nazi rule. King discusses what Hit...