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Dr. King and St. Patrick: what have the two to do with each other and with us in America?

Last month we celebrated the holiday commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King is an American hero. Of course he has special meaning for African Americans. At the same time, the meaning of Dr. King's life and legacy is a national treasure for us all. I was born two decades later than him. I earned my Ph.D. at the same university (Boston U.) Dr. King did, so I feel some personal kinship, because one of his teachers was later one of mine. I had the chance to hear him speak live once; and, I followed his career with interest, even pride, for a fellow American to have emerged in our time and challenge us all to rise to higher moral lives. It does not take away his special relationship to the African American community for White people to say he is my hero, too. His message of racial reconciliation is true to the American creed and is a message for all Americans of good will. So, while at the recent celebration at Maryville College a few weeks ago, the speaker was a noted African American preacher, I nevertheless felt part of the event and the day.

St. Patrick's Day comes up in a few days. It has become a kind of national holiday, when, thanks to the commercial acumen of merchandisers, people of all ethnicities are "Irish for a day," and wear silly pins, for example, imploring "Kiss me I'm Irish." The city of Chicago joins in the silliness by putting green dye into the Chicago River. Personally I draw the line at putting green food coloring into perfectly good beer! But if we look seriously for a moment at the life and legacy of St. Patrick, we see that there is a truly a story in it for all of us. I was grateful a few years ago to read something by Professor Orlando Patterson, a famous African American sociologist at Columbia University, who suggested that St. Patrick's Day was a good day for the Irish but also for African Americans and all Americans. Just listen a minute:

Patrick was not Irish. He was born in what is now Wales, in the western part of the United Kingdom. When he was 16 he was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland, where he was a slave for six years. He escaped and went home to his family. He later became a Christian. He had a great burden in his heart for the Irish people who had criminally abducted and enslaved him. He returned to Ireland, and his story there is now well known. He helped convert the Irish to Christianity; and, importantly for him, he persuaded them the end slavery in Ireland. Centuries later he became the patron saint of Ireland.

For African Americans, and for all people, the story of St. Patrick is this: the slave who went back to the place of his enslavement to convert his former masters. We now can see the connection to Dr. King: his family was descended from slaves in America; because of his Christian faith he could encourage all of us to be reconciled.

St. Patrick and Dr. King; they both present stories of redemption that people today SEmD whether or not ethnically African American or Irish American SEmD can celebrate and appropriate. The great stories of human and religious triumph belong to us all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day SEmD one and all.

Dr. Ronald A. Wells is the Director of the Symposium on Faith and the Liberal Arts at Maryville College.