HIJACKED!

A conservative African American pastor offers a critique of contemporary Black social and religious leadership.

In this second installment of a four-volume series that examines contemporary Black activists and leaders, Washington centers his attention on how the left (defined broadly as anyone from liberal centrists to Marxists) has “hijacked” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. The book begins with an argument that King’s vision centered on traditional Christian morality, nonviolence, unity, and forgiveness. While this first section mostly rehashes the series’ first volume, sometimes using the same wording as its predecessor, the bulk of the entry focuses on those who hijacked King’s dream. Too many Black leaders today, the author argues, have chosen to follow “the Jew from Chicago,” Saul Alinksy, instead of the “Jew from Nazareth,” Jesus. Borrowing heavily from a popular conservative trope, the work contends that Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is the playbook used by today’s social justice activists, who follow its advice to obfuscate Marxist goals through “deceptive” egalitarian rhetoric and to embrace amoral ethics when the ends justify the means. Another target of the ambitious volume’s ire is Washington’s fellow Black pastors, who “have sold their souls to the devil.” In this case, the devil is embodied in the “godless, all-inclusive, progressive liberal ideology of the Democratic Party,” whose support of abortion and “same-sex marriage and transgenderism” should make it anathema to Christians. Many of these preachers have also embraced Black liberation theology, which, the author argues, is “not a valid interpretation or application of scripture” and is representative of a “plantation mentality” that has left a “crippling mark” on modern-day Black churchgoers. Unsurprisingly, given the book’s take on liberals, its thin endnotes draw heavily on the works of conservative authors, from Jordan Peterson to John MacArthur, as well as research from Wikipedia. This is not a rigorous intellectual critique but rather an inadequately researched polemic that is not so much concerned with frank debate as it is with self-assured takedowns of left-wingers. That said, this passionate work’s clear arguments will appeal to an audience that shares Washington’s conservative views.

A fervent but uneven sequel about King’s vision and legacy.