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Christian left
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=== In the United States === {{See also|Evangelical left}} In the United States, members of the Christian Left come from a spectrum of [[Christian denomination|denomination]]s: [[Peace churches]], elements of the [[Protestant]] [[mainline (Protestant)|mainline]] churches, [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholicism]], and some [[Evangelicalism in the United States|evangelical]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hall|first=Charles F.|date=September 1997|title=The Christian Left: Who Are They and How Do They Differ from the Christian Right?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3512477|journal=[[Review of Religious Research]]|volume=39|pages=31β32|doi=10.2307/3512477|jstor=3512477|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ==== Martin Luther King Jr. ==== {{See also|Martin Luther King Jr.|Southern Christian Leadership Conference}} [[File:Martin Luther King, Jr..jpg|thumb|[[Martin Luther King Jr.]] in 1964]] [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] was an American [[Baptist]] minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the [[civil rights movement]] from 1955 until [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|his assassination]] in 1968. Inspired by his [[Christian beliefs]] and the nonviolent activism of [[Mahatma Gandhi]], he led targeted, [[nonviolent resistance]] against [[Jim Crow laws]] and other forms of discrimination. In 1957, King and other civil rights activists founded the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC). The group was created to harness the [[moral authority]] and organizing power of black churches to conduct nonviolent protests in the service of civil rights reform. The group was inspired by the crusades of evangelist [[Billy Graham]], who befriended King, as well as the national organizing of the group in Friendship, founded by King allies [[Stanley Levison]] and [[Ella Baker]]. King led the SCLC until his death. As a Christian minister, King's main influence was [[Jesus in Christianity|Jesus Christ]] and the Christian gospels, which he would almost always quote in his religious meetings, speeches at church, and in public discourses. King's faith was strongly based in Jesus' commandment of [[Golden Rule|loving your neighbor as yourself]], loving God above all, and loving your enemies, praying for them and blessing them. His [[Nonviolence|nonviolent]] thought was also based in the injunction to ''[[turn the other cheek]]'' in the [[Sermon on the Mount]], and Jesus' teaching of putting the sword back into its place (Matthew 26:52). In his famous "[[Letter from Birmingham Jail]]", King urged action consistent with what he describes as Jesus' "extremist" love, and also quoted numerous other [[Christian pacifism|Christian pacifist]] authors, which was very usual for him. In another sermon, he stated:<blockquote>Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry. I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don't plan to run for any political office. I don't plan to do anything but remain a preacher. And what I'm doing in this struggle, along with many others, grows out of my feeling that the preacher must be concerned about the whole man.</blockquote>
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