Steven Mosley: How Conservatives Should Honor the Legacy of MLK

21 Jan 2025Steven Mosley: How Conservatives Should Honor the Legacy of MLK

Even amidst the excitement of President Trump's inauguration, Project 21 ambassadors did not miss the chance this week to commemorate the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For instance, in a commentary published at FairfaxGOP.org, Project 21's Steven Mosley suggested policies that he believes would honor Dr. King's legacy.

Steven's commentary is below.

In 2022, I had the privilege to give a speech to a Republican woman's club on the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., entitled "Christ, Conservatism and Communism." In honor of MLK Day, I would like to share a few thoughts from that speech.

In Dr. King's book Strength to Love, there is a chapter entitled, "How Should a Christian View Communism."

King states:

After our condemnation of the philosophy of communism has been eloquently expressed, we must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, injustice, and racial discrimination which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops. Communism thrives only when the door of opportunity are closed and human aspirations are stifled. Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometimes hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ… (p.108-109)

How can conservatives remove the conditions that lead to support for communism or "Democratic Socialism?" Well, we don't do it by narrowly focusing our message on business tax cuts, transportation and cutting wasteful spending.

Here are a few practical ways conservatives can honor Dr. King through policy changes:

1. Advocate for the right to life.
Going forward, conservatives should not shy away from discussing the harms abortion on demand has done to America - and especially the harm it has done to black America, as abortion is the number one killer of black lives. Conservatives should campaign on a right-to-life culture in which we increase the number of pro-life pregnancy centers and support pro-family policies that allow parents to raise their children in the fear and instruction of the Lord.

2. Fight educational redlining.
Leftists support a status quo that forces parents to send their children to schools based on ZIP code instead of their kids' unique needs. School choice has had a positive impact in almost every study conducted. Most importantly, it empowers parents to determine what is the best educational environment for their own children.

3. Support the "Success Sequence."
The best poverty-breaking machine known to man is not a government handout, but rather an intact family. "The Success Sequence" is when a husband and wife have children in this successive order of events: graduate from high school; get a full-time job; get married; and then have children. 80% of African Americans who follow these steps escape poverty and live in the middle class and beyond.

4. Promote tax cuts, not handouts. In 2022, President Biden bribed millennials with a 10K student loan forgiveness to get their vote in the midterms. Why don't conservatives counter with the largest middle-class tax cut in our lifetimes? We should advocate for the Fair Tax (a national retail sales tax) or a 15% flat income tax. The bottom line is that Millennials and Gen Z voters need to see a realistic plan that would allow them to repay their own student loans. If none is provided, they will hopelessly count on Biden's bribe.

5. Champion African-American conservative leaders and holidays.
African Americans on both sides of the aisle are tired of "tokenism" and "diversity hires." What we want to see are competent black leaders engaging on issues that matter to us and all Americans. As conservatives, let's celebrate holidays such as MLK Day, Black History Month, Frederick Douglass Day and Juneteenth with enthusiasm. Let's never forget or stray from the civil rights roots of our party's founding.

Policy is important, but it is not the most important aspect of Dr. King's life. I end with this word of encouragement from one of the verses often quoted by Dr. King: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a stream" (Amos 5:24). As Dr. King stated, if we truly want to remove the conditions that lead to communism, we must call people to the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ.

Project 21 Ambassador Steven Mosley currently serves as co-chair of the Fairfax GOP's Evangelical Outreach Team. This was first published at FairfaxGOP.org.

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