On King Holiday, Religious Groups Look to 50th Anniversary of Assassination

Religious groups are planning more than the annual holiday celebrations that note the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. today.

The holiday honoring the Baptist civil rights leader falls on his actual birthday — Jan. 15, 1929. But King also will be remembered in the spring, five decades after his April 4 assassination in Memphis, Tenn.

Here are a few ways faith groups and their partners are marking that date:

Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission

The ERLC and The Gospel Coalition, two evangelical Christian groups, plan to co-host “MLK50: Gospel Reflections from the Mountaintop,” an April 3-4 discussion in Memphis on the state of racial unity in the church and the culture.

“The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., should remind us of what can happen when one speaks to the conscience of the culture and to the conscience of the church,” said Russell Moore, president of the ERLC, when he announced the plans in 2017.

“Fifty years after Dr. King’s assassination, it is shameful that the church often lags behind the culture around us when it comes to issues of racial justice, unity and reconciliation. We should be leading the way.”

Topics at the event will include viewing racial justice as a “gospel issue,” overcoming “the most segregated hour in America,” and discussing racial tensions around…