The Rev. Charlie Dates, the pastor of two historically Black churches in Chicago, is defending the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after California pastor John MacArthur declared in February that the civil rights leader “was not a Christian at all.”
“We, the undersigned, regret that we have to write you this way, but we sense that this is the only way to address the egregious wrong that you — and those like you — have yet again inflicted on Black Christians in America,” Dates wrote in an open letter that appears on the website of his Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago.
“Undoubtedly, you, Mr. MacArthur, have made significant and helpful contributions to the reading and understanding of scripture for our present age. How ironic it now feels to write to you, a teacher, a word of correction. We hope that you will find within this missive a patient and reasonable rebuttal for your unwise and ill-timed slander of the Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.”
The controversy reflects the lines that have been drawn in disputes among Reformed Christians and other Christian groups over issues related to race or social justice.
MacArthur’s comments were made during a question-and-answer session at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he is the longtime pastor. He was asked what he thought of two influential evangelical groups, Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition, which have been popular with Reformed Christians like those in MacArthur’s congregation.
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After noting that Together for the Gospel had held a tribute to Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul shortly after his death in 2017, MacArthur added, “And the strange irony was a year later they did the same thing for Martin Luther King, who was not a Christian at all, whose life was immoral,” he said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, in February. “I’m not saying he didn’t do some social good. And I’ve always been glad that he was a pacifist, or he could have started a real revolution.”
The Gospel Coalition, he said, was once a good organization but is now “useless” and “woke,” said MacArthur. “It’s Christianity astray,” he said — referring to a satirical nickname for Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine MacArthur has disapproved of in the past.
A spokesman for The Gospel Coalition did not respond to a request for comment.
MacArthur has been at odds with The Gospel Coalition since 2018, when that group helped sponsor a major conference in Memphis, Tennessee, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and condemning racism and its negative effects on the life of the church. At the event were prominent leaders, including Dates, Reformed preacher and author John Piper, Texas megachurch pastor Matt Chandler, then-SBC ethicist Russell Moore and community organizer John Perkins. (Both Perkins and Piper are longtime friends of MacArthur.)
The 2018 conference led MacArthur and others to draft a statement on social justice — which warned against what he called dangerous ideas about race and justice. That statement helped launch the so-called “war on wokeness” that has polarized both churches and the broader culture.
Reacting to MacArthur’s recent statements, Justin Giboney, president of the nonprofit AND Campaign, who also spoke at the 2018 MLK50 Conference, wrote an essay in Christianity Today critiquing MacArthur’s stance on King.
In an interview, Giboney said that his organization, a nonpartisan think tank that promotes Christian civic engagement, supports Dates’ open letter. He added that MacArthur’s comments about King reflect a wider “culture-war dynamic” in which some try to “take down all the heroes” of social justice.
After learning of MacArthur’s recent comments, Dates, who also is pastor of Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, said in a sermon, part of which was posted on Instagram on Feb. 26: “I’m so angry I could cry.”
He noted in his open letter that MacArthur had chosen to make his remarks during Black History Month. And in a later post on Instagram, Dates said: “Pastor MacArthur, You won’t do this to Dr. King … and you won’t disrespect millions of Christians without account.”
In an interview on Monday, Dates said, “He cannot get away with this. He has to know that Black and Black-adjacent clergy around the country wholeheartedly disagree with him on theological grounds. He’s not the keeper of who’s Christian and who’s not.”
In the past, MacArthur sought to align himself with the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement.
Phil Johnson, the executive editor of Grace to You, MacArthur’s media ministry, said that the pastor is not giving interviews or taking any additional questions about King. But Johnson drew a distinction between King’s work on civil rights and his doctrinal beliefs or conduct.
“As John MacArthur mentioned in his recent comments, he believes much of Dr. King’s work in the realm of Civil Rights, voting rights, and equal treatment for all ethnicities was good and beneficial,” Johnson wrote in an email.
Johnson added that MacArthur has long been critical of King on a doctrinal level. King’s “doctrine and morals do not make him a model Bible-believing (person) Christians should seek to emulate,” Johnson said. “That should not really be controversial to anyone familiar with the record of his private life and beliefs.”
MacArthur’s comments echo similar comments by other conservative leaders dating back to the 1960s. During the Civil Rights era, Christianity Today ran a series of essays from then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who dismissed the work of King and other Black leaders as communist rather than Christian.
In the open letter, Dates invokes both Hoover and the segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace, calling MacArthur “them in postmodern dress.”
The letter closes with a statement of plans to boycott MacArthur’s work: “Perhaps we should tell you that we are calling on Christian Clergy of all colors to stop reading your commentaries, to dislodge themselves from your conferences, and to give your voice no amplification in their teaching until you fight for justice to roll down like a river in America and righteousness like a mighty stream for those who are marginalized.”
Adelle Banks and Bob Smietana are national reporters at Religion News Service.
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54 Responses
My understanding is that MLK Jr rejected the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and His bodily resurrection. Irrespective of his own personal moral failings, if these were indeed his beliefs, then he would not be considered a Christian.
How can you say “irrespective of his personal moral failings” when “adulterers do not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9) and Jesus says the following, precisely in the context of behavior?
“For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil” (Luke 6:43-45)
“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19)
There can be nuances in what doctrines people agree on (and there ARE unitarian Christians: until the 4thC every Christian was unitarian and believed in Jesus as son of God and Messiah as per Matthew 16:16-20 etc).
But NOBODY can hide his behavior and behavior reveals the heart, whether it’s regenerate or not…(see also Galatians 5:19-24)
Clearly you misconstrued the intention of my comment. Moral character and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) is certainly the evidence of salvation. However, it’s irrelevant to the discussion, if one doesn’t believe in the essentials of the faith. Hell will be full of ‘moral’ people, who never committed adultery. God will sort out who is disqualified based on their life. That’s not our place to judge. The warnings are numerous in scripture and we should take heed. The Bible clearly teaches about the person and work of Christ. His deity, His virgin birth, His death, burial and resurrection. If one rejects that truth, there is basis to conclude that they are a Christian, no matter what they profess.
If it is agreed that the spiritual fruit of one’s testimony and life proves whether one is a true Christian, instead of heaving race-baiting charges against John MacArthur, why does Dates not just provide the evidence to show that John MacArthur’s assessment is false? I wonder what a Roys Report investigation into King’s testimony, behavior and affiliations would discover? Why not find out, Julie, and publish that evidence?
John MacArthur used to be a great Bible teacher but now I am concerned he is senile or something? Why say something like this? Didn’t Jesus say that he was here for sinners and tax collectors? Does MacArthur think he doesn’t sin anymore? MacArthur is a loose cannon and someone needs to ask him to step away, he’s harming the cause of Christ !
Because Dates can’t contradict the truth of MacArthur’s claim, curmudgeonly and unkindly as MacArthur expresses it.
MLK denied most of the basic tenets of the faith ANY evangelical Christian (which Dates claims to be) deems “essential.” It’s concerning that so many like Dates don’t distinguish between MLK as venerable civil rights leader par excellence, and far-off-the-mark preacher of a social gospel few know of, or investigate. I’ve seen the documents in the Northwestern Univ. Library which African American pastor Virgil Walker quotes in this blog and short video. I also wish the article had given them as essential context.
https://g3min.org/whats-the-truth-about-martin-luther-king-jr/
This brief and very excellent 10 minutes expose by Mr. Virgil Walker appears to be extremely credible especially given the fact that he provides quotes about the religious ideologies of Martin Luther King. However, John MacArthur, even though I know he will never do it, needs to stop making himself look good by making other people look bad. Okay, so Martin Luther King was not a Christian. What does that have to do with anything somebody could say from the pulpit during a sermon? Criticisms attached to names coming from the pulpit help no one, but of course this does not apply to John MacArthur who lacks discretion over anything he says in his self-proclaimed title of King of the evangelical church.
Excellent video. The authors – and certainly Dates, could have taken the time to explain when/where MLK changed his beliefs. They didn’t. We are to overlook this and ignore his personal behavior. MacArthur is a racist. On to to the next story…
Just wish to clarify.
Is this the same John MacArthur who supported the Iraq war?
Is this the same JM who said, “we need to support the president” despite there being no concrete tangible evidence to do so?
Is the same JM who dismissed the opinions of other Christian leaders in the US and around the world who openly said that such a war would be immoral and would cause great suffering and deaths?
Is this the same JM whose biblical justification war could be regarded by any credible theologian as deep as a duck pond?
Is this the same JM who supported a war that caused the deaths of service personnel and left other ex-service personnel with lifelong debilitating health conditions?
This article avoids the question and slanders MacArthur as a racist. I don’t think there’s any question that King was immoral— he plagiarized and womanized. Was he a Christian? I don’t know, but I would trust Macarthur rather than Dates. Na I looked up Pastor Dates’s church to try to find out what he believes, but it has no statement of faith. It does have a membership form, which doesn’t ask about a potential member’s beliefs at all; only his medical condition and whether he has children. https://sbcoc.shelbynextchms.com/external/form/0a6c9379-010e-43f9-bc0e-908acbe06990
I looked up MLK’s church, and it’s hard to tell whether it’s Christian or not from its mission statements, which is quite compatible with unitarianism. https://www.ebenezeratl.org/our-vision/
You should look up Progressive Baptist Church; Pastor Dates has led that church for ~13 years; he just recently took over as pastor of Salem due to the retirement of the prior pastor.
And for Dr King, you should look up Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where he pastored and began his civil rights activism.
Let’s please be factual in our resources.
It is interesting that in his open letter, Dates neither quotes Scripture nor gives a defense for MLK’s heretical views. Virgil Walker wrote an article in detail about MLK’s heresies and how his message was largely based on Raushenbusch’s social gospel on the G3 website (google “Virgil Walker truth about Martin Luther King”). No man, no matter their worldly accomplishments, who denies the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, and the resurrection can rightfully be called Christian. No serious clergyman, as Dates heralds himself, would consider any of these “an obscure point of orthodoxy” (his letter).
i appreciate much of your reporting on tragic scandals, but i hesitate to support y’all when there’s so much of this stuff that seems to go against theologically conservative, biblical teachers.
Paul, are you saying we should be quiet about immoral, theologically conservative, biblical teachers because they are theologically conservative, biblical teachers?
“Theologically conservative biblical teachers” is a mouthful that carry no weight nor meaningful.
Were the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and teachers of the law in Yeshua’s day not considered “theologically conservative orthodox Torah teachers”?
AND, yet……………..
These “expert” religious leaders were the ones that Yeshua clashed and denounced the most as knowing the letter of the law (head knowledge of scripture=legalism); BUT not knowing the spirit of the law (heart knowledge, & purpose/intent behind the law).
Yeah……
A few things:
1. MacArthur should be VERY careful about throwing stones inside of his glass house.
2. I think some of this goes back to the difference between the Black and the white evangelical church. (I’ve belonged to both and experienced the stark difference). The Black church has ALWAYS been about taking action and promoting social and economic justice in the community, under the scriptures of “faith without works is dead” and the understandings of “we are called to help the downtrodden” and “you don’t just leave someone hungry and say, ‘Jesus loves you’; you feed them!” The Black church has been ground zero for raising Black community leaders – this dates back to when the only times Black people could gather in numbers without being considered a threat was church. It’s how the Black church was positioned as THE place for all gatherings – from NAACP meetings, civil rights planning, and the like. White evangelical churches balk at promoting social justice as “woke” and “deviating from scripture”, focusing only on saving souls – believing THAT is how justice will come to pass. (I personally believe BOTH approaches are important, and hate seeing the churches at odds.)
3. Interesting how selective conservatives are when it comes to giving out the “well he isn’t perfect….he is human” pardon. I guess MLK isn’t deserving.
Marin, thanks for sharing here – especially #2, as it is very insightful.
I guess the answer to whether Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian depends on what one means by “a Christian.”
E.g., can one be a Christian if one does not confess and believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and his coequal nature and personhood in the Trinitarian Godhead? Some might say no, and some might say yes.
From what I have read, Martin Luther King Jr. did not confess and believe the above.
So was he a Christian? Did he have to confess and believe the above to be a Christian?
The answer is… 😎
Did you know Jesus has a God?
John 20:17
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
I will take the word of Jesus over a group of fallen men trying to create a doctrine. A doctrine that is used today to exclude people from participating in group study of scripture, community worship, and man’s judgement of their faith.
Did you know that you can blaspheme Jesus and be forgiven, but not the Holy Spirit?
MT 12
31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
MK 3
28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:
“believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ and his coequal nature and personhood in the Trinitarian Godhead?”
If all 3, are equal and God, there would not be a difference in which form you blaspheme. If this doctrine was so important, God, or Jesus, would have addressed it, not fallen men.
If someone showed us evidence that MLK recanted his views on the Christian Doctrines of the Divine Sonship of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, and the Bodily Resurrection (as he titled his paper), and accepted them as true, then there would be a reason to reconsider the claims he was a Christian. Otherwise, he puts himself in the same company as Fosdick- talking about a caricature Jesus that bears no resemblance to Him presented in the Gospels. To call these essential truths obscure points of theology tells us Dates’ raison d’être is much more political and social than spiritual. It’s not slander to challenge someone’s claims to Christianity when one denies historic beliefs of Christianity as MLK did. Truth is an absolute defense against such charges of slander.
When people feel a need to dig up the dead just to anathemetize them, I question their wisdom and thier heart. This feels like MLK is being assasinated all over again.
I agree! JM needs to be discerning! What possible good is this to bring this up?
Immorality is a sin but I dp not hear Mac Arthur denying the christianity of our current high profile pastors who were immoral. Christians do sin. In addition to immorality -telling lies, being greedy, ignoring the needy, bearing false witness, etc. I’m shocked that some one with his maturity would be so categorical.
MLK was erroneously considered a communist. If communism was around in the days of Jesus, what would the scribes and Pharisees call him. It is a careless, kndee jerk response to any movement that that makes uncomfortable. WE are so quick with our labels that we miss opportunities to learn and grow.
Maybe we should find new focus on the new commandment Jesus gave and explore new ways of loving one another in the 21st century. the apostle Paul tells us how love is e.g kind, gentle. Loving is hard!
How disappointing. One can literally feel the hatred and vitriol emanating from that open letter. I do praise God though for using this to expose Charlie Dates for the wolf in sheep’s clothing that he is. I do wish that Moody Bible Institute in Chicago did not have him speak in chapel giving him a platform to spread his hate filled, false teaching and leading students astray.
Excellent article by A. Banks and B. Smietana. Thank you Adelle that you co-authored and terribly terribly sad that MLK would be spoken about with such complete disregard, disrespect. John McArthur has been repeatedly observed in articles on this website to behave consistently “without grace” to MANY.
And Paul… That is just the point The Roys Report makes…… They are a voice crying in the wilderness of this broken sin sick world praying to be used of God to open the eyes of his church. If the church and the men that established and continue to lead it are not willing to admit and address the scandals and worldly issues that exist inside the church, we have lost our voice and saltiness in this place.
MLK did not believe in the full divinity of Christ. His essay on the subject (the Humanity and Divinity of Jesus) clearly says, “We may find the divinity of Christ not in his substantial unity with God, but in his filial consciousness and in his unique dependence upon God.” We can objectively observe this is a departure from Baptist theology and standard orthodox understanding of the divinity of Jesus. What we cannot say is how that point of view effected MLKs eternal standing with the Almighty. That is not ours to determine as King continued to identify as a Christian to the day of his death.
The problem with Mr MacArthur is his harsh judgements as to who is/isn’t a Christian especially when he hasn’t met those upon whom he passes judgements. In the last election cycle MacArthur even said “I said [to Trump] ‘any real, true believer is going to be on your side in this election,’ because it’s not just an individual, it’s an entire set of policies that Christians cannot in any way affirm,” he added.”
What does one even DO with a statement like that? The judging of an eternal soul based on the political party they vote for? I mean. Talk about an extra-Biblical point of view.
I appreciate the responses of our black brothers although I don’t believe the issue is MacArthur is a post-modern racist, but rather he’s judgemental of the faith of anyone who doesn’t think exactly like him.
Is he projecting? Psych 101. Takes one to know one. He must have been at MLK Jr’s deathbed to hear his last confessions of faith or lack thereof? Such arrogance.
He himself is pied piper of various heretical and unscriptural doctrines and teachings including the cessation-ism theory. Is he not the one who has profited obscenely off the gospel and the bible? I guess he thinks mere belief in deity of Christ gets him VIP seat in the kingdom. He is 85; he is soon to find out that he is the least in the kingdom-that is IF he makes it.
The scripture describes the MacArthurs of this time quite well as:
“You who handle the scripture, BUT do NOT know me. Even your pen is deceptive, and your writings are falsehood. You teach for money; corrupt men who handle the word deceitfully. Professing a form of godliness but denying the power thereof; you stress tithing but ignoring the heavier matters of the law such as Justice, mercy and love. Harlots and tax collectors will make heaven before you religious leaders and teachers.”
It’s hard to respect any clergy when they’re out picking fights with one another for attention rather than serving their congregations.
At this point I’m more concerned with what MLK did than what he believed. He stood up for and fought for what was right when many preachers who had all the ‘Yes’ boxes on their orthodoxy check list marked off.
Amen, Mr. Arthur . . . MLK was a great man without whom our country would most likely have been in a racial war. We all have our demons to wrestle — I think King David had some of those issues, as well.
This headline is clickbait, and it worked, I got caught up in the emotion of JM’s “declaration.” It wasn’t that at all, was it? In the full quote, it was an off hand comment made answering a question about something else.
I’ve never been comfortable saying anyone else is not a Christian, but it’s not a racist or irrational response to someone who doesn’t believe the supernatural elements of the life of Jesus It reminds me of Thomas Jefferson who literally removed all the miracles and supernatural elements in The Jefferson Bible. Is being inspired by the life and ideals of Jesus considered faith?
After reading this story and sourcing out why anyone would claim MLK was not a Christian, I found myself wishing this Roya Report had been more balanced.
In the interests of truth, a correction: Giboney said that his organization was “a nonpartisan think tank that promotes Christian civic engagement.” Yet, in their past official platform positions, they disavowed a specific Presidential candidate by name and promoted the policies of an opposing political party on abortion, immigration, LGBTQ+, identity politics, etc. They do promote “Christian civic engagement,” as does Pastor Dates, but they do so from a specific partisan political viewpoint, despite their claims and the claims of their followers. They are entitled to do so in a free country; but, at the least, be honest. As a pastor myself for many years, more disappoining to me is that Pastor Dates does so from his pulpit. I wish for the Lord’s sake, for the sake of unity in the church, for his own sake, and for Moody Bible Institutes sake, he would stop it.
The biggest problem with MacArthur is not his cessationist pneumology (that is a secondary issue and not germane to the central tenets of salvation). The problem is that by the very requirements for pastors according to Scriptures which MacArthur has preached about many a time, MacArthur HIMSELF is disqualified. He is combative and pugnacious, not temperate, self-controlled, hospitable, etc. Also, he deliberately hid his COVID infection behind obfuscations, stonewalling, and falsehoods, and only admitted it when he was fully recovered and forced to. He minimized the disease, belittled those who wanted to take precautions, and attacked those who wanted to follow the health guidelines for masks, social distancing, etc. That smells like hypocrisy and “Do as I say, not as I do.”
But I am sure his little Chihuahua mini-me Phil Johnson will comment before too long.
Are John MacArthur and MLK Christians? I do not know and I will leave that determination to God unlike so many other commentators here.
While armchair quarterbacks chime in here, let me add my 2 cents.
Addressing America’s involvement in the Vietnam Way, Martin Luther King Jr. was the only well known preacher – that I know of – who had the guts to tell the truth about it.
Thousands of Americans suffered – needlessly – because our leaders would not listen to him.
Anyone who does not know this, should check out the strong things he had to say about it.
Bob Jones University Apologizes for Its Racist Past
Bob Jones University, did not admit black students until the 1970s. Then, for a 30-year period, interracial dating was prohibited. Now the university has announced that its polices were wrong.
John MacArthur attended Bob Jones
In 1956, Criswell gave instructions to stay clear of segregation. Criswell gave a fiery sermon that linked the fight against integration with evangelism. All Southern Baptist pastors should, according to Criswell, speak out against those who were advocating integration.
John MacArthur is enamored with Criswell
The Justice Department sued Donald Trump, his father, Fred, and Trump Management in 1973, for racial discrimination — because he would not rent apartments to African-Americans.
John MacArthur supports Trump.
For sure, JM is infuriated by the BLM movement.
We celebrate MLK for encouraging us to all follow the commands of Scripture to love our neighbors as ourselves.
I have heard many inspiring words from MLK, but never heard him say
“grabs em’ by the p….”
JM might not be racist, but he seems to like those who are.
I find it exceedingly troubling and sad that any sort of concern about the impact of white supremacy and racism on Black people and their fellow persons of color ia so often dismissed as “woke-ism.” That folks like Dates are even willing to bother responding to white people like MacArthur is a testament to the grace and forbearance of so many of our Black brothers and sisters.
Tom – this comment made me pause and search for the words to reply. All I came up with is: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Very well said.