January 15

Martin Luther King, Jr., Georges-Henri Lévesques, and Saint Íte of Killeedy

Author

David Barnhart
January 15, 2026

Swimming hole, 2018. Own photo.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on this date in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was an American Baptist pastor and Black civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1968 as he led the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike. The holiday which memorializes him was observed federally for the first time in 1986. Its observance was signed into law by Ronald Reagan, who initially opposed the holiday. Dr. King’s words and worldview are often whitewashed to make his views on race, social change, and economics more palatable for mass consumption, but it’s important for Christians to recognize that his vision of black liberation and economic justice was grounded in his Christian theology. 

Today also marks the death, in 2000, of Georges-Henri Lévesques, a Roman Catholic priest and sociologist who was part of Quebec’s “Quiet Revolution.” He also argued for a theologically-grounded response to the excesses of capitalism, part of the “social credit” movement. 

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Íte of Killeedy, the foster mother of Brendan the Navigator, who died in 570. 

Reflection:

In his collection of sermons, Strength to Love, King wrote:

The Kingdom of God as a universal is not yet. Because sin exists on every level of [human] existence, the death of one tyranny is followed by the emergence of another tyranny. …Even though all progress is precarious, within limits real social progress may be made. …And though the Kingdom of God may remain not yet as a universal reality in history, in the present it may exist in such isolated forms as in judgment, in personal devotion, and in some group life.”

Georges-Henri Levesque [probably] wrote these words: 

“The importance of voluntary societies in a democracy needs little emphasis in this generation which knows that their suppression is the first move of a dictatorship; but it is perhaps not fully realized to what extent democracy depends upon their activities.”

And definitely wrote these words, more of which can be found here: 

“Social Credit is wholly centred on the very Christian principle that the proper goal of economic activity is to satisfy the needs of man and not to accumulate wealth for wealth 's sake.”

Prayer: God, trapped as we are between the “already” and “not yet,” help us to live as citizens of your kingdom, where wealth has no bearing on how people are treated or how lives are valued. Amen.