The Substance of Things Hoped For, The Evidence of Things Not Seen; or Standing on the Side of Love?

I'm a member of the CLF. As a member of the CLF one receives a copy of QUEST. In the October issue of it, there is a sermon by Rev. John Crestwell, minister of Davies Memorial UU Church in Maryland. I've read and reread that sermon and as good as I think it is, there is one thing I disagree with; the main premise. I had thought I would write Rev. Crestwell but decided against that because it's such a minor thing in the marriage equality debate which is what the sermon was really about.

So dear reader I have decided to write the letter that I would have written Rev. Crestwell here and maybe morph it into a discussion with you about liberal religious hopes and dreams.

Dear Rev. Crestwell,
I have read and reread your sermon on marriage equality since receiving the October issue of Quest in the mail. I had debated writing you this letter but have decided that I should ask this question.

According to your sermon, you believe that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been for marriage equality. I couldn't disagree with you more. From everything that I've read and heard about him, Dr. King was a typical black preacher of his time. He would have had a hard time with the women's movement (just look at how he interacted with the women in his life). And if you look at his complex relationship with Bayard Rustin, you can see that Dr. King had more ambivalent feelings about homosexuality than most black preachers. (I know part of the complexity with Rustin was due to Rustin's association with communism, but that's another subject)

So I guess my question is this: is your belief that Dr. King would have been for marriage equality a matter of faith(using Paul's definition of it as being the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen)? Or is there something out there about Dr. King that I haven't seen?

My concern is that we liberal religious folk are trying to co-opt people that we admire and use them for causes that we are involved in even though those we admire may not or wouldn't have been.

Even though it doesn't seem like it, I did truly get something from your sermon. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me.

Blessed be,
the Real Anonymous

So dear reader, I pose the same question to you; have we co-opted people we admire for our own agenda even though that person may not or would not have agreed with it?