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Was Malcolm X a Seventh-day Adventist?
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Sat, 09/08/2012
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San Diego Adventist Forum
Sigve Tonstad, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Religion, Loma Linda
University
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W O W Its possibilities makes me yearn for a BLT.
Thanks for the history lesson!
Fascinating. Thank-you, Dr Baker.
The story of the Littles leaves me thinking of stricken families finding solace in the Adventist church. One of my grandfathers died also in his mid-30s during the Depression leaving a widow & six children. Soon thereafter the young family joined the church & it became the center of their lives. As adults the three sons drifted from the church while the three daughters remained active members.
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"be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good" titus 2:3
I've read the recent biography of Malcolm X by Manning Marable, and my take-away from Malcolm's brush with Adventism is that it seems to have left no discernible trace. This biography complicates the traditional view of Malcolm, and like the Steve Jobs biography, it leaves you with the image of a man without soft edges who lived in a world of ideas and ideology. Both men were brilliant, but not the kind of people you would have wanted to know.
In the past I've been critical of Malcolm who was all talk and bluster, while real civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King--people Malcolm contemptuously characterized as 'house niggers'--were the ones who put their lives on the line in the streets of Birmingham and Chicago. Marable changed my view of that somewhat. He cites somebody who said that Malcolm had restored his self-respect, and I think that was his great contribution. While MLK came from the black upper class (his father gave him a Cadillac when he graduated from the Seminary), Malcolm was a representative of the downtrodden and marginalized poor. By standing strong rhetorically and morally, he set an example of how to reacquire dignity and pride in yourself. That's not an easy thing to do when you've been treated like garbage all your life.
Unfortunately, Malcolm marginalized himself to some extent by his sectarian engagements. MLK had no such handicap, and Malcolm was getting there when he was gunned down.
Aage
Great insights as usual, Aage.
It seems that one discernible trace left by Adventism might be X's openness to accepting Muslim prohibitions against pork, tobacco, & alcohol.
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"be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good" titus 2:3
Thank you, Benjamin, for this fascinating presentation. I read the autobiography recently and gained a profound respect for Malcolm X. Your video has renewed my faith in my own church. Most impressive to me was your statement that X never spoke negatively of SDA, though he was noted for his blunt criticisms of whites in general. What a sobering reminder of the importance of kindness and unselfish ministry to the poor. Little did those people know their Christian witness would be published in such a widely read book!
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