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Does Truth Matter Anymore? On MLK's dishonesty, racism and plagiarism.

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Truth to unprincipled people is like salt to a slug. It destroys 
them, but to honorable people it is their foundation for life. 
Truth is essential for developing a vibrant nation, especially 
necessary for politicians, preachers, professors, and performers 
who give direction to a nation.

A lie doesn’t become truth with time, talk, or twisting. 
Likewise, wrong does not become right; and evil doesn’t become 
good because it is accepted by the majority. I would rather 
experience hateful truth than loving error. Truth is often 
unpleasant, but unpleasant truth is not always hate speech. The 
more society drifts away from the truth, the more it will hate 
those who speak it.

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once noted, “All Truth 
progress through the same three stages: First with ridicule, 
then with violent opposition, and finally acceptance as self-
evident.” I have observed that throughout history and throughout 
my life.

People prompted by principle will stand for truth when they are 
first exposed to it even if they know it will annoy and destroy 
them. Truth will inform you and reform you. Unused truth becomes 
useless as an unused muscle. Roman statesman and historian 
Cicero declared: “The first law for the historian is that he 
shall never dare write an untruth. The second is that he shall 
suppress nothing that is true.” I will follow that maxim today.

Tolstoy declared, “I know that most men … can seldom accept even 
the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would 
oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have 
delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly 
taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, 
into the fabrics of their lives.” That will be a problem with 
the reading of this column. However, when a man of principle 
gets new truth that conflicts with what he has always taught, he 
either changes his mind or loses his principles.

The 18th-century scientist/philosopher Georg Lichtenberg said, 
“It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a 
crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.” I am sure I will singe 
some beards today because I will deal with truth as it relates 
to an American icon.

In March of 1993 I sent a note to the editor of USA Today and 
told him not to waste money sending me my annual contract. I 
quit. Some of my closest friends thought I had lost my mind 
since the largest paper in the world gave me an opportunity to 
express my very Christian and Conservative views — and paid me 
for doing it! I quit because of truth. I got my gig at the 
national paper because I came to the defense of my friend Jerry 
Falwell who was castigated by the media and academia for saying 
Bishop Tutu was a phony. Of course, he was a phony; but because 
Tutu was a religious leader and a leading South African Black, 
the truth was rejected. I sent a column to the paper in Jerry’s 
defense, and they sent me a check and a contract! They were 
looking for a “token fundamentalist.”

The editor knew I traveled across America, Europe, and the 
Middle East and told me to inform him what was “hot” at the time 
and we would deal with it on the daily “Opinion Page.” One day 
it was guns, another day AIDS, next abortion, next street 
people, etc. However, when I told him I wanted to do an article 
(four other authors including the editor would also deal with 
the subject) on Senator Ted Kennedy romping on the floor of a 
major Washington restaurant with a waitress, he refused to deal 
with the subject. The story never was published. I thought truth 
was important.

When I returned from a brief stay in London after a Middle East 
trip, I told the editor that Martin Luther King’s plagiarism of 
his Ph.D. dissertation was hot news in England and I wanted to 
do an article on the subject. The editor refused to permit it. 
It seems truth was not important to the paper. On Nov. 9, 1990, 
The Wall Street Journal broke the story that USA Today could 
have published.

That was not too surprising since every January 10 or 11 I sent 
him an article dealing with Martin Luther King, Jr. I believed 
four other people would deal very positively with him but I 
would not seek to ingratiate myself to the liberal loonies on 
the left or the radical rascals on the right. I was never 
extreme other than reporting the facts with few opinions. The 
articles were never accepted in my eight years I was under 
contract to them. One year they did an Opinion Page dealing with 
King but refused to use any King article I had submitted. All 
five articles on the “King Debate” were positive. Not one word 
of criticism. Debate? Truth? Fair? Balanced?

Although my adult life demonstrates the absence of racism, I 
suppose I must establish here my bona fides as an unbiased 
Christian Conservative – not a knuckle dragging Neanderthal 
hater of Blacks. I have dear Black friends who visit in our home 
and we in theirs; others we have financially supported. My 
childhood hero was Booker T. Washington; and some of my favorite 
people are Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, and 
Ben Carson whom I would like to have as friends and neighbors. 
Plus, I supported Herman Cain for president. I may be a rascal 
but not a racist.

So, surely no sane person can accuse me of racism because I am 
critical of King. One may think I am wrong but no one will 
reasonably charge me of being racist. That charge has been 
hurled my way all my adult life and when that happens, I know I 
have won the discussion or debate.

I believe truth still matters. When I was a young preacher I 
vowed to speak and write the truth without regard to family, 
friends, foes, or finances. I have tried to keep that vow and 
hope my epitaph announces, “Here lies Don Boys, a preacher and 
author who couldn’t be bought.”

The truth will set us free but sometime it stings as in the case 
of King. King was courageous and charismatic, but short on 
character. He was a gifted speaker and natural leader usually 
without fear — all commendable attributes. But there is more 
than that. Here are some facts about King followed by a few 
opinions. No one can disagree with facts while everyone can 
disagree with my opinions.

King was an admitted adulterer according to his own admission to 
Parade Magazine; his “best friend” Ralph Abernathy (And the 
Walls Came Tumbling Down); the FBI tapes; and reported by his 
very friendly Pulitzer prize-winning biographer. It seems that 
sleeping with female members of his church was the norm rather 
than the exception and King declared that he didn’t know a 
single black preacher who was chaste! Of course, that is an 
outrageous, slanderous statement and falsely indicts many Blacks 
who are faithful to the Bible and their wives. Or, it could 
indicate the religious leaders with whom he ran!

Repeated immorality should be sufficient to tarnish King’s image 
since principled people don’t endorse people who don’t keep 
their marriage vows. Many progressives will not be concerned 
with that while all principled people will be.

King plagiarized many of his seminary papers (and included all 
the mistakes), many of his books, and his masterful “I Have a 
Dream” speech. That speech was taken from another black preacher 
who delivered it at the 1952 Republican National Convention. 
Question: why has no national media outlet ever mentioned that 
fact when praising the speech?

Truth matters to me. That’s why I “go on the record” about King 
without being mad, mean, or malicious. When the King FBI tapes 
are released in 2027, thinking people will realize that I have 
been rather mild in my position on King. Truth is never 
relative. There are no half-truths and there are no degrees of 
truth. You have faced truth today. How will you handle it?

I’m not promoting a crusade to remove the King national holiday, 
although it is embarrassing what Congress did to remain 
politically correct and keep the votes and money coming in. I am 
simply an educator, preacher, and apologist trying to inform my 
readers about truth.

I think truth still matters.

http://patriotpost.us/commentary/40034
                   Ť

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Does Truth Matter Anymore?  On MLK's dishonesty, racism and plagiarism. "Ronny Koch" <rkoch@banmlkday.com> - 2025-01-23 14:56 +0100

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