I keep calling people and asking them: “Was Martin Luther King mentioned in your church on Sunday?” For the vast majority, the answer was no. It simply slipped the pastor’s mind, perhaps because, for many of our pastors, the pastorate of a black church is a lot like retirement. A lot of retirees I know often forget what day it is. Not that they’re senile, but that a lot of their time is unstructured, which is why many of my retiree friends tend to schedule things for Saturdays and even Sundays—Male Chorus rehearsal and so forth. Now, for those of us who have worked all week, and need to be in church on Sunday, the last thing we want to do is get dragged out of bed first thing Saturday morning. But retirees—military retirees most especially—have no qualms about booking up every square inch of our free time because they simply forget what day it is. If you don’t have to go to work, Saturday is no different from Tuesday or Thursday.

Tragically, a lot of pastors I know have this same mindset. They fill up church calendars with so much busywork that the people are run ragged preparing for this and rehearsing for that, being dragged around town from one event, one speaking engagement, one church Annual Day and Fish Fry to another. Many ministry leaders, who trend toward retirement age, don’t take into account the plight of working families, torn apart all week by work and school and other commitments. Schools, in particular, tend to over-book kids to the point where they schedule track and football and soccer and all of that at 8AM Saturday mornings—ripping the family apart yet again.

For African Americans, the historic efforts and triumphs of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are an essential element of our most basic liberty. Over the years, we’ve allowed his memory to dim to a casual remembrance, and now, for far too many of us, a historical footnote. So much so that church could go on at your church, at my church, the day before his national holiday, and the man’s name not even be mentioned. That, for too many of us, it’s been so long since someone either called us “nigger” or treated us like one, that we’ve somehow forgotten that behavior was once not only tolerated but institutionalized into our rule of law. And that many men, many women, risked their lives and lost their lives and sacrificed themselves in order for us to enjoy at least a semblance of equality and equanimity with the majority culture in this country.

It is shameful for us to forget him. To overlook him. To omit him. Pastors who forget MLK really shouldn’t be pastoring. Pastors really should be up on current events, should be informed about what is going on in the world, and need to be able to place those events into biblical context. Otherwise, he’s just as blind and deaf as the sheep he is leading. A pastor who does not read, a pastor who does not keep himself informed, a pastor who does not know *what day it is,* is an embarrassment to the ministry, and the people who unconditionally follow him are lost.

So, was Martin mentioned in your church today?