For the Catholics here- can people pray to Dr. Martin Luther King?

Yes, you can ask anyone who has died, in Christ, to pray for you. We don't know if Martin Luther King is in heaven, or purgatory, but either way you can ask him to pray for you. If he is in hell (and I'm certainly not implying that he is), he will not pray for you.

You could make a statue of him, in fact there are statues of him.

http://the44diaries.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/dr...

You could go to the statue and use it as a visual aid to remind you of Martin Luther King as you ask for his intercession, that is what all statues of saints are used for.

As Tattoo says...Martin Luther King was not martyred for his faith, but for human rights. While admirable, it is not the same thing.

We believe that Saints are those who are in heaven. Everyone in heaven is a Saint, and if Martin Luther King JR is in heaven (we don't know for sure, and he wasn't martyred for his faith, but for his civil rights work) than asking him to pray for us would be just as powerful as any other Saint.

So in answer to your question: yes, we could ask MLK Jr. for his prayers. Even if he's in purgatory, asking for his prayers is still an intercession and helps his cause.

I don't care for your smart-*** attitude with the statues and medals remarks though. We don't kneel before statues as a nod to them, we kneel when we pray, even if that prayers involves asking someone in heaven to pray for us. Save the acid for people who deserve it.

You're right, all religions are true, except for the parts of the few that claim that all others are untrue. If you look outside of the Abrahamic traditions, you'll see that natural religions know instinctively that no one religion is true to the exclusion of all others. We in our culture have been immersed in an unnatural assumption of exclusive religious truth. We are so steeped in it that we take the "struggle between religions" for granted. Really, it is only certain monotheistic ideologies that struggle for supremacy. Diversity is natural and Good.

Short Answer: YES, in a nutshell, we could. We can ask any Christian or anyone joined to the body of Christ for help. I can ask my Grandmother for intercession.

LOoongg Answer: Yes, all Christians are Saints in one regard. However, you do realize that when a Catholic simply says "Saint" we are generally referring to a Patron Saint - which is different then you or I. Secondly, we shouldn't be so arrogant as to prematurely call ourselves saints BEFORE the end of our lives, as we may fall away, stumble in our faith, etc. before our lives are finished. So while technically we CAN call ourselves Saints in 1 respect. Pride should limit our actual useage of that to only the most holy amongst us. RIGHT?

Prayer is not worship, the Latin root is precia or "petition" It simply means to petition someone for help.

I can say "I pray that you don't give me a ticket, Officer Garcia" and I am not worshipping Officer Garcia, but simply hoping, begging, pleading that he not give me a ticket.

See the difference?

One of the things which makes the Catholic church "catholic" or universal, as the Greek word actually means, is that it believes that we are ALL united through Christ.. even those who are in heaven. So Catholicism is universal because it transcends our mere Earthly existence. We can't say those alive in heaven are Dead, nor cut off from God, and if we are not dead and we are not cut off from him.. then we too are part of the body of Christ - Agreed?

So, then, ASSUMING that Martin Luther King is in heaven (we don't know this for sure) then he is still alive and still part of the Universal church... still part of the body of Christ. IF he is part of this body, then we can call upon him to help us, as we do our sisters and brothers here on earth.

Therefore, we can ask Martin Luther for intercession, like anyone else. -- You are absolutely right in this.

IF a statue or some medal of him HELPS us to be reminded of his sacrafice, his ideals, what he championed, what he sought, etc. OR reminds us of his faith in God -- THEN we can certainly use an image of him for this purpose.

Our prayers to him should be for intercession and ask him to ask God for help. God is the one which enables those in Heaven to hear us and it is God who ultimately answers the request. We only call upon our brothers and sisters for help..and because the Catholic faith is universal, we don't differentiate between those on Earth or alive in heaven.

HOWEVER, he was not martyred for the Christian cause -- but a civil rights cause.. not a religious one. So there is a huge distinction there with other Patron Saints.

Being Martyred alone, does not make one "holy" in the eyes of the Catholic church. There is quite a procedure to name someone a Patron Saint or just "Saint" for short. It involves them A) being considered dead here on Earth B) Leading an exceptionally holy life... holier then their contemporaries. C) Being advocated strongly by more then 1 person D) their earthly life being heavily investigated to find any small mistakes E) Having at the very least 2 miracles happen in connection with their intercession. Example: I prayed to Martin Luther for his intercession and miraculously, God granted my request. After at least 2 of these very well documented cases occurred and there are no other explanations of how it could have happened naturally.. THEN the person is usually Sainted. It can take centuries.

As far as I am concerned.. While Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man.. and I believe he IS in heaven. I do not think he meets the strict conditions for Sainthood. However, we can still pray to him for his intercession if we have reason at all to believe he is in heaven. Nothing in the bible puts a limit on intercession or differentiates those alive on Earth and those alive in heaven as being cut off from each other... if you read scripture.. quite the opposite in fact.

Of course. You can ask ANYONE in heaven to pray fro you, not just the Saints.

You can ask who ever you want to pray for you.We do not pray to medals or statues.Protestants!

I don't really care who people pray to. My question is why fundies worry about it so much.

Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Thats all you need to show the catholics the error of praying to saints. Saints are good dont get me wrong. They were made saints to show us how a good Christian lived. Not to pray too.