Book Review: King Rules

BIOGRAPHICAL ENTRY King, Dr. Alveda, King Rules. Nashville, TN: Nelson Books, 2014, 198 pp. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AUTHOR Dr. Alveda King, as guardian of the King family legacy, is a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a grateful mother and grandmother. She is a former college professor, author, mentor, stage and screen actress, Georgia State Legislator, and presidential appointee. She has been honored and blessed to sit on several boards, and has received numerous awards and honors. Through her ministry of King for America, ministry in her local church, Believer’s Bible Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and her vocation as Director of African American Outreach with Priests for Life, she devotes her God-given gifts and talents of writing, singing, song writing, and producing and directing media projects to glorify God in the earth. SUMMARY OF CONTENTS RULE NO. 1: “Make Home A Priority.” The home is where the family comes together for conversation through open communication. A sense of community is learned and established when each family member is valued and feels loved. Discipline, rules, and values give each member a feeling of stability and strength. Sharing a meal is of utmost importance. Bible verses are said at the table instilling in the children that God is the center of the family and the life of each individual member. RULE NO. 2: “Serve Your Family.” Dr. King traces the roles of the men and women in her family that have been passed down over the generations. The roles of husbands and wives and children are clearly defined. Husbands are the head of the home. Wives are helpmeets to their husbands. Fathers provide safety and security, and they make the children feel cherished and loved. Mothers oversee the home and they are actively involved in their own careers outside the home. Both husband and wife collaborate on decisions for the family. Children respect the final words of their parents. Children are taught to respect authority in the home as well as outside the home. The role of faith in God is the center of life in the family. RULE NO. 3: “Get A Good Education.” A strong education is a strong legacy in the King family. Faith is the most important strategy followed by education that leads to giving the young a real chance to do something meaningful with their lives. Too much of the nation’s resources are given to entertainment while education is being pauperized. King explores various forms of education in the public school system that can meet the values of various family traditions. RULE NO 4:”Guard Your Heart.” Dr. King places emphasis on guarding one’s heart against the desire to satisfy the desires of the flesh; the desires of the sinful nature. Dr. King tells about her failure to live up to God’s design for marriage and family. She encourages the biblical design for sex and marriage. She says that failing to follow God’s design leads to more dissatisfaction than satisfaction in one’s life. Christians should emphasize in the home and the church the joy and fulfillment found in a relationship between one man and one woman for life. RULE NO. 5: “Defend Life.” Dr. King gives a family history of advocating pro life. She chronicles her own two abortions, and the health and emotional problems that resulted. She is an advocate for women’s choice to do what she wants with her body, but she believes that abortion is a wrong choice. A fetus is a life at conception. The fetus is not a part of the mother’s body. A fetus is a helpless slave at the mercy of its slave master. Abortion degrades life, and it leads to decline of civil rights in future generations. RULE NO. 6: “Fight For Justice.” Dr. King gives credit for the success and duration of her uncle M.L.K.’s messages because they are based on the words of the Living God. The gospels record Jesus’ message to seek justice for all people in every area of life. Dr. King offers suggestions that she believes will give people an opportunity to get a job and a demand for responsibility. Those successful must offer opportunities for those left behind. We cannot allow our advancements to dull our sense of need for continued work to advance our communities. RULE NO. 7: “Care for the Needy.” Dr. King attributes her desire to help the needy to the legacy of the Williams-King family for six generations. The family has a credo established in the bloodline requiring service to God through ministering to God’s people. The scriptures guide the family’s values. Jesus Christ is the example that called for the fulfilling of Isaiah 61and quoted by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19. Dr. King cites specific examples of the King family meeting the needs of the needy. RULE NO. 8: “Work for Peace.” The word “peace” is the most closely associated with the King name. Peace begins with a commitment to nonviolence. Violent response to conflict leads to more violence. Jesus set the example to eliminate the cause of a conflict through nonviolence instead of using violent means to eliminate the adversary. Dr. King summarizes the Six Principles of Nonviolence presented by M.L.K. in his book Stride Toward Freedom. The King Center in Atlanta has developed a six step sequential process of nonviolent conflict resolution. RULE NO. 9: “Build the Beloved Community.” The King family legacy is linked to the subject of race. M.L.K. sought to build the beloved community. All people of the world come from one race-the human race. There are different ethnicities and cultures, but all share a common blood. Although there are differences among people there is one overriding commonality, one great unifier, “Man is a child of God.’ The beloved community seeks to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and violence. It works for justice throughout the world. RULE NO. 10: “Find Your Joy.” Americans believe that all people are created with certain inalienable rights; among them is the pursuit of happiness. The right to experience joy is a deeper right than happiness. Dr. King describes happiness as having the things that one wants; jewelry, cars, and clothing. Joy Is the deep satisfaction of knowing that you have peace with God, and God sustains us even when we are experiencing trying times in our lives. Joy comes only when we have faith in God. CRITICAL EVALUATION I found this book to express in a systematic way the values that I hold to deeply. I believe that the reason that this is true is because when I examine my own family it is like I am seeing a reflection of the King family. Dr. King shows us that we are all accountable to God. God provides us with everything that we need to live holy before Him. Dr. King shows us through her own failures to live up to the King legacy that our failures are largely a matter of rejecting the good things that God provides for us. Dr. King shows us that the scripture is true. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (Jas. 1:17, NASB). Dr. King demonstrates to us that the family is the foundation that a person’s life is built upon. Today, many people places a diminished importance of the marriage and family created by God and communicated to us through the scriptures and the Holy Spirit. Too many Americans today are failing in achieving the things that they are striving for; not because of a lack of inherent ability, but because the institution of marriage and family are rejected as the norm that God created for the human race. Americans are searching for answers to their problems. Americans judge others, find fault in others, and blame others. The King Rules challenges all of us to remove the log from our own eyes so that we can see clearly the speck that is in our neighbors’ eyes. The greatest values of the King Rules are that its goals are peace, building of community, and respect for all of God’s children. I believe that every person that reads this book will look at his or her own life differently, or at least more critically.