Black pastors rebuke Mark Robinson’s reported remarks about Martin Luther King Jr.

Three prominent Black pastors in North Carolina and other respected clergy have rebuked Mark Robinson, the embattled North Carolina lieutenant governor who is running for governor, for his past incendiary remarks about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Robinson is under intense fire after CNN shared countless controversial comments that he allegedly made on social media, websites and message boards between 2008 and 2012 — including calling himself a “Black Nazi.” He has vehemently denied those remarks came from him. Robinson also said he would remain in the gubernatorial race against his Democrat opponent Josh Stein, despite calls from within the Republican Party to step down. His spokesperson, Michael Lonergan, said in an email after the CNN report that what “the Democrats say about Mark Robinson is either an outright lie or twisted so far out of context it might as well be.”

Robinson did not address his inflammatory 2011 comments, according to CNN, calling King, the legendary civil rights leader a “commie bastard, “worst than a maggot” and a “huckster.” An NBC News request to his campaign for comment went unanswered. Robinson also allegedly wrote, “I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let Blacks join.” If the KKK did allow Black members, Robinson allegedly said he would use an anti-Black slur to refer to King, “Martin Lucifer Koon!”

Robinson has been endorsed by presidential candidate Donald Trump, who once called him “Martin Luther King on steroids.” He added, “I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

Given Robinson’s documented history of bombastic comments, King’s oldest child, Martin Luther King III, said in a statement Thursday that he was not surprised by the reported comments allegedly made about his father. 

“His praise for slavery, disparaging rhetoric, and grotesque characterization of my dad and his legacy are deeply worrisome for North Carolinians and all Americans who oppose racism and bigotry,” he said. 

King added that he and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, will be campaigning to support Stein “and local candidates who will stand up for women, Black and Brown North Carolinians, and everyone else who Mark Robinson chooses to disparage.”

Black religious leaders, who revere King, were particularly insulted by Robinson’s alleged disparaging of King’s impact on the world. Some pastors said they would not “dignify Robinson’s dishonorable comments by reacting to them.” Others who spoke with NBC News, including Bishop Sir Walter Mack of Union Baptist Church in Winston- Salem, North Carolina, said Robinson needs an education on King’s message.

“What we need to do is help people to understand what King stood for, and that was to unify people and to bring people together in the spirit of love, and that is the language and the method that we need to hold on to today,” Mack said. “We won’t glorify anyone or anything that comes against the work and the legacy of Dr. King. It’s all about the love that he presented.”

Mycal Brickhouse, of Baptist Grove Church in Raleigh, said Robinson’s alleged past comments further revealed “a political leader who embraces a narrative of hatred and supremacy, creating more problems by casting a unifying leader as a threat. Instead of promoting polarizing and malicious views, we should learn from history’s lessons, and remember the negative effects of devaluing others’ humanity to boost one’s assumed superiority.”

In 2018, on Martin Luther King Day, Robinson belittled those who admire King’s legacy and called him an inferior preacher.

“It is at once funny and sad that so many people will follow the lead of a bunch of atheists and worship an ersatz pastor as a deity,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

Robert C. Scott, pastor of Saint Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte, said Robinson’s disregard for King’s work extends beyond the man. “It is an affront to the legacy and the ministry of Dr. King, but also to the Black church, and to humankind in general,” Scott said. “I think that what he did as well as what Donald Trump did in calling Mark Robinson ‘Martin Luther King on steroids’ is really a misappropriation of the work that King has done. And they do not know King that well to make a comparison of Mark Robinson to Dr. King.”

In a statement to NBC News, Trump campaign’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the nominee “is focused on winning the White House and saving this country. North Carolina is a vital part of that plan. We are confident that as voters compare the Trump record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border, and safe streets, with the failures of Biden-Harris, then President Trump will win the Tarheel State once again. We will not take our eye off the ball.”

In a 2017 Facebook post Robinson called the Civil Rights Movement “crap,” which astonished Henry P. Davis II, pastor of First Baptist Church in Highland Park in Landover, Maryland. 

“I’ve been privileged across the years to know persons who knew Dr. King, and they would almost rise up in their graves because of the ridiculousness of his statements,” Davis said. He added that young people could end up mimicking similar rhetoric if growing attempts to ban the teaching of Black history in schools prevails. 

“This is also a perfect example of why certain history needs to be taught in our classrooms, because it is obvious that Mr. Robinson is not up on his, especially when it comes to Dr. King, and those who were those who partnered alongside Dr. King,” Davis said.

Eric Vickers, pastor of Georgia’s Fairfield Baptist Church in Lithonia, outside of Atlanta, said Robinson’s comments speak to a larger “moral decay” in the country, that makes Robinson “unfit for public office”.

“Among the numerous repulsive and erroneous assertions, to be a Black man in America and disrespect the sacrificial labor of Dr. King and the army of nonviolent, civil rights soldiers, is an affront to his ancestry and the freedoms he enjoys,” Vickers said. “He will have reduced himself to a bigot in blackface and a mascot for Project 2025. At this point, for Mr. Robinson, the best way forward is the way out. It is clear that voting in this election is of great consequence and the church must be engaged and concerned about the kind of society we will inherit if we fail to participate.”