Correspondent photos / Sean Barron ... The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown, leads congregants in song during Sunday’s worship service at Price Memorial AME Church in Youngstown to honor the legacy and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sunday also marked what would have been King’s 94th birthday. Today is the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

YOUNGSTOWN — It’s probable that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wouldn’t object to being called an extremist — especially since, in one sense of the word, it would place him with the likes of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, a longtime religious leader and activist contends.

“How does Dr. Martin Luther King and other leaders for racial, gender and economic equity become extremists? It’s due to them creating a good tension,” the Rev. Amariah McIntosh, pastor of Phillips Temple CME Church in Toledo, said. “(King) says, ‘I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.'”

McIntosh delved into many of the principles for which the iconic civil and human rights leader stood. She also read and interpreted parts of King’s famous 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in her keynote address titled “Becoming an Extremist,” which she gave to those who attended a worship service Sunday afternoon at Price Memorial AME Church, 920 Dryden Ave., on the East Side, to honor King’s life and legacy.

The Rev. William King, Price Memorial’s pastor, served as worship leader for the nearly two-hour program, themed “55 Years Later: Remembering what is Civil and Doing what is Right.”

Besides King, who would have celebrated his 94th birthday on Sunday and who was assassinated 55 years ago, others who could be branded as extremists by some include Christ for his stance on loving others, including one’s enemies; the Apostle Paul for bringing forth the Christian gospel; and President Abraham Lincoln for asserting that the nation can’t survive “half slave and half free,” she noted.

In essence, King stood for a type of extremism opposite that of the word’s negative and often destructive political and religious connotations. McIntosh said such views are ingrained in some groups that see their thinking and views as correct and truthful and everyone else’s in error.

“It is a radicalized and intolerant viewpoint that typically sanctions the use of violence to promote a defined and religiously motivated political agenda,” the antithesis of what King espoused, she pointed out.

Another virulent aspect of such a stance is that it often leads to an atmosphere of distrust, hatred, suspicion of others’ intentions and fear that too often result in use of force, enmity and hostility — all of which “halts the economic progress of the country,” McIntosh said.

“(King) believed to his core that nonviolent direct action was the way to address the injustices that rendered black people as second-class citizens, and continued their state-sanctioned oppression,” she added.

McIntosh, who earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said the extremism that often plays out on today’s political landscape is rooted in a centuries-old history in which people fear “losing their privilege and status to people they have always been taught are less than them.” Such a dynamic often is the soil from which many conspiracy theories sprout, she continued.

“The term in use now is ‘replacement theory.’ This fear that white people are being replaced by black, brown, yellow, female, LGBTQIA+, nonbinary people makes them blind to the fact that they are being manipulated by the very ones who are oppressing them into believing that giving opportunity to others that they have always taken for granted, translates into loss for them,” McIntosh explained, calling the situation “a zero-sum game in action.”

Also during her address, McIntosh praised King, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and others for leading protests in April 1963 in Birmingham, Ala., against a backdrop of police brutality against blacks, unfair treatment from the courts, economic disparities and a slew of unsolved bombings. King spent several days in solitary confinement for his actions, which led him to pen the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” on small scraps of paper his lawyer smuggled out of the jail each day.

Others who read portions of the famous and iconic document during Sunday’s service were Miah Pierce, a Youngstown State University sociology major and Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past member; and Mathew Abrams, an Academy for Urban Scholars High School student.

Additional readings were from Omar Aslam, son of Jaladah Aslam, president of the Youngstown-Warren Black Caucus, who cited Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians. The letter calls on people to build one another up, hold in high regard those who work hard, help the weak, show patience and refrain from exchanging one wrong for another.

Speaking on the subject of diversity, which King highly revered, was Art Einzig, past president of the former Ohev Tzedek Shaarei Torah temple in Boardman.

“The greatness of America is that we are an immigrant nation,” Einzig told the congregation of a few hundred. “Each of us has our own dreams; each of us has our own mountaintop to climb.”

Leading a few congregational songs was the Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church in Youngstown. Providing additional musical selections were the Vessels of Worship.

McIntosh challenged her listeners to follow King’s example of leadership, nonviolence and humanity in their own lives.

“What kind of extremist shall you be?” she asked.