Question

Martin Luther King Jr. uses figurative language strategically throughout his letter to promote equality. How does the following instance help accomplish his purpose of challenging the church leaders to take action against racial injustice? In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer (strictly tells the temperature) that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat (changes the temperature) that transformed the mores of society.

Answer 1

He put them on the spot bringing awareness to their hypocrisy, double standards and also their complicity around racial discrimination and segregation, responsible in great part for the social inequality, being this a pivot point causing a domino effect throughout the rest of social institutions, drawing specific attention to his arguments and making them easier to understand.