This weekend, thousands of activists rallied on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for conservative show host Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” event.

Beck’s rally happened to fall on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and in the exact same location.

According to Beck, it was entirely by coincidence.

The rally turned out more like a religious revival than a political event.

Beck encouraged attendees to bring back traditional American values, honor King’s message and pray.

He said, “America today begins to turn back to God.”

Nearby a counter rally was held by an actual reverend, Rev. Al Sharpton, and was organized primarily in protest of Beck’s event.

The problem that Sharpton and other civil rights activists had with Beck’s event was not necessarily its message, but the one delivering it, and whom he was delivering it to.

Sharpton and the civil rights activists with him protested Beck’s rally because of most attendees’ affiliation to the Tea Party, which has been accused by the NAACP of carrying “racist elements.”

Beck himself has drawn national criticism in the past for encouraging Christians to leave churches that preach social justice, because Beck believes it is in line with Communist and Nazi ideology.

What Beck fails to realize is that King advocated support for a strong central government that protects equal rights.

Tea Party supporters, such as U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul, have called for the repeal of the part of the Civil Rights Act that requires businesses to abide by the law.

We don’t mean to say Sharpton is right and blameless either. While known for his role in advancing equal rights, he has had his own share of offensive remarks that contradict King’s message.

In 1991, after a Jewish man ran over a black child in New York, leading to tensions between blacks and Jews in the community, Sharpton said, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.” He also referred to Jews as “diamond merchants.”

Regardless of whether or not you agree with Beck’s ideology, he shouldn’t act like his ideology aligns entirely with King’s message when it clearly doesn’t.

And civil rights leaders such as Sharpton should always hold themselves to King’s standards, no matter what.