My (Hopefully) Final Words On The Flap Over Liberation Theology
For the past three weeks, we've been bombarded with discussion and speculation surrounding the sermons of one Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, and more important to the national press, the minister and pastor to Senator Barack Obama. Reverend Wright's comments regarding the impropriety of actions undertaken by the United States government, and his subsequent condemnation placed him and the senator in the cross-hairs of the national press, with allegations of un-American behavior.
At the crux of the issue, we have the debate over the concept of Black Liberation Theology, a much misunderstood theological school of though, even for me, and I was a member of Trinity and heard Dr. Wright use and allude to the term on many occasions. I want to know, I thought to myself, more about this (seemingly) controversial viewpoint. Well, like manna from heaven, the Creator delivereth, with an interview of the man who conceived the precept. Terri Gross interviewed the Reverend James Cone, who went into quite an inspiring discourse on the history of the black church, and its relevance to the salvation of Africans here in America. Here is a link to the interview with the creator of Black Liberation Theology.
I won't go into the entire interview; you should listen and draw your own conclusions.
The Reverend's point, though, is that through stories such as Israelite's escape from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians, to Jesus' collaboration with the dregs of that society, it should be clear to anyone liberation and equality are an integral part of true faith. As Reverend Cone pointed out in the interview, it is theologically incongruous for one not to believe that a theology of liberation from oppression applies to the history of Africans in America.
And most important, the church's role as activist and agitator for positive change is (or should be) hardwired into the Christian faith.
At its heart, Black Liberation Theology makes its focus the thought of salvation on earth. The endgame of the theology is that one's reward might lie in heaven, but that the Bible expressly promotes the position that peoples of the earth are supposed to live in peace and freedom in the here and now.
At the crux of the issue, we have the debate over the concept of Black Liberation Theology, a much misunderstood theological school of though, even for me, and I was a member of Trinity and heard Dr. Wright use and allude to the term on many occasions. I want to know, I thought to myself, more about this (seemingly) controversial viewpoint. Well, like manna from heaven, the Creator delivereth, with an interview of the man who conceived the precept. Terri Gross interviewed the Reverend James Cone, who went into quite an inspiring discourse on the history of the black church, and its relevance to the salvation of Africans here in America. Here is a link to the interview with the creator of Black Liberation Theology.
I won't go into the entire interview; you should listen and draw your own conclusions.
The Reverend's point, though, is that through stories such as Israelite's escape from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians, to Jesus' collaboration with the dregs of that society, it should be clear to anyone liberation and equality are an integral part of true faith. As Reverend Cone pointed out in the interview, it is theologically incongruous for one not to believe that a theology of liberation from oppression applies to the history of Africans in America.
And most important, the church's role as activist and agitator for positive change is (or should be) hardwired into the Christian faith.
At its heart, Black Liberation Theology makes its focus the thought of salvation on earth. The endgame of the theology is that one's reward might lie in heaven, but that the Bible expressly promotes the position that peoples of the earth are supposed to live in peace and freedom in the here and now.
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I think that your conclusion is what gets obscured in these conversations about Black Liberation Theology. The goal of the theology, and Rev Wright, is empowerment, compassion, healing, and equity based on an honest assessment of ones present condition. But when folks hear Black Liberation Theology, it is usually framed like the Black Panther Party, as some militant revolutionary concept. It isn't militant or violent or truly seperatist in the end. But it does honestly make demands of the present, pointing out the failings of the past, hoping for an improved future. Seems like it fits perfectly within the history of many, if not most, Judeo-Christian traditions.
You're absolutely correct that all "BLT" is, is a recouching of basic Christian principles, as they relate to the struggle specific to Africans in America.
But as you also know, most things beneficial to African-Americans get demonized, in part because we ask some in the mainstream to face past injustices inflicted on our people.
This is no different, and in fact might be more difficult, because a close examination of BLT might actually cause many so-called Christians in the mainstream to actually think about whether the way our nation treats its underclass -- one largely created by the nation itself -- is in step with Christianity (or any religion for that matter).