Monday, October 08, 2007

Black (Racist) Liberation Theology


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Elijah and Malcolm

The below is taken from a paper I wrote for seminary, obviously it is only a small swath of it, but I hope it will help bring to light a position or two of our Presidential candidates on the left. There are links to other blogs I did at this post entitled, " Heaven on Earth"


Implications of Liberal Theology

The correlation/anthropological method have inherent in its premise a restricting aspect in its application to the Christians life. If the theologian starts with man and works his way to God, the Bible and its saving message is viewed through cultural mores and biases. Man can impose then on God, but God cannot impose upon man because one’s culture cannot critique one’s culture. If however the theologian starts with God and works his way towards man, then the saving message of the Bible can confront man and his culture, rather than man’s culture determining God’s message: “…by allowing the culture to specify the questions, one has already determined the kind of answers that the revelation is permitted to give, and that one has also to consider the critical questions that the revelation raises for the culture” (Gentz 1986, p. 228).

Liberation Theology

Liberation theology has been thrust into the limelight again – at least for the armchair theologian – by Barak Obama, a possible Democratic nominee for President. Mr. Obama’s pastor is an ardent follower of Liberation Theology. Originally it was more Catholic based and in Latin America but has since infected many seminaries in the U.S. and Europe. It teaches that “Christ’s message pertained not only to salvation of the soul, but also to political salvation here on earth through the establishment of Christian socialism” (Frohnen 2006, p. 502). An excerpt from Obama’s church’s website will elucidate somewhat the theological prose involved in “political salvation:”

BLACK VALUE SYSTEM

Statement of Purpose

We honor Dr. Manford Byrd, our brother in Christ, because of the exemplary manner in which he has thrice withstood the ravage of being denied his earned ascension to the number one position in the Chicago School System…

The Black Value System

These Black Ethics must be taught and exampled in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered. They must reflect the following concepts:

Commitment of God

“The God of our weary years” will give us the strength to give up prayerful passivism and become Black Christian Activist, soldiers for Black freedom and the dignity of all humankind…

Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect

To accomplish anything worthwhile requires self-discipline. We must be a community of self-disciplined persons, if we are to actualize and utilize our own human resources instead of perpetually submitting to exploitation by others. Self discipline coupled with a respect for self, will enable each of us to be an instrument of Black Progress, and a model for Black Youth.

Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness”

Classic methodology on control of captives teaches that captors must keep the captive ignorant educationally, but trained sufficiently well to serve the system. Also, the captors must be able to identify the “talented tenth” of those subjugated, especially those who show promise of providing the kind of leadership that might threaten the captor’s control.

Those so identified as separated from the rest of the people by:

Killing them off directly, and/or fostering a social system that encourages them to kill off one another.

Placing them in concentration camps, and/or structuring an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.

Seducing them into a socioeconomic class system which while training them to earn more dollars, hypnotizes them into believing they are better than others and teaches them to think in terms of “we” and “they” instead of “us”…

(Papa Giorgio, internet blog)

One can see by starting with this presupposed worldview, one’s hermeneutic dictates the outcome of any study of the Bible.

Bibliography

Frohnen, Bruce, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson, eds. 2006. American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books.

Gentz, William H. 1986. The Dictionary of Bible and Religion. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

Papa Giorgio. Religio-Political Talk. Date retrieved: 5-27-2007. http://religiopoliticaltalk.blogspot.com/2007/03/obamas-racism-is-shown-in-church-he-has.html