The Mixed Legacy in the U.S.: Honest Patriotism:

The confession that America is a good country with serious deficiencies and faults is the confession of an honest patriot. Donald Shriver argues in his book, "Honest Patriotism" that if you love a country enough you celebrate its strengths while holding it accountable for its misdeeds. The U.S. has been a champion of democracy in many ways. There is much to celebrate in the U.S. regarding democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. Simultaneously, the genocide of Native Americans, the terrible legacy of slavery, lynching, Jim Crow segregation ( the Civil Rights act only came into being in 1964), the placing in camps of Japanese American during WWII, the persistent and stubborn xenophobia that is often heard in conversations concerning immigration. The declaring of the people of Puerto Rico as property of the U.S. and many of the oppressive policies of Manifest Destiny should be examined, critiqued, and denounced from faith perspectives. In short, U.S. history has a mixed legacy of tragedy and freedom both should be examined closely. The voices of oppressed and marginalized groups are a prophetic gift to this examination.

Listening to the Stories of Churches/ Thinking Broadly and Deeply:

The dialogue around race, theology, and politics requires the often- forgotten discipline of listening. The U.S. must give special attention to listening to the stories of the historically oppressed, marginalized, and discriminated against. Senator Obama, while not excusing any of the offensive comments of Dr. Wright, sought to give some historical and personal context to stimulate larger discussion. We need a deeply respectful, well-articulated, and thoughtful context of the Black Church and Black Liberation theologies that should be highlighted for productive future conversation.

Although I am a Latino Evangelical, I am a student of the Black Church and Black Liberation Theology. I studied The Civil Rights movement and W.E. B Dubois with David Levering Lewis at Rutgers University. While an M.Div student I took courses on Martin Luther King, Jr with Dr. Peter Paris at Princeton Theological Seminary. As a Ph.D student I studied and was a teaching assistant of Dr. James Cone a primary progeniture of Black Liberation Theology and educator concerning the legacies of M.L King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Reinhold Niebuhr amongst others. What I have learned is that there is a fertile legacy in the Black Liberation Theology that can benefit all of Christianity in many ways. Even if there are points where I do not agree with some of Black Liberation Theologies as I disagree with Lutheran, Reformed, Wesleyan theology on many points a conversation with black liberation theology is necessary for the future of global theology and the Christian church. (By the way there are several perspectives in black liberation theologies they are not a monolith.)

Anyone who tries to use Dr. Wright's sermons as an entry point to demonize or launch into some type of theological McCarthyism against Black Liberation theology because there are points with which they disagree or they refuse to become more fully informed should take a second look at theological discourse. I disagree and denounce Luther's anti-Semitism but I know Lutheranism has much to offer the world. I disagree with and denounce Calvin's often abuse of authority and violence in Geneva but I know Reformed theology has much to offer the world. I disagree and denounce some of John Wesley's portrayals of Native Americans but I know Wesleyanism has much to offer the world. I disagree and denounce Augustine and Aquinas' sexism but know that their understandings of trinity and proofs of God are worth studying. In short, theological discourse, like all discourse, is profoundly flawed but also profoundly liberating and rich.

For all those, who say there is no Black Church it is simply historically inaccurate. While God loves all people, races, colors, and ages the same the history and persistence of anti-Black racism necessitated the rise of a Black Church. So while for God there is no distinction of value among peoples. In this world where culture, racism, and preference are realities there will always be churches of different ethnicities, races, and colors, as well as multicultural congregations that provide God's grace to all who worship within. The refusal of Methodist to allow blacks to worship with them sparked the rise of The African Methodist Episcopalian denomination. Just as the French Huguenots were a response to religious and racial intolerance in their day. Dr. William Watley clearly points out that very few people complain about (nor should they) denominations called the Greek Orthodox, German Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, each of these denominations rose out of an existential and historical response to challenges to a specific group of people. So it is with the Black Church. The Black Church is a grace-filled response to the treating of Blacks in the U.S as non-human and Black Liberation theologies are a response to many classic Western theologies that endorsed anti-black racism and xenophobia. Some theologies still continue this legacy and must be rebutted and denounced.

It is with these cursory comments on Black Liberation Theology and Black Church that I invite a whole generation of readers and teachers to a dialogue and debate that will provide a more perfect union that is justice-filled and transformative. While I have found my professors to be necessarily critical of entitlement and privilege I also found them to be honest welcoming and mentors of women and men of every race, denomination, and generation. As a doctoral teaching assistant of Dr. Cone my fellow TAs (teaching assistants) were Trevor,a white-man who served in the Methodist church, Melinda a bi-racial women of the Mennonite tradition, and me a Latino Pentecostal who now serves the Church of the Nazarene. Black Liberation theology and the tutelage of Dr. Cone benefited and challenged all of us. And although we do not always agree with our mentors and also challenge them. We respect the dialogue and their prophetic service to the church. I pray that my experience in this context will be a model for the nation and the church in general.