Black Church and Black Liberation Theology: Notes on Listening

Liberation theology is junk theology. It is socialistic humanism cloaked in christian terminology. It is Marx assuming a pious position of religiousity. After studying the writings of Cone, Roberts and other liberation theologians. I don't believe I've ever run across a worst case of isegesis in my life. These men are more concerned about race than grace; about skin than sin. My problem is not with Wright and what he said about America. My problem is that he preaches a false gospel and makes merchandise the souls of his congregation. Yes, the Church is to have unity, but only unity in the truth of the Gospel as it is in Christ Jesus.

Rev. Salguero feels the need to defend Black Theology, particularly the brand put forth by James Cone. While I agree that Black Theology should not be demonized or tossed aside, it's failure to be self-critical and address contemporary issues facing the black community has worsened race relations in this country and done very little to bring people to the church. Black nationalism and angry rhetoric is not the same as Black Theology. I agree with Obama that that Rev. Wright espouses is espousing an attitude and a theology that is from another time. Hateful ideas lead to hateful speech lead to hateful action.

Rev. Salguero feels the need to defend Black Theology, particularly the brand put forth by James Cone. While I agree that Black Theology should not be demonized or tossed aside, it's failure to be self-critical and address contemporary issues facing the black community has worsened race relations in this country and done very little to bring people to the church. Black nationalism and angry rhetoric is not the same as Black Theology. I agree with Obama that that Rev. Wright espouses is espousing an attitude and a theology that is from another time. Hateful ideas lead to hateful speech lead to hateful action.

Debanjan- "Everyone in the USA is bashing Rev.Wright and Obama but no one is saying anything against John Mccain and his evangelist supporters i.e. John Hagee and Rod Parsely. This is called double standards of the conservative americans. Rod Parsely even had the audacity to declare 34000(and growing) Americans who embraced Islam after 9/11 as "traitors" who should be killed."

Bingo.

I'll keep saying this until someone in the media NOTICES THE POINT:

McCain and (especially) Mike Huckabee have ties to far more hateful religious leaders -- yet the mainstream media are giving them a virtually free ride.

WHY???

(Because they are Republicans...?)

Make no mistake, I think that *every* extreme statement made by religious leaders who are closely tied to political -- especially Presidential -- candidates should be plastered all over the headlines.

Question is: WHY is only Obama's pastor getting the media spotlight and none of the other candidates' extremist associates?

http://churchstatewall.typepad.com/the_church_state_wall/2008/03/furor-over-bara.html

Mr. Salguero you're too advance for the rest of us simple folks, who look at just the simple facts.the most important is that the Senator used poor lack of judgment in directing not only him but his family to listen to this false prophet's sermons, imaging what it did to his already perturb wisdom.

Everyone in the USA is bashing Rev.Wright and Obama but no one is saying anything against John Mccain and his evangelist supporters i.e. John Hagee and Rod Parsely. This is called double standards of the conservative americans. Rod Parsely even had the audacity to declare 34000(and growing) Americans who embraced Islam after 9/11 as "traitors" who should be killed.

Dear Rev Salguero

I wish you a wonderful Easter 2008!

Soja John Thaikattil
Sydney, Australia

From "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/the-full-story-behind-rev-jeremiah-wrights-911-sermon/

As this whole sordid episode regarding the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has played out over the last week, I wanted to understand what he ACTUALLY said in this speech. I’ve been saying all week on CNN that context is important, and I just wanted to know what the heck is going on.

I have now actually listened to the sermon Rev. Wright gave after September 11 titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” It was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001.

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.

He was quoting Peck as saying that America’s foreign policy has put the nation in peril:

“We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.

“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.

“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.

“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.

“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.

“We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.

“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”

He went on to describe seeing the photos of the aftermath of 9/11 because he was in Newark, N.J., when the planes struck. After turning on the TV and seeing the second plane slam into one of the twin towers, he spoke passionately about what if you never got a chance to say hello to your family again.

“What is the state of your family?” he asked.

And then he told his congregation that he loved them and asked the church to tell each other they loved themselves.

His sermon thesis:

1. This is a time for self-examination of ourselves and our families.

2. This is a time for social transformation (then he went on to say they won’t put me on PBS or national cable for what I’m about to say. Talk about prophetic!)

“We have got to change the way we have been doing things as a society,” he said.

Wright then said we can’t stop messing over people and thinking they can’t touch us. He said we may need to declare war on racism, injustice, and greed, instead of war on other countries.

“Maybe we need to declare war on AIDS. In five minutes the Congress found $40 billion to rebuild New York and the families that died in sudden death, do you think we can find the money to make medicine available for people who are dying a slow death? Maybe we need to declare war on the nation’s healthcare system that leaves the nation’s poor with no health coverage? Maybe we need to declare war on the mishandled educational system and provide quality education for everybody, every citizen, based on their ability to learn, not their ability to pay. This is a time for social transformation.”

3. This is time to tell God thank you for all that he has provided and that he gave him and others another chance to do His will.

By the way, nowhere in this sermon did he said “God damn America.” I’m not sure which sermon that came from.

This doesn’t explain anything away, nor does it absolve Wright of using the N-word, but what it does do is add an accurate perspective to this conversation.

The point that I have always made as a journalist is that our job is to seek the truth, and not the partial truth.

I am also listening to the other sermons delivered by Rev. Wright that have been the subject of controversy.

And let me be clear: Where I believe he was wrong and not justified in what he said based upon the facts, I will say so. But where the facts support his argument, that will also be said.

So stay tuned.

Why is this becoming such an issue? That the question I keep asking Obama is not endorsing all that crap so what the big deal. That should be the end of it. No story since HE DOES NOT ENDORSE IT! Should a politician be responsible for all the crackpot and weirdo who decide to speak on their behalf. And yes Obama is going to that church so is many peoples are they all racist?

He never pretended to have a divine mission in life unlike the current President by the way.
If religion was at the center of is message from day one than this story should have legs but that not the case.

The economy is going to hell we waste 12 billions a week in Iraq and the main issue of this week is that wackjob of a priest you got to be kidding me! Wait a week and the Clintons are going to attack him on the fact that he is not going to church all that much anyway. Or that Obama is actually an atheist.

I am far from a religious expert am a Catholic and I did not choose it. And am sure has hell not going to take responsibility or apologize for all the stupid and down right racist thing my church said or did in the past. First I would not know where to start second the list would be long very long! The last time I had to answer a census I put Jedi has my religion.

Maybe Obama need to do something like that I heard the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is pretty popular these days!

Whether it's Obama's pastor or Pastor Mike Huckabee's denominational leaders*, we need to confront and denounce hate-filled religious speech -- especially when it could hold some sway over a presidential candidate.

This is a positive development that might open the door into the media's investigation of radical religious views associated with political candidates -- an areas where the media -- at least until the easy target of Obama came along -- have been criminally negligent.

Maybe next, the media can investigate how a LEADER of a major Republican Party organization*** (and Huckabee insider) sleeps with** -- and appears to himself believe -- that practicing gays and people who preach "false religions" should be put to death.

* http://blog.au.org/2008/02/19/the-diabolical-dr-drake-sbc-official-had-more-power-than-sbc-flack-admits/

** http://deregnochristi.org/2008/01/16/huckabee-and-a-christian-constitution/

*** The National Federation of Republican Assemblies http://www.gopwing.com (web site shut down).

Hispanic/Latino Leadership Program? Let's see some leadership already.

Strike a blow for the home team. Gold is a very stable substance. All that gold the Conquistadors looted from Latin America is still somewhere. And we know the present whereabouts of a lot of it.

It's stolen merchandise that must be returned to it's rightful owners. Are you getting the idea yet?

A ton of that gold is used to make sacred articles, chalices, monstrances etc and in the possession by the R-Catholic church and the Church of England, maybe others. Now those righteous folks wouldn't dream of using gold soaked in innocent blood to hold the body and blood of the savior would they?

http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul explains why they would do that and why they don't demand Mexico, Peru and other robbed nations receive the loot back...and beg forgiveness too.

Of course it's easier to just rewrite history, deny the charge, beat the rap and use that treasure to further God's cause, do God's work.

Is God watching? Do they believe what they preach? Isn't Jeremiah Wright one of them? Is there more to be said once that determination is made? This is a really tricky subject isn't it?

Yeah sure John I've heard Racism condemned in far more pulpits than I've heard it defended and most of those were caucasian. The only place racism is tolerated is Liberty and that is a rather peculiar kind of Racism and it is a peculiar kind of Racism at that and Jeremiah Wright's Pulpit where in it's the same old racial hatred as preached by the KKK but with a different target.

Angela: I agree that it is becoming almost comical the extent to which Obama supporters and members of the press are making excuses for Rev. Wright's hateful speech, and Obama's 20 year connection with this admitted "mentor and spiritual adviser." If Hillary Clinton had the exact same relationship with a white racist pastor, do you think she would be receiving such sympathy and support? Absolutely, not. Obama and the media would be calling for her immediate withdrawal from the race, and her political career would be over.

The brand of theology which Wright has been teaching Obama and the others at his church is called “black liberation theology.” Wright admits this and it is stated on the church's website. Black theology is based upon the premise of the white oppressor against the black oppressed. This is why, for example, that Wright refers to Jesus as black, and his killers as white. This is the only way the story of Jesus fits within this brand of “theology.” Rev. Wright cites James Cone, another proponent of black liberation theology, as his theological inspiration. Here are just a couple of James Cone's quotes: (1) “To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people." (2) "While it is true that blacks do hate whites, black hatred is not racism." (3) "All white men are responsible for white oppression." (4) "Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man "the devil." (5) "If there is any contemporary meaning of the Antichrist, the white church seems to be a manifestation of it." (6) Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love. *** These teachings are fundamentally racist and divisive. Obama has chosen to belong to this racist church for 20 years, and now because of exposure by the press, he tries to fool the American public once again.

This is a great post but why do we keep making excuses for the actions of someone who is running for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. This is a very serious situation. What's more sad is a Pastor spoke these horrific words; again, allegedly called by God; he should be so frightened as he is leading that flock, including Obama into false doctrine, and hateful brainwashing of the worst kind. Stop making excuses for Obama; you mean he sat there for 20 years and didn't know this was the mindset of the leader of the church. John Hagee, yes has said some things I don't believe and I wouldn't be a member of that church either. Also, this story came up from Sean Hannity on Hannity's America. Sean Hannity interviewed Pastor Wright in March of 2007. The media knew about this since last year and chose to ignore it. Can't blame the Clintons for this one. Let's just pray that people are honest and forthright. False doctrine is no doctrine at all; godliness without the power...

After decade of hearing homophobic, racist and sexist comment from all the religious white zealot out there and not seeing many peoples doing or caring much about it I find the actual controversy amazingly surprising. And more than a little disgusting because like many peoples I don't really give a damn what all the religious zealot white or black rant about every Sunday. Before anybody can act all shock and sanctimonious I would like to see some old comment made by you or anybody else blasting Falwell or Robertson.

It funny to note that one of the few who took Falwell on and really it him hard is Hustler publisher Larry Flint. All those so call real media would never risk angering the religious right.

Right now the whole affair smell like disguised racist attack. Made by peoples who wanted to attack Obama on race for a while and have found the angle to do it.

It not like Obama spend the best part of all is speech invoking the name of god all the time like so many white politician out there. I would also like to point out that the same attack dogs was attacking obama with the whole Muslim Email smear attack less than two week ago. I like for those peoples to at least make up their freaking mind is Obama a Muslim extremist or a Christian extremist? lollll It kind of hard to be both at the same times!

Another disgusting fact is that the trash job is not even done by the republican. We all know who doing it we all know who willing to sink that low and we all know it a Democrat behind it but it all go unchallenged.

We know now who does not care if her attack end up costing the election to the party she running to be candidate. I think it time to tell the Clintons to start showing some freaking class. While we still have some respect left for them.

While you can package it any way you like, it strikes me that black liberation theology is essentially separatist, militant and anti-semitic. No deep probing into the background and tradition of the black church can justify the hate filled statements that have come out of the mouth of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. Nothing is going to change the fact that Dr. Wright is a close friend of anti-semite fanatic Louis Farrahkan, nothing will change the fact that Dr. Wright hates the United States, blames the United States for AIDS and justifies 9/11 due to American racism. Nothing can erase the fact that Senator Obama, by his own admission, regularly attended Trinity United Church of Christ for twenty years. How many venomous anti-semitic, anti-Israel, anti-white, anti-American sermons did he preach during those twenty years and what did Senator Obama do about it? He kept on attending the church and giving his moral and financial support. Shame on both of them and shame on the media for concealing and rationalizing these facts.

I agree wholeheartedly. Just try getting FOX News to "listen". It's not gonna happen.

dm

Yet to respond to hate with hate is clearly against the teachings of Christ. To excuse hate for any reason is to continue not in love but in hatred.