Redstate

By Josh Painter Posted in 2008 — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

BLT is not your grandmother's sandwich anymore. I'm not talking about the famous bacon, lettuce and tomato taste treat here, but Black Liberation Theology. Thanks to pastor emeritus Jeremiah Wright of Barrick Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ, a new light has been focused on BLT, pushing it from the shadows into the forefront of political and religious discussion in America. So what is BLT, and where did it come from?

Black Liberation Theology is a fairly recent phenomenum, as far as religions go. It is, in fact, more radical politics than religion. BLT orginated in the 1960s when James Cone and other black liberation advocates began teaching that Christ was a black man:

Christ is black therefore not because of some cultural or psychological need of black people, but because and only because Christ really enters into our world where the poor were despised and the black are, disclosing that he is with them enduring humiliation and pain and transforming oppressed slaves into liberating servants.

Cone and the others essentially borrowed Jesus from Christian theology and mixed the Savior and Karl Marx together into not a sandwich, but a new tossed salad of religion and politics. For Cone, traditional Christianity was nothing more than just another "opiate of the masses." And Marxism had in its early days been the exclusive realm of "racist whites." But Cone discovered Liberation Theology in Latin America and realized that black theology and Marxist politics could be presented as being fully compatible. The oil that blends the two is the culture of victimism. According to Cone:

All proponents of liberation theology contend that the masses are not poor by accident. They are made and kept poor by the rich and powerful few... No one can be a follower of Jesus Christ without a political commitment that expresses one's solidarity with victims.

Cone's curious mix of Christianity and Marxism had a tremendous impact on Obama's friend, mentor and pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And Wright has influenced Obama, although the Illinois Senator and Democrat presidential candidate will not admit to what degree and is short on specifics. His public denunciation of certain of Wright's more inflammatory rants hasn't really cleared the air. Actions speak louder than words, and Obama's 20-year membership in the Trinity congregation has created doubts in the minds of many voters.

As for BLT, as brewed up by Cone, preached by Wright and not publically rejected by Obama until quite recently (and in less than clear and specific terms) - it's a fraud and a failure. Marie Jon quotes Dr. Robert Morey, a scholar in the fields of theology and apologetics and author of no less than forty-five books, on the most excellent blog Conservative Voice:

The goals of BT are to turn religion into sociology, Christianity into a political agenda, Jesus into a black Marxist rebel, and the gospel into violent revolution. They are more interested in politics than preaching the gospel... Black liberal theology is not of God but of the devil. It is nothing more than 'white liberal religion' and is used by white theologians and politicians to keep blacks down in order to use them as cannon fodder for a Marxist revolution. Black liberal theologians slave for their white Marxist masters to bring about a violent revolution that would guarantee that all men, blacks included, would always be poor and oppressed. The only answer to liberal theology, regardless of the color of those who teach it, is personal salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Once you have experienced the love of God in Christ, you do not have any room in you heart for the self-hate and racist rage upon which BT feeds. The black community needs a revival — not a revolution; Jesus — not Marx; Christianity — not liberalism. Jesus is the only One who can change the hearts of all men and set them free from their bondage to sin."

So what's the big deal about a fringe theology advanced by Black militants and imbedded in the mission of a black church in Chicago? It didn't much matter until it got thrust into the 2008 presidential campaign. Most American voters, when they think of presidents and church, see images of George Washington serving on the vestry of Truro Anglican church in Fairfax Virgina or Theodore Roosevelt laying the foundation for the National Cathedral in 1907. They like politics and religion somewhat separated, at least to the point where one worships the Lord instead of imagining Him as Che Guevara on the famous poster which once adorned the wall of Obama's Houston campaign headquarters.

The understanding of the Bible that most of us have is that Jesus did indeed associate with the downtrodden and the oppressed, but He was interested in their souls, not in their politics. The zealots of Christ's day were looking for a militant Messiah, and Jesus did not fit the bill, nor did He ally Himself with them or their cause. Politics are of this world, and Jesus often had to remind His disciples that He was not of this world. He is not Che, and He is not a Karl Marx of any color.

Even as a salad, most Americans find this BLT has a nasty taste and cannot be digested.

- JP