Thursday, March 20, 2008

black liberation theology

Worth considering, these days, what with Barack Obama's preacher's sermons bringing the issue into wide discussion: Liberation Theology...

From Wikipedia is:

Theological basis

Black liberation theology is theology from the perspective of the African diaspora. The message of black theology is that the African American struggle for liberation is consistent with the gospel--every theological statement must be consistent with, and perpetuate, the goals of liberation. This theology maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage—social, political, economic and religious. This liberation involves empowerment and seeks the right of self-definition, self-affirmation and self-determination.

The modern American origins of contemporary black liberation theology can be traced to July 31, 1966, when an ad hoc group of 51 black pastors, calling themselves the National Committee of Negro Churchmen (NCNC), bought a full page ad in the New York Times to publish their "Black Power Statement," which proposed a more aggressive approach to combating racism using the Bible for inspiration.[1]

James Cone and Dwight Hopkins are considered the leading theologians of this system of belief, although now there are may scholars who have contributed a great deal to the field. It was Cone who in the spring of 1969 published the seminal work that systemized black liberation theology, Black Theology and Black Power (1969). In the book, Cone asserted that not only was black power not alien to the Gospel, it was, in fact, the Gospel message for all of 20th century America.[2][3]

Controversy

Controversy over the theology surfaced during the 2008 presidential campaign as Barack Obama strongly denounced some of Jeremiah Wright's speeches which had been called divisive by press stories. That pastor had stated that his church was founded on black theology. When tapes were put for sale by the church after Wright's retirement, ABC News publicized several controversial sermons. [4] Wright's sermons were heavily critical of the United States Government, saying of the events of September 11, 2001: "The stuff we have done overseas is brought right back into our homes". He also said "people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just 'disappeared' as the Great White West went on its merry way of ignoring Black concerns."[5]In other sermons, he said "The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color", referring to AIDS origins theories, and "The government gives them the drugs [referring to the Iran-Contra Affair], builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people...God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme".[6][7][4]

South African Black theology

Black Theology was popularised in southern Africa in the early 1970s by Basil Moore, a Methodist theologian in South Africa. It helped to give rise to, and developed in parallel with, the Black Consciousness Movement. Black Theology was particularly influential in South Africa and Namibia for motivating resistance to apartheid.

Southern African black liberation theologians include Barney Pityana, Allan Boesak, Itumeleng Mosala and Zephania Kameeta.

Black religious scholars

North American black liberation theologians include:

In the United Kingdom, Dr Robert Beckford is the most well known black liberation theologian. He was the first theologian in the UK to develop and teach a course on Black Theology at an academic level. The International Journal of Black Theology is produced within the UK. It is edited by Dr Anthony Reddie, who has written over 40 journal articles and essay, and is therefore, the most prolific Black theologian in the UK.

See also

writ by in

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