Excerpt
A Fully Biblical Liberation Theology
Free at first: an excerpt from 'Chaos and Grace.'
Mark Galli | posted 10/14/2011 09:07AM
Liberation theology began as a movement with-in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s, but soon found quarter in some sectors of Protestantism. It is a political theology that interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of liberation from unjust economic, political, and social conditions. Proponents say it is the way to view Christian faith through the eyes of the poor; opponents say it is nothing but baptized Marxism.
I tend to side with the detractors, and yet the liberation theologians—people like Gustavo Gutiérrez of Peru, Leonardo Boff of Brazil, and Jon Sobrino of Spain—had one thing right: the church's call to make the cause of the poor its own cause. That often entails challenging unjust regimes that grind the face of the poor ever deeper into misery. Certainly one finds biblical justification for seeking political liberation—for one, in the Exodus story, a great inspiration to blacks caught in the clutches of American racism.
That being said, liberation theology as it usually comes to us seems more indebted to Marx than to Moses. Yet the main problem is not that liberation theology went too far but rather that it did not go far enough. When the Bible—in particular, Jesus—speaks of liberation, there is much more at stake than politics. And it is for this reason, among others, that I think evangelicals should adhere to a liberation theology of our own. And we should frame that theology not with politics but with religion, morality, and spirituality—the three greatest oppressors humanity has ever known.
Religious OppressionTo be sure, you can't have a Christian life without religion. The Bible recognizes that life in God has no meaning if it is not embedded in religious activity such as Scripture study, worship, and ritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus assumed that the devout life includes prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (Matt. 6). The Bible shows that Jesus was a man of prayer (Mark 1:35) and a regular church attender: "And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day …" notes Luke early in Jesus' ministry (4:16, ESV, used throughout).
At the same time, the Bible can talk about religion as if it were a curse. We're not just talking about false religion or idol worship, against which prophets like Isaiah waxed eloquent and sarcastic (Isa. 44:9-17). The Prophets could also indict perfectly acceptable religious practices. Take for example Isaiah's classic charge, where he quotes God as saying:
When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them. (1:12-14)
This must have been shocking rhetoric in Isaiah's day, because offerings and feasts and religious gatherings are what books like Leviticus are all about. The Israelites were doing in spades the exact thing they were commanded to do.
Religion as such is not the problem, of course, only religion that becomes an excuse for or means of social and economic oppression. God despises religion when people use it to avoid some rather elementary matters of justice. Take this passage from the prophet Micah:
Free at First, October 2011, Vol. 55, No. 10, Page 50
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