{"id":187,"date":"2008-05-05T07:12:35","date_gmt":"2008-05-05T07:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2008\/05\/moses-and-reverend-wright.html"},"modified":"2008-05-05T07:12:35","modified_gmt":"2008-05-05T07:12:35","slug":"moses-and-reverend-wright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/05\/moses-and-reverend-wright.html","title":{"rendered":"Moses and Reverend Wright"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NYT looks at Black Liberation Theology <\/a>and its declining significance in the black community — only a quarter of churches now follow the theology that stresses that God’s commitment to free the Israelites in the Bible, among other places, means he will free blacks today. This thesis is a big part of my new book on Moses in America, so I’ve clipped a few interesting grafs from the article. <\/p>\n

“Most black church members want to see their ministers involved in defending the race and improving civil rights,\u201d Mr. Jackson said. \u201cThe anger and bitterness that bleeds through in Reverend Wright\u2019s comments are something that many blacks can sympathize with, even if they don\u2019t want to hear it in the pulpit.\u201d
\nBlack liberation theology may have taken modern flower in the 1960s, but its roots (no less than those of more conservative black theologies) extend deep into America\u2019s historical cellar and its legacy of slavery.
\nIn that context, the revolutionary message of the Bible seems inescapable, most notably in the story of the Exodus. \u201cIf you read that God told the pharaoh to release the slaves, you\u2019d have to be pretty dense not to see the connection,\u201d said James A. Noel, a professor at the San Francisco Theological Seminary.
\nSlave masters kept a wary rein on worship, fearful blacks might find inspiration in the Bible\u2019s insurrectionary content. Black worshipers sought refuge in ravines and woods, building the \u201cinvisible church\u201d that became the modern black church in all of its manifestations.
\n\u201cThe black church has always existed along a continuum, from a focus on healing to a focus on liberation,\u201d noted Dwight N. Hopkins, a professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. \u201cThe liberationists emphasize this earth and the more fundamentalist emphasize the resurrection and the life after.\u201d
\nLanguage, too, has defined the black church from slavery to liberation theology. Pastors, whether prophetic or fundamentalist, drew unambiguous inspiration from the diamond-hard words of the Old Testament, in which little store was placed in talk of man\u2019s innate goodness. God might love, but He was a deity of forbidding judgments and punishments.
\n\u201cThe Old Testament God is a God who addresses nations, and judges nations and holds them to account,\u201d Professor Noel said. \u201cThe prophets are concerned about social sin and God judges nations for their unrighteousness.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NYT looks at Black Liberation Theology and its declining significance in the black community — only a quarter of churches now follow the theology that stresses that God’s commitment to free the Israelites in the Bible, among other places, means he will free blacks today. This thesis is a big part of my new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMoses and Reverend Wright - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/05\/moses-and-reverend-wright.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moses and Reverend Wright - Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The NYT looks at Black Liberation Theology and its declining significance in the black community — only a quarter of churches now follow the theology that stresses that God’s commitment to free the Israelites in the Bible, among other places, means he will free blacks today. This thesis is a big part of my new…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/05\/moses-and-reverend-wright.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-05T07:12:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bfeiler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Moses and Reverend Wright - Feiler Faster","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/05\/moses-and-reverend-wright.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Moses and Reverend Wright - Feiler Faster","og_description":"The NYT looks at Black Liberation Theology and its declining significance in the black community — only a quarter of churches now follow the theology that stresses that God’s commitment to free the Israelites in the Bible, among other places, means he will free blacks today. 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