{"id":466,"date":"2009-03-13T13:52:26","date_gmt":"2009-03-13T13:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/03\/black-liberation-theology-vs-v.html"},"modified":"2009-03-13T13:52:26","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T13:52:26","slug":"black-liberation-theology-vs-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/03\/black-liberation-theology-vs-v.html","title":{"rendered":"Black Liberation Theology vs Victoria Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"
I know I shouldn’t keep picking on the lowest common denominator but they just keep on appearing on cable news talking about\u00c2\u00a0politics\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0religion. \u00c2\u00a0We first had Chuck Norris<\/a> talking about violently leaving the country and taking Texas with him and now Victoria Jackson is talking about Liberation Theology and Obama’s supposed marxism. \u00c2\u00a0Tale a look:<\/div>\n
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Jackson denounces Obama as a socialist because of his church<\/a> which embraced Liberation Theology. Hannity is there by her side helpfully affirming that she is right that Black Liberation Theology is socialist. \u00c2\u00a0What a strange world when the main spokespeople for liberation theology are Jackson and Hannity – \u00c2\u00a0two white, wealthy conservatives. \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
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It reminds me of when I went to seminary and first encountered black liberation theology by taking classes with one of its main\u00c2\u00a0proponents\u00c2\u00a0– \u00c2\u00a0Dr. James Cone. \u00c2\u00a0For those of you who would rather not learn your theology and politics from\u00c2\u00a0comedians, James Cone’s book A Theology of Black Liberation<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0looks at the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the explicit perspective of the experience of black Americans. \u00c2\u00a0When the Gospel is approached from the view from a people who have suffered the most brutal experience of slavery and racism the Gospel looks different. \u00c2\u00a0When someone who has been systematically beaten down for centuries reads Jesus’ words in Luke 4 they sound different: \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0because he has anointed me
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0and recovery of sight to the blind,
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0to let the oppressed go free.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The more one reads the Gospel from this point of view the more clear it is that God loves all people but sides with the oppressed in struggles for justice. Need more proof, look at the sermon on the mount in Luke<\/a>. \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
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When I got to Union Seminary<\/a> as an upper middle class white male I had to come to grips with the fact that my experience of comfort and ease that the world afforded me was only enjoyed by a small percentage of the worlds’ population. Furthermore, the\u00c2\u00a0privilege\u00c2\u00a0I so casually took for granted was made possible through the suffering of others. \u00c2\u00a0My conversion experience happened when I became convicted that if I was to become a serious Christian I needed to be in solidarity with all of the people of the world, not just the few at the top. \u00c2\u00a0That I must truly love all my neighbors as myself and that means giving up some of my own\u00c2\u00a0privilege. That I must live simply so others might simply live. That Justice was, as Cornel West puts it, what love looks like in public. \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
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This is the essence of liberation theology – it is about justice and love for all people and not fear mongering and silliness. \u00c2\u00a0We are in a time when millions are out of work and out of homes because of the greed of unchecked and unwatched capitalism. \u00c2\u00a0 What our president is trying to do is not socialism, it is trying to help as many people get through this\u00c2\u00a0disastrous economic\u00c2\u00a0time with as little suffering and as much dignity as possible. \u00c2\u00a0Sounds Christian to me. \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n

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I know I shouldn’t keep picking on the lowest common denominator but they just keep on appearing on cable news talking about\u00c2\u00a0politics\u00c2\u00a0and\u00c2\u00a0religion. \u00c2\u00a0We first had Chuck Norris talking about violently leaving the country and taking Texas with him and now Victoria Jackson is talking about Liberation Theology and Obama’s supposed marxism. \u00c2\u00a0Tale a look: Jackson…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-race-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBlack Liberation Theology vs Victoria Jackson - Progressive Revival<\/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\/progressiverevival\/2009\/03\/black-liberation-theology-vs-v.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Liberation Theology vs Victoria Jackson - 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}