Liberation Theologians Please Speak Up!

[susankh4]

I was raised within a Catholic Liberation Theology tradition. My uncle was a Jesuit in Peru .... in the early days of the movement. I, myself, lived for some time in a lay commune here in Cincinnati. We did inner city outreach that drew heavily upon Gutierrez's teachings.

I feel some of what Rev. Wright said to be over the top. His "Riding Dirty" sermon totally sickened me, to be honest. There is no way that kind of rhetoric should be connected, in any way, with Liberation Theology! I think serious Liberation theologians need to separate themselves from that sort of cheap shot.

Personally, I also think the UCC needs to do some damage control around this man. I've been saying this for some time. I am not a UCC member, so I can't really influence the leadership there.... but I sure hope that other UCC ministers will stand up and be counted. This is among the most liberal of denominations. It doesn't need to lose credibility in the larger church community. We need more UCCs, not less!

Wright's message is surely damaging Obama's bid for the presidency. What's worse, tho... IMO... is that the rhetoric is giving a bad name to Liberation Theology as a whole. And specifically to the UCC. Liberation Theology deserves to be taken seriously..... and I fear that the kinds of things being attributed to it now will make it even more of a black sheep than it is.

Peace and Liberation.... always,

Susankh4

[babylonsister]

1. Too bad you missed the 'good' in Wright's message. Chew on this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x356218

[susankh4]

4. I did not miss "the good."

But... a theologian is accountable for the good AND the bad. Rev. Wright has gone to far. His own brothers in the ministry should be alarmed.

[Mountainman]

2. My brother, a Catholic priest is heavy into Liberation Theology.

At times he runs into conflict with his superiors though.

[susankh4]

5. Yes. That happens.

And I think it always weill. Still, it's a respectable tradition.

Tell him to hang in there!

[patrice]

3. That's what I've been thinking. Liberation Theology is in danger of being co-opted into

Black Liberation Theology. I'm not sure what the difference is.

Liberations Theologists I've met around the Catholic Worker House do some of the MOST low-level work of caring for others - ANY others, not just members of "our church" - than anyone else I know.

We need to talk to more people about what Liberation Theology actually is.

Solidarity, Susankh4!

[susankh4]

6. I don't even think that Rev. Wright is representative of Black Liberation Theology

as a whole.

I'll be really interested to hear his fellow preachers come out and speak their truth on this.

[struggle4progress]

7. Well, that's incredibly vague. What exactly is bothering you?

[susankh4]

9. Where is the humilty?

And where is the desire to liberate everyone... including the oppressor?

Rev. Wright COULD be such a powerful voice for the downtrodden. But he seems not to be hearing his own message.

[grantcart]

8. Having read several of his sermons and his appearences this week I was impressed with

Rev. Wright's intelligence. His use of various mainstream academic works, like Pedagogy of the Opressed by Paulo Freire's works. was very clever.

Clever however is not necessarily a high compliment.

What I did not see in any of his speeches or sermons was humility.

He did not strike me as a person who has faced much personal liberation but rather one that is very much 'stalemated'

as Senator Obama charachterised him in his Philly speech.

At the end I don't see him as person who is a seeker of truth but as an intelligent observer who has developed a fine critique of

our social and political system but is ultimately more interested in using that critique in self promotion than as a broader movement

to change.