This year the letter writing to Congress will focus on U. S. tax policy and low-income, working Americans.
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Reply to Glenn Beck. . .Offering of Letters
This year the letter writing to Congress will focus on U. S. tax policy and low-income, working Americans.
If you are a church member or a church leader, click here to find out how to get fully involved this year.
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16 comments:
Beck is on the mark with his assessment of social justice. He is, however, perhaps ignorant of liberation theology that fuels the social justice cause. The attempt to corrupt the church is nothing more than a political effort to diffuse the belief system.
By far and large Christian groups that go do the social justice path eventually subscribe o a liberal theology that corrupts and destroys from within. Look at the Episcopal Church as a prime example.
Glenn Beck is an entertainer who knows practically nothing about American religion. He is popular because he serves up the pure heroin that conspiracy theory addicts crave. The real hurdle for social justice critics is Jesus and the prophets. Our world is driven by hard economic reality. Any brand of spirituality displaying a disregard for social justice is unreal and pretentious. The popularity of a belief system is a poor measure of its validity. Few of the leading figures portrayed in Scripture were popular once the folks in power understood what they were talking about.
This should be particularly obvious during Holy Week.
It is no accident that Jesus was arrested hours after overturning the money changers tables. This wasn't just an assault on the insensitivity of temple religion (althoug it was that); it was an audacious act that threatened to bring down the wrath of Rome.
How many Dallas preachers will touch on these themes during Holy week?
Absolutely, Anon 9:20. What a ridiculous idea - that God cares for the poor! That idea can certainly lead to no good! Obviously the rich and powerful are rich and powerful because God wants it that way!
(It is April 1st.)
I am relieved - just think - all it took was a 20th century Marxist to straighten out 2000 years of Christian belief! And its so convenient to wrap it into 'social change and social justice".
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MARXISM AT WORK
"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."
JAMES CONE
Mind providing the source of the James Cone quote? Once you do that, I'll tell you what Dr. Cone told me over a cup of coffee one day about 35 years ago.
Larry, I did not post the quote, but I tracked it down. I have no idea if it is accurate, but here is what I found.
James Cone, quoted in William R Jones, “Divine Racism: The Unacknowledged Threshold Issue for Black Theology”, in African-American Religious Thought: An Anthology, ed Cornel West and Eddie Glaube, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, pp. 850, 856.
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.
I would love to hear your reaction and explanation. I am not a fan of Liberation Theology, but I always stand to be enlightened. If this is a bogus quote please let me know.
RC, it seems to me the burden of proof belongs to the one making the claim that Cone said this. While it is true that Black Liberation Theology employs an Afro-Centric lense when viewing Jesus, I have never read anything Cone wrote that sounds like this quote. As a matter of fact, in 1975-76, Cone taught a summer course at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. I took the course on BLT and was inspired by Cone's teaching. I had just moved to New Orleans from Shreveport, LA where I had served a church filled with racism and racists. I asked Cone if I could buy him coffee and he agreed. As I shared my experience in Shreveport and as I grew angry in my memories, Cone calmly places his hand on my arm and said, "Larry, do you know what your only responsibility was to those people?" I replied that I did not, to which Dr. Cone said, "Your only obligation was to love them." That sums up James Cone.
Sometimes our task is to sort out conflicting data & information. It seems you've denied some information, preferring instead your experience over coffee. Yes, I believe you had coffee with Cone and the coffee was served hot. And I am sure he told you to express love to racists. But the quote, Larry. Have you simply dismissed it?
Anon, first, no one has provided me the footnote at to where Cone said this. Second, though, given my understanding of Cone, I believe I know what he means. Using an extremely biblical construct and laying it alongside his own experience in Detroit and elsewhere in the 1950s and 1960s, Cone equates white hegemony and legal oppression with Pharoah, an oppressor standing over against the goals of God's people (in his day the Israelites, in Cone's black folks who were shut out of every American institution by law and design). Cone's understanding of the true God is one that believes this God cannot by definition stand anywhere but on the side of blacks who were being denied justice on a systemic basis, just as were the ancient Israelites. You must understand Cone's context and perspective to appreciate the power and truth of his words. Just as God used "any means necessary" to handle Pharoah--10 curses or plagues comes to mind just here--so too God's people must use any means necessary to defeat the opporessors who actually base their wickedness in a White, religious venere.
I haven't said this before, but much of the current radical, right wing reactions spirred on by the likes of Mr. Beck are at their root racist.
BTW--I'll go back to Cornell West's anthology that RC referred us to and check out the quote, but I do understand how it fits in Cone's worldview; but he is a man of peace, love AND justice. Those of us who descend from the oppressors of the past often get right defensive when we're called on it by the people of God.
So about this line "Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy."
I am white - so am I the enemy?
If so, what should happen to me?
Are black people justified in destroying me?
How should I respond?
The Cone quote is from;
Black Theology and Black Power (1969, ISBN 1-57075-157-9)
Anon 12 a.m., Note the date of this statement was 1969. I know Cone well enough from my 1975 experience that he was not meaning to literally destroy white people, but white enemies--economically, socially, politically--he wanted to see the white oppression and oppressors defeated and eliminated from black experience. Not surprising given the status of things in America in 1969. Cut him some license and some slack in your judgment some 41 years later.
Alan--When Jesus tore up the moneychangers' stations in the temple, the Romans could have cared less. The ones who were the most upset were the Pharisees, who had essentially made an uneasy truce with the Romans (we will support your authority over us on legal matters, and you leave us alone on our religious matters). They saw Jesus upsetting the proverbial apple cart.
Here is another lovely Cone quote, that he probably didn't mean. its from Cone’s classic book A Black Theology of Liberation (Twentieth Anniversary Edition):
The definition of Jesus as black is crucial for christology if we truly believer in his continued presence today. Taking our clue from the historical Jesus who is pictured in the New Testament as the Oppressed One, what else, except blackness, could adequately tell us the meaning of his presence today? Any statement about Jesus today that fails to consider blackness as the decisive factor about his person is a denial of the New Testament message. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus reveal that he is the man for others, disclosing to them what is necessary for their liberation from oppression. If this is true, then Jesus Christ must be black so that blacks can know that their liberation is his liberation. . .
The black Christ is he who threatens the structure of evil as seen in white society, rebelling against it, thereby becoming the embodiment of what the black community knows that it must become. . .
To be a disciple of the black Christ is to become black with him. Looting, burning, or the destruction of white property are not primary concerns. Such matters can only be decided by the oppressed themselves who are seeking to develop their images of the black Christ. . .
Whites do not recognize what is happening, and they are thus unable to deal with it. For most whites in power, the black community is a nuisance –something to be considered only when the natives get restless. But what white America fails to realize is the explosive nature of the kingdom. Although its beginning is small, it will have far-reaching effects not only on the black community but on the white community as well. Now is the time to make decisions about loyalties, because soon it will be too late. Shall we or shall we not join the black revolutionary kingdom?
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