Wes speaks Truth to Power concerning Obama's Church, and comes away shuddering at the hypocrisy.
While its no secret that clergy of all types often say hateful, ridiculous shit on the pulpit, the fact of the matter is when said preacher is a black man speaking to a black point of view, informed by the experience of the black community in this country, and weave all of this into a theology, the establishment freaks out.
To me, this isn't really all that different than Liberation Theology championed by Romero, and that ultimately...uh, yeah.
It certainly is in the best interest of mainstream Christianity to attack this, because, like Barack Obama's message of change, it represents a repudiation of the theology of the status quo, the theology that allowed Dr. King to be beaten, Jim Crowism, Vietnam and Iraq to continue unabated. "Mainstream" Christianity is antithetical to the teachings of Christ, because it does not actively engage Power to alleviate the suffering of the world, and, instead, tells people to wait on death their reward. In effect, the word of Christ gets reduced to "Shut up, know your place, and sit at the back of the bus".
That's not the book I read.
The message of Christ is a powerful message of human liberation and human potential, and all would do well to understand it (just as all would do well to understand the Buddha, etc.).
ReplyDeleteAs soon as Christ was gone, however, it got corrupted. One of the first to change the focus was Paul, who (while still able to pen that incredibly moving 13th chapter of I Corinthians) was the first to use bulls--- "wedge issues" (gender and sexual orientation) to reinforce traditional patriarchal structures. It only got worse from there; Constantine, the Nicene Council, etc.
WF
I think you meant Wes speaks PC banalities to the bored.
ReplyDeleteTrey
Thnaks Trey, but, no, that's not what I meant at all.
ReplyDelete