Friday, September 3, 2010
Glenn Beck and idolatry
Russell Moore, dean of the school of theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has taken American Christians to task for falling under the spell of Glenn Beck. It's an interesting snapshot into some of the internal debates going on within conservative (particularly evangelical Protestant) Christianity today. An excerpt:
Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah
https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2010/09/glenn-beck-and-idolatry.html
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This is interesting, and of course there are similar debates going on among Catholics. But, I think it is of vital importance that we do not conflate Black Liberation Theology with the South American version, as both Beck and Moore do. Black liberation theology is not about liberation from capitalism, but has its origins in the civil rights movement. Its about the liberation of an oppressed people who still can taste the yoke of slavery. And, it is most crucially about giving African-American theology a distinct voice, When Beck (a white male) recasts Black theology as Latin liberation theology, he silences the African-American voice. Best to let the leaders and thinkers of Black theology speak for themselves, as I tried to suggest in my previous post.