Today’s Issue: The Rise of Liberation Theology
What is Liberation theology?
A combination of Marxist philosophy with certain biblical motifs. It argues that we should reconstruct the whole of Christian theology by seeing it through the “axis of the oppressor and the oppressed." Developed in the 1960s to argue for the liberation of various groups—primarily poor, black, women—from economic and political bondage. For these theologians, it is not enough to support the oppressed; one must be committed to social movements, even revolutions, dedicated to overturning the structures of society. For this purpose, liberation theologians adopt Marxism as an “analytical tool,” with which they make radical revisions to every traditional Christian doctrine.”
Marxism/CRT/Liberation Theology Comparison Chart
Example 1: Liberation Theology In SBC
There is a rise in this kind of thought.
Christena Cleveland’s God is a Black Woman
As she relates in her book, she was platformed by major evangelical organizations, including Intervarsity (she was the keynote speaker at the 2015 Urbana conference), CRU, Lifeway, and Christianity Today (where she was a columnist until 2016).
Since that time, her beliefs have changed dramatically. She now rejects the being she calls “whitemalegod” whom she associates with historic Christianity and worships “the Sacred Black Feminine,” depicted by various Black Madonnas whom she christens “She Who Cherishes Our Hot Mess,” “She Whose Thick Thighs Save Lives,” “The Virgin-Warrior God of Consent” “the Mother of All Bling”, “Our Lady of the Side Eye”, etc.
Selected quotes from the book: “whitemalegod’s toxic trifecta of racism, sexism, and classism landed on my Black female body and kept me on his plantation” (p. 174)
“I increasingly recognized that [Intervarsity Christian Fellowship] was homophobic, anti-Black, money driven, and imperialistic” (p. 179)
“The liberation of all Black women requires the dismantling of all systems of oppression–white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and more” (p. 223)
“more than anything, we must eradicate the transphobia within ourselves and our communities. For if God is a Black woman, then She’s a Black trans woman. Obviously.” (p. 232)
Example 2: Liberation Theology in Oklahoma
NAMB Church planter in Oklahoma.
