Ignorance of Black religious traditions annoys me.
Most scholars of the Black experience in America know this: religion has been central to the African American experience. The prominence of the Black church arose as a necessary institution to counterbalance the everyday existence of the debilitating white power structure in America. The Black church became the only sphere of the Black experience that was free of white power and provided a place where African Americans could reaffirm their humanity. More than any institution in the lives of African Americans, the Black church has become the cornerstone in the fight for freedom. Thus, it should be no surprise that the Black church is viewed as the cultural, social, and political ‘womb’ of the Black community
The above paragraph is simply to make the point that because of a specific racial history in America, the Black church has considerable prominence in the lives of many (certainly not all) Black Americans. And this is important because I need us to understand that the Black church experience in America is historically and contemporarily unique in its mission and purpose.
If we understand the Black church as being critical in slavery, the civil rights movement, and post-civil rights movement attempts at gaining equality—then we can begin to understand the necessity and importance of Black Liberation Theology.
Lets talk about liberation theology for a little bit…just to gain a little bit of clarification and for me to vent about the nonsense that has erupted over Senator Barack Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago—a church which is based on Black Liberation Theology.
To be clear, I am not defending Rev. Wright’s statements…I will not get into an argument about the legitimacy of the Youtube videos of what he said. What I do want to make clear is that there is a lot being missed in this moment about Rev. Wrights theology that is worth focusing on.
Has it just been me or am I the only one that yelled/sucked teeth (as we Caribbean folk do to demonstrate our dissatisfaction with something)/flipped channels/eventually turned off said TV or radio when realization set in that every news network was reporting on the same nonsense about Obama’s so-called racist/anti-American Black nationalist pastor?
Whewwww… NPR…CNN…FOX…MSNBC…ABC…say word? Enough already…
Between the nonsense that was Geraldine Ferrarro’s offensive remarks and the negative media framing of Rev. Wright’s sermons…I didn’t get my usual fill of news last week…and I’m mad.
I’m mad that in 2008….we still don’t get it.
We don’t get that you cannot extract a few lines from a sermon and use them to characterize the legacy of man and in the same breath condemn him. We don’t get that though Rev. Wrights theology is not based on mainstream (read: white) ideas of Christianity (accepting and enduring your current predicament to reap awards later in heaven)—it articulates and speaks to the needs and frustrations of a significant population of Americans. We do not get that Black Liberation Theology cannot be dismissed as crazy racist rhetoric.
On the contrary: Black Liberation Theology and the theological foundations of this specific inquiry are valuable.
Black liberation theology emerged both as a critique of white conservative theology’s rejection of the role of the Black church in the civil rights movement and as a critique of white liberal theology’s denial of the relation between Black religion and Black power. It was a way to make Christianity relevant to the Black experience.
The first stage of Black Liberation Theology in America began in the mid-1960’s, propelled in large part by James Cone’s book: Black Theology and Black Power which attempted to reconcile Martin Luther King Jr.’s demand for the church to be a radical institution for individual and social change with Malcolm X’s call for Black people to love their blackness. Cone determined that the quest for Black people to overcome the white power structures was not opposite from being a ‘good Christian’. Cone argued that if the gospel is liberation and Jesus Christ is always in the midst of a liberation struggle then the liberation movement of Black power was the gospel message of the 20th century.
In writing about Black Liberation Theology, Hopkins writes, “Black theology of liberation believes in a relationship between God’s freeing activity in the African American community and that same liberating activity documented in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures…black theology sees and experiences the sprit of freedom clearly on the side of the African American poor.” Thus, liberation theology argues that if God is concerned with ‘the least of these’… then he must have been talking about African Americans because they are the most oppressed people in America.
Over time, Black Liberation Theology in many Black churches has helped African Americans cope with the harsh realities of race in American society. It has provided a source of power and a resource for African Americans to make sense of their current reality. The church in the Black community is not simply a place to go and spend one hour on Sunday. It is an experience, a place of strength, center of the community, and a political institution.
Obama attempted to turn this into a teaching moment, in his speech on March 18, 2008 when he explained,
“That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.”
I talk about the Black church for a reason: to establish that all churches are not the same. And just because they are not does not undermine their legitimacy as a significant religious institution. As a result of the different realties and the racist history of America, a religious theology developed which spoke directly to African Americans attempting to navigate the complicated contours of race and survival in America.
Bottom line: I have realized over the past week that people are scared about what is different and that in 2008 we still don’t get it. We much rather advance negative caricatures of a respected pastor then take five minutes to delve deeper and understand that they could be part of a larger project based on a serious religious/political/social inquiry about how to reconcile Christianity and the everyday realities of African Americans.
~Megan
For further reading: Dwight Hopkins, Black Theology of Religion; James Cone: Black Power and Black Theology; Linda Thomas (Ed), Living Stones in the Household of God: the Legacy and Future of Black Theology.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.
Robert Michel
Great piece. I agree fully. I am still trying to figure out why such a big deal has been made over this sermon and why Obama was forced into the position of explaining to America what America already knows.
I also agree with being upset that nothing else could be covered on the news except for this, lol.
Beatifully said. Why don’t we get it? Because the message is filtered through the lens of media commentators (all white) that just don’t want to hear it. To illustrate the point, check out this clip of Rev. Wright interviewed on FOX News:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNTGRL0OJWQ
Every time Rev. Wright tries to bring up Black Liberation Theology and the scholars that influenced him, Sean Hannity does nothing but cut him off and reply, “Are you, or are you not espousing hate?”
That there is what Obama brilliantly articulated when he said “to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.” Until we get these damn fear-mongers off the air, the rest of America won’t have a chance to hear it, let alone get it.
Or maybe Rev. Wright should get his own cable news show.