Racism and Black Liberation Theology

If John McCain had spent 17 years in a church that embraced the doctrine of the Ku Klux Klan, and the pastor was an active KKK member, and McCain called his pastor his “friend and mentor”, where would the media be on this?

Black Liberation Theology

What is it? Why should we care? The Democratic Presidential candidate spent 17 years in a church that embraces Black Liberation Theology. Reverend Wright, whom Obama calls his “friend and mentor”, embraces Black Liberation Theology.

There are numerous quotes in red in this post. These are quotes from James Cone, the recognized founder of Black Liberation Theology. His words speak for themselves.

So again I ask, what is Black Liberation Theology? First, the flowery, feel good, liberal version:


Terry Gross, of NPR Radio, interviewed the founder of Black Liberation Theology, James Cone in March of this year. Cone is the author of Black Power and Black Theology and numerous other books of the same genre. Gross said she wanted us to get “a better sense of what Black Liberation Theology is and where it fits into American religion and culture.”

Through Gross’s interview, Cone came across as a champion for the poor and oppressed. Some of his quotes from the interview:

Cone explained the movement as “mainly a theology that sees God primarily as concerned with the poor and the weak." It's an attempt, he says "to teach people how to be both unapologetically black and Christian at the same time."
“It’s not just for black people…” It is concerned about the Gospel for everybody.

Cone says “the overriding message of Old Testament prophets — and Jesus Christ — is a condemnation of the nation and of the religious [establishment] ... for oppressing the poor."

He also said America has been primarily a White Supremicist society and being Black has been defined as evil and negative.

“We need to be unapologetically black and Christian at the same time.”

Now for what he didn’t say in the interview that he says in his books.

From this site:

”What if anything does the Christian gospel have to say to powerless black men whose existence is threatened on a daily basis by the insidious tentacles of white power? If the gospel has nothing to say to people as they confront the daily realities of life, it is a lifeless message.

“Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man 'the devil.' The white structure of this American society, personified in every racist, must be at least part of what the New Testament meant by demonic forces... About thirty years ago it was acceptable to lynch a black man by hanging him from a tree; but today whites destroy him by crowding him into a ghetto and letting filth and despair put the final touches on death."

From American Thinker

"The Christian faith has been interpreted largely by those who enslaved black people, and by the people who segregated them."


From the Asian Times

Christ is black therefore not because of some cultural or psychological need of black people, but because and only because Christ really enters into our world where the poor were despised and the black are, disclosing that he is with them enduring humiliation and pain and transforming oppressed slaves into liberating servants.

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.

In the New Testament, Jesus is not for all, but for the oppressed, the poor and unwanted of society, and against oppressors ... Either God is for black people in their fight for liberation and against the white oppressors, or he is not.



And here is an article on the Marxist roots of Black Liberation Theology.

Why anyone who is not a racist, black or white, would vote for Obama, knowing his association with these radical racist ideas, is a great puzzle to me. Either they are naïve or they, if they are black, are really racist, or, if they are white, they have a guilt complex they’re trying to alleviate.