[Rhodes22-list] Stan and Brad

[Tootle]

Stan,

I will respond to your post next week...

Brad,
       Chris said, "we need a break from the political sniping and dogmatic
suicide bombers of the political scene."  For Chris's request for a break, I
will comply for a few days.  However, before I depart for a place without a
computer, I will post the following educational piece:

Black Liberation Is Marxist Liberation 
By Anthony B. Bradley 

One of the pillars of Obama's home church, Trinity United Church of Christ,
is "economic parity." On the website, Trinity claims that God is not pleased
with "America's economic mal-distribution." Among all of controversial
comments by Jeremiah Wright the idea of massive wealth redistribution is the
most alarming. The code language "economic parity" and references to
"mal-distribution" is nothing more than channeling the twisted economic
views of Karl Marx. Black liberation theologians have explicitly stated a
preference for Marxism as an ethical framework for the black church because
Marxist thought is predicated on a system of oppressor class (whites) versus
victim class (blacks). 

Black Liberation theologians James Cone and Cornel West have worked
diligently to embed Marxist thought into the black church since the 1970s.
For Cone, Marxism best addressed remedies to the condition of Blacks as
victims of White oppression. In For My People, Cone explains that "the
Christian faith does not possess in its nature the means for analyzing the
structure of capitalism. Marxism as a tool of social analysis can disclose
the gap between appearance and reality, and thereby help Christians to see
how things really are." 

In God of the Oppressed, Cone said that Marx's chief contribution is "his
disclosure of the ideological character of bourgeois thought, indicating the
connections between the 'ruling material force of society' and the 'ruling
intellectual' force." Marx's thought is useful and attractive to Cone
because it allows Black theologians to critique racism in America on the
basis of power and revolution. 

For Cone, integrating Marx into Black theology helps theologians see just
how much social perceptions determine theological questions and conclusions.
Moreover, these questions and answers are "largely a reflection of the
material condition of a given society." 

In 1979, Cornel West offered a critical integration of Marxism and Black
theology in his essay, "Black Theology and Marxist Thought" because of the
shared human experience of oppressed peoples as victims. West sees a strong
correlation between Black theology and Marxist thought because "both focus
on the plight of the exploited, oppressed and degraded peoples of the world,
their relative powerlessness and possible empowerment." This common focus
prompts West to call for "a serious dialogue between Black theologians and
Marxist thinkers"--a dialogue that centers on the possibility of "mutually
arrived-at political action." 

In his book Prophesy Deliverance, West believes that by working together,
Marxists and Black theologians can spearhead much-needed social change for
those who are victims of oppression. He appreciates Marxism for its "notions
of class struggle, social contradictions, historical specificity, and
dialectical developments in history" that explain the role of power and
wealth in bourgeois capitalist societies. A common perspective among Marxist
thinkers is that bourgeois capitalism creates and perpetuates ruling-class
domination--which, for Black theologians in America, means the domination
and victimization of Blacks by Whites. American has been over run by "White
racism within mainstream establishment churches and religious agencies,"
writes West. 

Perhaps it is the Marxism imbedded in Obama's attending Trinity Church that
should raise red flags. "Economic parity" and "distribution" language
implies things like government-coerced wealth redistribution, perpetual
minimum wage increases, government subsidized health care for all, and the
like. One of the priorities listed on Obama's campaign website reads, "Obama
will protect tax cuts for poor and middle class families, but he will
reverse most of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers." 

Black Liberation Theology, originally intended to help the black community,
may have actually hurt many blacks by promoting racial tension, victimology,
and Marxism which ultimately leads to more oppression. As the failed "War on
Poverty" has exposed, the best way to keep the blacks perpetually enslaved
to government as "daddy" is to preach victimology, Marxism, and seduce
blacks into thinking that upward mobility is someone else's responsibility
in a free society. 

Anthony B. Bradley is a research fellow at the Acton Institute, and
assistant professor of theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St.
Louis. His PhD dissertation is titled, "Victimology in Black Liberation
Theology." 

See ya all next week...

Ed K
Greenville, SC, USA
And Good night...



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