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Is The Black Church The Answer To Liberal Prayers? ["Jesus Was Class Warrior"?]
Washington Post ^ | November 24, 2011

Posted on 11/26/2011 10:21:53 AM PST by Steelfish

Is The Black Church The Answer To Liberal Prayers?

By Lisa Miller, Published: November 24

As the American left continues to seek a coherent way to articulate its moral priorities in these days of political stalemates and widening income gaps, it might look to the most unlikely of places — the academy — for guidance and inspiration.

At elite universities and seminaries thrives a constituency of African American intellectuals who fiercely contend that the American conversation needs to stay focused on justice — specifically, for those whom the Bible calls “the least of these.”

Cornel West, who was arrested at an Occupy Wall Street protest, is perhaps the most visible. But there is also James Cone of the Union Theological Seminary, whom the New Yorker profiled in 2008 as an intellectual influence on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright — the controversial pastor emeritus of President Obama’s church in Chicago. And there is Eddie Glaude of Princeton, who last year wrote a red-hot essay for the Huffington Post called “The Black Church is Dead.”

And there is Obery Hendricks, a Bible professor at Union whose book, “The Universe Bends Toward Justice,” was published this month. (The title borrows from an often-used phrase by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.). In a series of interconnected essays on subjects ranging from gospel music to supply-side economics, Hendricks rails against the conventional hypocrisies in public moral and religious discourse.

According to Hendricks’s biblical exegesis, Jesus was a class warrior. Jesus said, “Woe to you who are rich,” Hendricks wrote. “Wealth becomes unjust for Jesus when it is used in an unjust fashion, or for unjust ends, or when it is greedily accumulated and not shared with those in need of material assistance.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Religion
KEYWORDS: blackchurch; blt; christianity; jeremiahwright; liberationtheology; protestantism; religiousleft; theology

1 posted on 11/26/2011 10:21:57 AM PST by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

“The least of these” are disciples of Jesus Christ—not just any random group of losers that somebody might be able to exploit politically.


2 posted on 11/26/2011 10:30:39 AM PST by Arthur McGowan (In Edward Kennedy's America, federal funding of brothels is a right, not a privilege.)
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To: Steelfish

...and then there is Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and so on.


3 posted on 11/26/2011 10:31:35 AM PST by Parley Baer
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To: Steelfish

More “what would Jesus do” nonsense from the social justice proclaimers.

Likely Jesus would say, “Do as my father commanded you, especially the Tenth Commandment.”


4 posted on 11/26/2011 10:37:44 AM PST by plangent
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To: Steelfish
I make no claim to be a Biblical scholar, but I have read it.

Would someone please show me where Jesus told his followers to take up their swords and confiscate by force, or threat of force, money from others to give to the poor? I missed that part.

And that is exactly what today's liberals advocate. If you don't think so, try not paying your taxes and see what happens.

5 posted on 11/26/2011 10:43:30 AM PST by rmh47 (Go Kats! - Got Seven? [NRA Life Member])
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To: Steelfish

Jesus came to show man his need for God, not money. He had no problem with profit or riches so long as the wealth did not take precedence over God in a man’s life.
It amazes me how leftists ignore Jesus’s admonishments against worry about material things as opposed to reliance on God for our needs.
Jesus would be appalled at the worship of government preached by leftist “Christians” today.
Under the leadership of Obama and others, covetousness is the law of the land. “Woe to those who lead one of these little ones astray, it would be better that a millstone be hung around his neck.” Jesus believed in the Tenth Commandment.


6 posted on 11/26/2011 10:47:28 AM PST by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: Steelfish
No . . . Jesus is a King, not a “class warrior”. His government is hierarchical; he also established property rights. Of course it would be heretics like Wright et al that would pervert Jesus’ injunction against Mammon-worship, which is a breach of the First Commandment, into a pretext to violate the Tenth.
7 posted on 11/26/2011 10:53:50 AM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Steelfish
Progressive/liberal ideology is anti-Christian, especially their prime directive: Income Redistribution, as it violates at least three of the 10 Commandments:

8. Thou shalt not steal.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

10. Thou shalt not covet...

Yet, they are able to rationalize stealing from one group of individuals, keeping a majority of that stolen property for themselves, and giving the rest to those who they have deemed poor by calling it charity in the service of social justice. This is theft, not charity.

If one chooses to resist, you'll be branded as evil and your motives questioned and your integrity and reputation impugned. This is false witness against thy neighbors.

Further pressure will be brought against those who have more. They will be identified and singled out and their monetary wealth and possessions made public in an effort intended to promote jealousy and envy.

I see little Christianity in liberalism. The progressives have more in common with Caesar than they do with Jesus.

8 posted on 11/26/2011 10:55:37 AM PST by GBA
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To: Steelfish

They want churches out of politics unless its their churches


9 posted on 11/26/2011 10:57:21 AM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: Steelfish
Is the Founders' idea of freedom of individual enterprise (capitalism) and strict, constitutional limits on government power exercised by imperfect persons in government more compatible with the philosophy and teachings of Jesus Christ?

OR

Is coercive control by imperfect individuals in government over all other imperfect individuals in a society more compatible with Christianity?

Christ taught and encouraged individual benevolence, meekness, etc. Where in those teachings is use of coercive power over the lives of others encouraged?

Do imperfect individuals who gain coercive power by election to posts in government somehow become more virtuous and wise than likewise imperfect individuals in the society?

Are there examples in American history where the general welfare of the society benefitted by applying the principles of so-called "government" control of the means of production and distribution?

A reading of Governor Bradford's diary of the experience of the Jamestown Colony might be instructive here.

America's Founders preferred liberty for individuals, and their principles made America a desired destination for millions for over 200 years.

"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread." --Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:122

10 posted on 11/26/2011 12:47:57 PM PST by loveliberty2
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To: Steelfish

My GOD< and therefore, my JESUS; is my personal Savior. He wants what is in my heart, he wants me to give of my plently willingly. HE does NOT want forced giving based upon what pathetic humans determine what is best and right.
The only way out of poverty and to achieve this so-called “justice” these people want is by complete and total reliance on Jesus Christ. NOT government mandates and socialsim.


11 posted on 11/26/2011 1:06:03 PM PST by vpintheak (Democrats: Robbing humans of their dignity 1 law at a time)
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