Re: Obama's Black Liberation Theology

Thanks to Polly for drawing attention to Obama’s religion. I listened to several tapes of Obama’s pastor and he subscribes to something called Black Liberation Theology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_liberation_theology

“The modern American origins of contemporary black liberation theology can be traced to July 31, 1966, when an ad hoc group of 51 black pastors, calling themselves the National Committee of Negro Churchmen (NCNC), bought a full page ad in the New York Times to publish their "Black Power Statement," which proposed a more aggressive approach to combating racism using the Bible for inspiration.^[2]

“The Rev. Jeremiah Wright was introduced to black liberation theology at University of Chicago's Divinity School. Wright would cite the works of James Cone and Dwight Hopkins who are considered the leading theologians of this system of belief, although now there are many scholars who have contributed a great deal to the field. Wright built up Trinity United Church of Christ with a vision statement based on the theology laid out by James Cone^[3][4] Asked in an interview which church most embodied his message, Cone replied "I would point to that church (Trinity) first. ^[5] Short clips of Wright's sermons which called for God to condemn America for its actions and credited the government for creating the AIDS virus would receive heavy criticism and became a major topic of presidential debates.

“Wright claimed that criticism of his theology constituted an attack on the black church, although probably no more than a quarter of black pastors today would describe their theology as liberationist^[6]. Trinity United Church of Christ is one of the few that specifically incorporates black liberation theology into its vision statement^[7][8][9]

I listened to a clip in which Wright praises Cone and Hopkins. One can by books by these two on Amazon.com You can buy Dwight Hopkins Introducing Black Theology of Liberation and James Cone’s A Black Theology of Liberation together for $23.12. Maybe some of you who want a president who holds this view would be interested in finding out more about it. http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Theology-Liberation-Dwight-Hopkins/dp/1570752869/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1221423896&sr=1-1

Lawrence Helm