Monday, June 11, 2007

God of Hope for Captives

I’m working on a Revise and Resubmit on a paper about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week. And as part of my research for this revision I’ve done a lot of reading about African-American Christianity. My reading in Black Theology and history has left me stunned that African-Americans adopted Christianity at all. After all, their only contact with Christianity was that it was being fed to them by their oppressors – often as a strategy for creating a moral obligation of slaves to masters and thereby ensure better work. In spite of this clearly oppressive spin on the gospel of freedom, though, illiterate slaves were able to learn and understand the story of the Exodus and of the God who sets captives free and looks after the oppressed. And in spite of their oppression they held on to a radical hope found in the Gospel story. And while the social, individual, and economic problems that resulted from decades of slavery continue to create injustices in our society, that hope remains alive.

Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. explains the importance of rehearsing these stories toward hope and political activism: “Put simply, liturgies always entail an ethics: they presuppose a certain way of being in the world and seek to impart that to participants and their activity… Liturgies and other rituals – just as explicit forms of racial activism – articulated early conceptions of the moral community among northern blacks as well as southern” (Exodus! P 31).

I wonder if those of us who have more social power can also see these stories – and the enactment of them in liturgy – as an impetus for action and activism. How can the Biblical God of freedom speak into our time and bring about hope for justice, just as the same God did to American slaves?

5 comments:

Rachel said...

Great thoughts. What an interesting topic!

Anonymous said...

He {the biblical God} has already done so; please recall Christ's first sermon in the synagogue. He read the account from Isaiah. He didn't intend to give them a history lesson, he emphatically issued a declaration of his divinity and claim to deity as the justice of God. This was a foreshadow of his propititation @ Golgotha.

bethany said...

dear anonymous. Did you even read my post? I'm not talking about freedom from sin or eternal salvation. I'm talking about God's care for those who are materially oppressed here and now. And if you think intellectual declarations make them less abused, you'd be mistaken. Spiritualizing present pain is a tool of oppression.

Anonymous said...

Oftentimes, present pain is a reflection of spiritual depravity. Not to spiritualize everything, but we must not be so quick to explain inequities as something that man can abolish and maintain. A greater emphasis on our awareness of our personal selfishness, usually prompts enhanced selfishness and denial. Perhaps a divine reckoning can help our progress. The apostle Paul's life can shed much light on this point. The greatest liberal that ever existed was and is Christ. We often reap what we sow. To believe that mankind is fundamentally good without serious consideration to the evidence is notably narrow minded and deceptive. We need regeneration!

bethany said...

I believe in human depravity; anybody who has studied history has to, in my opinion. To say that "present pain is a reflection of spiritual depravity" overlooks the fact that people feel that pain unequally. This post is about crying out with all of creation for that renewal, and I resent your pat attitude without even signing your name.