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“Glen Beck, who claimed Obama had a 'deep-seated hatred for white people' and that more than a dozen 'czars' (also known as White House aides) were a threat to the Republic.”
The Promise; Jonathan Alter; page 274.
Earlier this week, Glenn Beck told para-journalist Chris Wallace that he regrets calling President Obama a racist, because he know understands that Obama “understands the world through liberation theology.” Weeks earlier, Beck had connected liberation theology to the Black Panther Party, and noted that it “leads to genocide.” I think it might be of interest to discuss these claims – not in a theological discussion, which would be appropriate for the DU religion & theology forum – but in a sociological manner. In doing so, there is a chance that we will find that: {a} Mr. Beck is mistaken; and {b} that he is promoting class/racial hostilities.
Beck's charges, like all of his thinking, is shallow. His “evidence” that President Obama subscribes to liberation theology is that: {a} as a young man, Obama was employed as a community organizer; and {b} that the Obama family attended a church in Chicago led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright. As fate would have it, Glenn Beck tasked the attendees of his recent rally to organize in their communities, a move that is more akin to “liberation lobotomy” than “liberation theology.” And he willfully ignores the acrimonious divide between Obama and Wright that erupted during the 2008 campaign. Thus, one must ask, what is liberation theology, why does Beck fear it, and who does he think that President Obama is trying to organize and liberate?
The general school of thought known as “liberation theology” takes its name from a 1972 book by Gustavo Gutierrez, “A Theology of Liberation.” It was rooted in a combination of Jesuit beliefs in the gospels as guides to social justice, and the communal practices of Indigenous People from Central America. In the 1950s, “liberation theology” was a largely Catholic movement, but in the 1960s – a time when people began to question institutions' authority – many of its basic concepts were recognized as being consistent with other branches of the Christian church, as well as with non-Christian peoples. This included other religions, as well as agnostics and atheists.
This potential to promote a true brotherhood of man is, of course, what upsets Glenn Beck. It does not fit in with his “my God is bigger than your god” thinking. By no coincidence, because Mr. Beck worships the American Dollar, he finds liberation theology threatening. Let's take a closer look at a liberation theologian/community organizer, who may illustrate what Beck hates and fears. And again, by no coincidence, we will see how the government forces that Beck fancies as “protectors of the Republic” respond to this “threat.”
One of the most extraordinary human beings of the twentieth century was Oscar Romero, an Archbishop in the Catholic Church in El Salvador. As a youth, he learned his father's trade of carpentry, but followed his conscience and became a priest. This vocation took him to Fascist Italy, an experience that resulted in his having a very different political orientation than Glenn Beck has today (he was a “moderate”). When he returned to El Salvador, he began to engage in community organizing – dangerous things like forming AA groups, and editing a local newspaper.
Over the years, as Romero rose in the church ranks, he maintained the ability to be on good terms with people on the left and right. During the late 1960s and early '70s, a number of the priests in El Salvador became “liberation theology” activists. Many openly sided with the poor, when they took up arms to defend themselves from an increasingly brutal. In early 1977, he was appointed as Archbishop, and some of the leftist priests were concerned that he would not support their efforts to help the poor. However, a month later, when his friend Rutilio Grande was murdered by a death squad, Romero demanded the government investigate. The government instead censored the press reports.
Romero knew that Grande, a progressive Jesuit, was murdered because he was a community organizer. Grande had worked primarily with the urban poor and rural Indian communities. Romero's wish for a vision – something that his journals note he had hoped for since his youth – was fulfilled. Oscar Romero decided to carry on Grande's work as an archbishop.
He became one with the poor. He frequently said mass for the public in abandoned buildings, and in barns. He rejected the comfortable home that his position in the church offered, and instead spent most nights in a ward for the mentally ill in a local hospital. He spoke out against poverty, injustice, the death squads, and the torture and murder of El Salvador's citizens (including over 50 priest who had been target by the government, subjected to threats, torture, and sometimes murdered).
Romero's position in a war-torn nation gave him an international platform. In early 1980, for example, he met with the Pope, and communicated with President Jimmy Carter. On March 23, he delivered a powerful sermon, in which he called upon soldiers to stop injuring and killing their own people on behalf of a cruel and vicious government. The next day, Romero said mass in a small hospital. As he was lifting the chalice to prepare for communion, a death squad – financed with US dollars – shot him dead. His blood literally mixed with the wine on the alter.
About a quarter of a million people attended Romero's funeral. The government viewed this as a threat, and so – surprise, surprise – a smoke bomb went off, and soldiers began shooting into the crowd, killing about 50 people, and injuring numerous others.
Many people on this forum recall what would follow: Ronald Reagan and George Bush the Elder would back the violent leaders in El Salvador and the rest of Central America, so long as they bowed before US interests. Rape and kill a few nuns here, engage in a little Iran-Contra scandal there. Just protect that Republic.
The Glenn Becks and Sarah Palins can try to disguise their messages of concern and outrage over efforts to bring about social justice in the United States. They can wave flags and thump bibles. Throw in a “code word” or two, such as “liberation theology.” But there's no disguising what they are really trying to communicate.
Praxis>doctrine,
H2O Man
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