AZspot AZspot

blue bits. red rocks.
Tuesday 31 August 2010

It’s not hard to see what Beck has against “liberation theology.” It’s the same reason people are often against “social justice.” Both ideas ask us to consider the plight of the poor. And that’s disturbing. Some liberation theologians even consider the poor to be privileged carriers of God’s grace. In his book The True Church and the Poor, Jon Sobrino, a Jesuit theologian wrote, “The poor are accepted as constituting the primary recipients of the Good News and, therefore, as having an inherent capacity of understanding it better than anyone else.” That’s pretty threatening for any comfortable Christian. For not only do we have to help the poor, not only do we have to advocate on their behalf, we also have to see them as perhaps understanding God better than we do. But that’s not a new idea: It goes back to Jesus. The poor, the sick and the outcast “got” him better than the wealthy did. Perhaps because there was less standing between the poor and God. Less stuff. Maybe that’s why Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “If you wish to be perfect, sell all you have, and you will have treasure in heaven, and follow me.” Like I said, pretty disturbing, then and now. It’s hardly “the opposite of the Gospel,” as Beck said. The opposite of the Gospel would be to acquire wealth and fail to work on behalf of the poor. Glenn Beck vs. Christ the Liberator

42 notes

  1. elizlee reblogged this from azspot
  2. fairphantom reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  3. hoitycoity reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    I remember reading this type of Christian belief in something about Mother Theresa, she held the thought that helping...
  4. nerd-gasms reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  5. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from azspot
  6. theplaceholder reblogged this from azspot
  7. kittentroops reblogged this from undercovernun
  8. undercovernun reblogged this from azspot
  9. azspot posted this

A GNT creation ©2007–2012