Top of Utah Voices: A lot of voters want to know: How liberationist is Obama?
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By NEAL HUMPHREY
Commentary
A couple of weeks ago, Hillary Clinton reminded Democrats of the Clintonian love of softening the truth with her mendacious "misremembering" and "mispeaking" about her 1996 landing at Tuzla under a fusillade of sniper fire. And Barack Obama's handlers blessed God for Hillary's brainless whopper because it diverted attention away from Obama's pastor, the raving Rev. Wright.
Before I go any further, I know exactly what it is like to look out from my pulpit on Sunday morning to see a majority of parishioners whose ancestors did not come from Europe. I have served a multicultural congregation representing cultures from every continent on the planet except Australia. Most of those folks were also poor.
However, if I were still serving that church it would never occur to me to pull the same homiletical stunts as the Rev. Wright, blaming America for the 9/11 attacks, invoking God's damnation on America and teaching that AIDS was created by Caucasians as a genocidal plot against people of color. If I ever did such a thing, the Asian, Native American, Hispanic and African American members of my church would have thought I was a theological wingnut.
While Barack Obama has told the world that he doesn't think his minister and friend is a wingnut, he has made a valiant effort to distance himself from the inflammatory vitriol of Jeremiah Wright. Well, I believe Obama when he repudiates Wright's outrageous ranting. But when the junior senator from Illinois claims he didn't know that his pastor's robe was cut from liberation theology, sorry, no sale.
So, what's liberation theology?
I received my professional theological education from the most radically liberal seminary in my denomination's system. The campus and staff was thoroughly infested with liberation theology. I can declare with confidence that I know what liberation theology is because I was a straight "A" student in those classes taught by professors who had bought into that world view.
Liberation theology is a 45-year-old radical and fading fad. It asserts that a key task of the Church of Jesus Christ is to actively oppose economic, political and social repression where the poor live under exploitation and oppression.
A preferential option for the poor isn't such a bad thing and is consistent with the teachings of Jesus. However, liberation theology is as driven by Marxist ideology as it is by New Testament values.
As a result, liberation theologians uniformly blame America for most of the economic, political and social repression imposed on the exploited and oppressed poor of the world. There is no religious point of view that is as seditious and blatantly anti-American as liberation theology. Jeremiah Wright's outrageous statements were perfectly consistent with liberation theology.
It's just not possible for Barack Obama to have been an active member of Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years and not be aware of the theological biases of Jeremiah Wright.
I think many folks are nervous about Barack Obama's liberalism. He has declared he doesn't want to be called a liberal even though his voting record is the most liberal in the Senate for the past two years. His voting record is consistent with his Illinois constituents. Illinois has one of the most liberal state governments in the nation and is also, probably as a result, one of the most screwed up states in the nation.
Obama lies when he says he's not a liberal. But I'm far more concerned about the possibility that Obama has bought into the liberation theology of his longtime pastor.
We've all wondered to what extent a candidate should be held accountable for his religion's teachings. In the case of Mitt Romney, his Mormon background was a key part of the challenges of his run for the presidency, perhaps even a deathblow to his candidacy. But Obama continues to get a pass from the press in spite of the possibility that he's past liberalism and is sympathetic to Marxist liberation theology.
When will someone ask Obama the questions? What do you think about the liberation theology taught by your pastor in your church? And, are you a Marxist?
At this point the press' Obamamania prevents such in-depth questions. But if Barack Obama becomes the Democrat candidate, he will be relentlessly "Swift-boated" on these issues.
It will make John Kerry's sufferings look like a walk in the park.
