I can see it now. Fox news graphics come across the screen; a red background is contrasted with a black and white cartoonish drawing of Obama peering slightly upward into the distance. Sean Hannity glances at a sheet of paper, his right finger and thumb pressed together and being wagged at an unsuspecting guest. He spews forth a set of statements that can’t be deciphered because they are masked with condescension and rage. He concludes: should Americans elect someone to the highest office of these United States who is friendly to communist ideas? "Obama a Marxist?" flashes up at the bottom of the screen.
You and I know Hannity will go there. Fox news knows no limits. But you might be asking yourself "how could they travel that road?" or "won’t everyone just see this as a smear?". Think again. I’m pretty positive that this will be the next line of attack from the far right. You should be prepared for it. Follow me after the jump to see the tortured logic of the coming right wing smear.
Jump....
You may have noticed a few right wing talking heads throwing around the term liberation theology with consternation. Rev. Wright is said to be influenced by liberation theology, especially black liberation theology.Glenn Beck , Sean Hannity, and many of their guests have brought up liberation theology with a tone in their voice that assumes that this mode of religious thinking is inherently bad. A posturing poster, i.e. a troll, on dailykos has even brought up "the hate filled black-power theology of James Cone" (the progenitor of black liberation theology). Never mind the fact that I am relatively certain that none of these people have the faintest clue about liberation theology, it is important to try to find the logic behind this blanket condemnation and how it will be used to smear Obama.
Let me lay it out in what Aristotle would call in an extended syllogism.
- Obama is a member of Trinity Church in South Chicago
- Every Church has a lead pastor
- Trinity’s lead pastor was Rev. Wright
- Rev. Wright was influenced by the theology of James Cone
- James Cone’s theology is a black liberation theologian
- Black Liberation is derived from the work of Latin American Liberation Theology (primarily the work of Gustavo Gutierrez)
- Some practitioners of Liberation Theology in Latin America were loosely associated with Marxism
- Therefore, Obama is associated with Marxism.
QED! Obama will have us all calling one another comrade! If they don’t track it all the way to Marxism, which they will, then they will hammer James Cone for promoting black racism. Obama will be called the typical black candidate, the token black candidate preaching a fringe movement’s disdain for white America.
Do you think the right wing is above making such associations? Ask John Kerry? They already doing it with Obama and Rev. Wright. Some might think that nobody will believe them? Let’s not be incredulous. After all, suggestion does not operate according to reason. Suggestion plays on fears and preconceived biases, beliefs, and opinions. The only way to fight back is with the truth. We need to educate ourselves and the public, protecting our polity from those minions who would manipulate it with distortions.
Logical Failures:
First, point out the twists of these wild connections. List how circuitous the route is to drawing such far reaching conclusions.
Of course there is a premise missing from my extended syllogism. There should be an axiom between (7) and (8): the universal transitivity axiom that states all predicates, beliefs, and associations are transitive. This law states that every book you have read with a set of ideas is your ideas as well. The beliefs of every person you have come across are your ideas.
Flawless logic no doubt. But is not uncommonly used by demagogues. Suggestion and association prey on such fallaciousness.
Its reminiscent of Aristotle’s first articulation of a transitive fallacy:
- Socrates is different than Callias
- Callias is a man
- Socrates is different than Callias
Another good example of leaps of logic:
There is little to no reason to assume that Obama is anyway connected with liberation theology. There is no proof of it other than some long winded and illogical associations.
What is Liberation Theology? Why Do People Call Liberation Theology Marxist?
The second problem with calling liberation theology marxist is that the claim is false or at least not necessarily true.
As a young person, filled with angst, I ran about in search of understanding and comfort. I tried everything from bottles, pipes, and long nights to religious texts and overzealous calls for justice. In this process I came across a teacher and now dear friend who practiced liberation theology. He was/is a Jewish man, and from this theological framework he formed a theological imperative for peaceable Jewish-Palestinean relations. I was ultimately lead to the work of Gustavo Gutierrez, the father of liberation theology, and was volunteering for organizations with a similar theological outlook like the Catholic Worker. After college I moved to Lima, Peru where I worked for Gutierrez’s non-profit organization. I worked in Peru’s truth and reconciliation committee, and I lived, did community organizing, and planned non-violent protests in the slums surrounding Lima. Along with Maryknoll priests and committed activists, we put our hands and minds to work, trying to piece back together a broken world. If you haven’t had the joy, find a community, whether religious or otherwise, that commits itself to the allusive concept of justice on earth. The community I found myself in where a host of people from different backgrounds and countries; but everyone of us thought themselves exiled from the confluence of power and comfort and where brought together (a community of exiles) by striving for a more just world. This community of people were dedicated to the principles laid down in liberation theology.
Liberation theology is not complicated. It is a call for the liberation of the oppressed. The position is built on sound theology. To be a Christian is not holding a set of ideas, but the Christian life is the devotion to God. To be a Christian is to love God. But what does that mean? Well, to love God is to love the "least of him", i.e. the downtrodden and the oppressed. This sounds nice, and you would not find many Christians that disagree. But the consequences are extreme and for the liberation theologian it culminates in a non-legalistic call to action. Put simply, via modus tollens, if you are not loving the oppressed, then you are not loving God, and if you are not loving God, then, well, you may not be truly committed to the Christian life (let God sort that out). Ultimately, it is non-negotiable axiom of the Christian life to be committed towards the liberation of oppression, to call for justice, to work such that "God’s will be on earth as it is heaven". You may have heard some pacified rhetoric about this notion that tries to make it more palpable for the everyday American; they, and Obama too, refer to it as a "social gospel". Black liberation theology applies this framework to the difficulties of the African American community in the United States.
But what does the liberation of the oppressed mean? What kind of action are demanded of those who follow liberation theology? According to Gutierrez, to liberate the oppressed means:
- To address spiritual suffering
- To work against actual instances of suffering and oppression (for example, feeding and clothing the poor)
- Working and speaking against the institutions and systems of oppression (for example, unjust economic structures and/or systems of racist proliferation).
Your everyday American Christian usually casually agrees with (1). Religion is about the status of the soul, which is equated with some self-help sense of spiritual wholeness. Not for the liberation theologian. Nor for most in minority communities or some more socially active religious communities. Some churches and religious sects are committed to working for the alleviation of suffering in their communities and elsewhere. In these communities the word justice is invoked commonly. But the liberation theologian takes it further. There is call to stand against systems of oppression. These three calls to action make liberation theology wholistic in the sense that encompasses the spiritual, social and the political.
I know what you are thinking: "I wish all Christians had such an outlook!" So why could the terms liberation theology carry such bad connotations? Why could someone consider it Marxist? Well, many don’t like their religion to be political in any sense. At least that’s what people say; it is obvious that religion is never far from politics and it always promotes a political ideology. To understand the disfavor thrown on liberation theology one must understand the context from which is was born. In the late sixties, Latin America was in geo-political upheaval. It was caught in the crosshairs of the cold clusterf%$k. The Catholic Church, under a pro-western Polish pope, was embroiled in this milieu as well. The third point above (to liberate the oppressed means to work against systems of oppression) combined with the political chaos of the political environment meant that practitioners of liberation theology were going to confront some of the most nefarious political groups and policies of the past 50 years. Some of these groups were tyrants. Some of these institutions were US backed juntas and economic policies. Some liberation theologians were murdered for their stances. Oscar Romero was assassinated by U.S. backed militia groups in El Salvador. In this context, a very small minority of practitioners aligned themselves closely with revolutionaries who were Marxist. A small minority of this very small minority promoted violence, but this is a deviation of liberation theology basics.
The Catholic Church took the line that the overarching political tendencies of liberation theology did not jive with Chruch’s catechism’s, but acknowledged that the call for justice and the alleviation of poverty as in line with the mission of Christ. Some interpret this wishy-washy response as recognition of the political reality of the cold war. Cardnial Ratzinger, now the Pope, ridiculed it as an orthopraxy rather than orthodoxy. To debate this would get into the deep waters of faith vs actions dynamics, which I could care less about.
Anyway, liberation theology at its heart is a non-violent theological understanding of the Christian life dedicated towards principles of justice. It is far from Marxist. In fact, many of us on here protest systems of injustice; often times, these systems are rampant capitalism. But this does not make us Marxists. I don’t think there is any place in Liberation theology that theorizes about labor or modes of production... In the end, liberation theology will come under attack for being Marxist or promoting an anti-white agenda. You should respond with the truth. Liberation theology is about a petition for justice. It is a biblical interpretation that understands both the work of Jesus and the work of Christians to be the work of liberating the poor from spiritual, social and political oppression.