This was written by Dr. Russell Moore. He is one of the treasures at Southern Seminary.
What is disturbing to me is that too many Christians have been diagnosing the particular political aims of Reverend Wright and his church as though this were the preeminent problem.
But what is the root? Liberation theology has been with us since the 1960s, in too many incarnations to count, always offering a version of the same message. The liberation theologians see the Gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected, the message of deliverance from the reign of sin and death through repentance and faith, as too "pie in the sky." In contrast, liberation theology offers economic and political salvation in the here-and-now, sometimes through pulpit rhetoric and sometimes at the point of a gun.
Liberation theology is seeker sensitive. The first waves of this movement, in Latin America, were designed to make Christianity appealing to the people by addressing their felt needs, the desire for armed revolution and Marxist economics. Liberation theology only works if one can connect with real or perceived oppression and then make the Scripture illustrative of how to navigate out of that situation. The Kingdom of God is a means to a social, economic, or political end.
This is not the Gospel as proclaimed by the prophets and apostles, a Gospel that centers on Jesus Christ and Him alone. We should be outraged by the clips of the Wright sermons. But we should be outraged first as Christians, not first as Americans. The most egregious aspect of the Wright sermons is not what he is saying about America, but what he is not saying about the Gospel.
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1 comment:
It's upsetting to hear the comments by Rev. Wright. What grieves me, in addition to the lack of the Gospel message, is the stumbling block that is generated.
I believe that many nonbelievers are likely to equate messages like Rev. Wright’s with what they would expect to find in a typical Christian church. I’m speaking from my own previous experiences of course. As a real and terrible consequence, I worry that a good deal of nonbelievers look at these, and other false doctrines, and doubt why they should even bother both if this is what "religion" is (angry, paranoid, etc).
The burden of responsibility lies with us to share the greatest human proposal of all time to nonbelievers. In order to help combat the stumbling blocks generated by others it is very important to share the Gospel, believe it, and live it to its fullest. Their (nonbelievers) eyes are watching us, and the devil will capitalize on our misbehavior. We certainly can damage the chances a nonbeliever has by not sharing Christ’s offer with love while striving to live holy (1 Peter 1:16).
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