Liberation Theology

[mountaineer]

A scholarly examination of what it is, what it means.

Liberation Theology
Dec. 26, 2018

The early beginnings of liberation theology can be traced to Latin America in the 1960s. The thrust of this movement began as a result of young Catholic and Protestant theologians reflecting on the people’s life of faith within the context of the people’s resistance to oppressive living and working conditions. These liberation theologies speak of God and Jesus as liberators of the poor and oppressed and insist that justice and spirituality work hand in hand. They also reflect on the experiences of women and men who assume coresponsibility with God for their liberation. This article concentrates on Latin America but also indicates links with parallel theologies elsewhere.[1] It should be noted that this liberation theology, officially born in 1968 gave rise to black liberation theology in North America, South African liberation theology, Korean minjung theology Christians for National Liberation in the Philippines.

The theologians at the center of this new theology began their work around the same time as the beginning of the second Vatican Council (1962-65). They began with issues such as the relationship between faith and poverty, and the gospel and social justice, as well as new models of church.  ...

Norman Geisler writes, One movement to emerge from the new theological climate in Catholicism is liberation theology. Also known as “Marxist Christianity,” its basis is Christian social action aimed at bettering the lot of the poor and oppressed.[3] With this heavy influence of Marxism, liberation theology opens wide the door to a negative disposition towards capitalism. It claims that Democratic capitalism is responsible for the poverty of third world countries. This attitude creates hostility between proponents of liberation theology and any culture in which democratic capitalism thrives. ...

Finally, I come another new form of theological method that has been constructed in the last 50 years and that is Queer Theology. Queer theology has the very same concern as its counterparts in class, race, and gender theology: liberation of the oppressed. In this case, the oppressed are from the Queer community: gays and lesbians. That community has now been expanded to include people who suffer from the mental illness of gender dysphoria.   ...

Entire piece is at Reformed Reasons.

A related article at the same site (which AOC and other leftist politicians who presume to tell us what the Bible means might need): Social Justice: A Christian Practice Misunderstood and Misapplied, an historical analysis of the concept.

[TomSea]

The problem in Latin America is, obviously, democracy is better but what if socialism is pitted against what is essentially, a corrupt system, a sort of oligarchy where those on top do not care about those on the bottom?  Where there is even little hope of bettering yourself in a lot of cases.

It's interesting, that in one sense, we have the Middle East where a lot of hell has broke loose, I won't say the whole area and then, as a debate that was posted here showed, at the same time, you have great violence in Latin America.

Is this so much better?

1999:

Clinton Offers His Apologies To Guatemala
John M. Broder

President Clinton apologized today for United States support of right-wing governments in Guatemala that killed tens of thousands of rebels and Mayan Indians in a 36-year civil war.

''For the United States,'' Mr. Clinton said, ''it is important that I state clearly that support for military forces and intelligence units which engaged in violence and widespread repression was wrong, and the United States must not repeat that mistake.''

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/11/world/clinton-offers-his-apologies-to-guatemala.html?mtrref=www.bing.com&gwh=3A966547096803B0FA9F68DE0D936EFD&gwt=pay

And the next occurred well before the 1980s, in the '40s in fact, but I found this pretty negative, sort of like Tuskegee? And again, this stuff is back with government documents.

US apologizes for infecting Guatemalans with STDs in the 1940s
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 1, 2010

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
    Obama offers "profound apologies"
    Guatemala accepts the apology, the presidential spokesman said
    The United States is launching an investigation
    The research was "reprehensible," the U.S. statement said

Washington (CNN) -- The United States apologized Friday for a 1946-1948 research study in which people in Guatemala were intentionally infected with sexually transmitted diseases.

A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the action "reprehensible."

"We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the joint statement said. "The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala."

Read more at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/01/us.guatemala.apology/index.html

So, way in Southern Mexico, Chiapas, you have a somewhat autonomous region, they are slanted towards, well, really, I believe it would be the way of Emilio Zapata, you know, Marlon Brando played him in a movie, so it's hard to say they are the Communist Left......

But in the end, who is better off? Those living in the maelstrom of Mexico currently and some other Latin American countries where corruption is rife and organized crime is a part of life? Or somewhere like that area of Chiapas which seems to be a somewhat peaceful area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation

Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Area of operations   Chiapas, Mexico
Size   About 3,000 active participants and militia; tens of thousands of civilian supporters (bases de apoyo)

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN), often referred to as the Zapatistas [sapaˈtistas], is a far-left libertarian-socialist political and militant group that controls a large amount of territory in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico.

We see both systems fail, we see the problems of Venezuela but on the other hand, we see these other areas suffering, Honduras and so on.

Those Zapatistas don't seem to be communist at that.

[TomSea]

You know, what's interesting, is that though, Pope Francis is sometimes noted for what seem to be leftward leanings, deservedly so if he leans towards global warming,  there seems to be quite a bit that says as a younger man, he leaned towards the military regime in power in Argentina. I think that was probably done as a matter of convenience.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/pope-francis-and-the-junta-in-search-of-what-really-happened-in-argentina/article9844585/

He's even had some actions that indirectly, might lead one to think he favored this "liberation theology", there was some Priest or something in Boliva or Ecuador, one of those nations down there who was into the movement and he gave homage to this individual.