All racist theologies have the same basic core ideas and methodology. Thus it does not really matter if we are talking about the KKK, the Nation of Islam or Black liberal theology, their focus is always on skin and not sin; race and not grace; gossip and not gospel. Racism is always focused on the outward instead of the inward because it cannot deal with the root problem of sin. Hatred and violence feed on bitterness and racist rage. Class envy does not help anyone in this life or in the next. Blaming others for one’s own sin and guilt will not solve the problem. We must take responsibility for what we do in life instead of blaming “the man” for our failures and woe. This is why we need to break the shackle of black liberal theology which enslave the black man and keeps him poor and angry. May God use this study to liberate black men and women from the lie of Black Liberal Theology.
I am aware that while the vast majority of Black Liberal Theologians are clearly guilty of believing in white liberalism and Neo-Marxist liberation theology, there are a few “conservative” writers who have fallen for some of their lies. Thus they will complain that not everything stated in this article applies to them. But as with any other movement, we must deal with the majority view and not with those few who are out of step with that majority.
I. The “Roots” of Black Liberal Theology.
“Black liberal theology” (from now on shortened to the initials “BLT”) is another name for Western Liberation Theology which was created by white, middle-class, European, Marxist, liberal theologians to foster social change by manipulating the lower classes to violent revolution against democratic governments in order to establish a communist state. Thus BLT did not originate in Africa but in Europe.
The fundamental ideas of BLT did not come from black thinkers but from such white European thinkers as Hegel, Darwin, Marx, etc. It is Euro-centric in its ideology although it is Euro-phobic in its rhetoric. Black liberal theologians are in reality “Uncle Toms” still licking the boots of their white, Marxist masters at such bastions of white liberalism as Princeton, Yale, Harvard, etc.. They are the slaves of Karl Marx.
II. The Goals Of Black Liberal Theology
The goals of BLT are to turn religion into sociology, Christianity into a political agenda, Jesus into a black Marxist rebel, and the gospel into violent revolution. They are more interested in politics than preaching the gospel.
III. The Methodology of Black Liberal Theology
The main method employed by BLT is to manipulate embittered young blacks by turning their feelings of inferiority, alienation, jealousy, hopelessness and self-hate, into racist rage against whites, Orientals and affluent blacks who are conveniently blamed for their lack of personal initiative to better their lot in life.
IV. The Main Philosophic Error of Black Liberal Theology
BLT is based upon the philosophic error of relativism in which “Jesus” is viewed as only a religious symbol which can be interpreted anyway they want. Thus it does not matter who and what the historical Jesus really was. BLT invented a black Marxist Jesus to lead the way to violent revolution because such a “Jesus” will serve their purpose. BLT is condemned in II Cor. 11:4 and Gal. 1:8-9.
V. The Racism Of Black Liberal Theology
While BLT is filled with racist statements against whites and Orientals, it is primarily a form of “black on black” racism. The following evidence demonstrates this to be true.
A. While BLT claims to give blacks a better self-image, they unwittingly encourage a poor self-image among blacks by defining “blackness” in such negative terms as “the poor,” “the oppressed,” and “niggers.” Why do they always define the “black experience” in such negative terms? Why do they assume that all blacks live in the ghetto subsisting on welfare in the midst of crime and filth?
B. With its constant emphasis on God loves the poor, the oppressed, etc. BLT actually paralyzes and demoralizes blacks to accept a parasitic life- style dependent on the government dole instead of fostering self-reliance and entrepreneurship.
C. It seems to me that BLT feeds off of class envy and racist rage. Instead of spending their time blaming the white man for the black man’s problems, BLT ought to be encouraging black men or women to become financially successful through hard work and self-reliance.
D. BLT often describes the black man as a helpless victim of forces and people beyond his control. But this negative stereotype often leads people to accept poverty, drugs, crime and filth as their unalterable fate.
E. BLT makes a great mistake when it assumes that poverty automatically means crime and filth. Just because you are poor does not mean you have a license to rob, rape, or murder others. The poor are for the most part good and honest people. Crime is crime regardless of who commits it. Poverty is no excuse for criminality.
F. BLT judges people on the basis of the color of their skin instead of the content of their character.
G. BLT gives the impression that the black man’s problem is his skin instead of his sin.
H. Most BLT books glorify rage, hatred and violence instead of faith, hope and love.
I. BLT preaches race instead of grace as the solution to problems.
J. BLT cries out for political liberation instead of spiritual salvation.
K. BLT thinks more of Marx than it does of Jesus.
L. BLT is more interested in black culture than in Jesus Christ.
VI. The Liberalism Of Black Liberal Theology
BLT is not a fundamental, Bible-believing, Christ-honoring theology. BLT was created by white liberation theologians at white liberal seminaries and universities that are radically anti-Christian and anti-Bible.
A. Most of those involved in BLT do not believe in the Trinity, the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, vicarious death, bodily resurrection, literal ascension or return to this world. They claim that all such doctrines are “Western.”
B. Many of those who teach BLT openly deny the immortality of the soul, a conscious after-life in heaven or hell, the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and the eternal conscious torment of the damned in hell. They usually say that hell is “being black on welfare in the ghetto.” They attack those blacks who talk about heaven as a “pie in the sky by and by slave mentality.”
C. BLT often denounces Christianity as racist and the “white man’s religion.” But then it turns around and claims that Jesus was black. If Jesus was a black man, then how can Christianity be the “white man’s religion?”
D. Most BLT writers deny the inspiration, inerrancy and authority of the Bible while at the same time using it to foster their racist agenda.
E. Many BLT leaders teach the theory of evolution in which man evolved from an ape in Africa as if that theory can give dignity to blacks or to anyone else. The theory of evolution actually destroys all dignity and morals by reducing man to an animal.
VII. The Absurdity of Black Liberal Theology
BLT is so filled with self-contradiction and erroneous ideas that it is has no intellectual merit. For example, BLT defines “blackness” and “whiteness” in the Marxist sense of class struggle. Thus BLT is not really talking about blackness as a race but as a class. WAKE UP! Read that last sentence again. Did you get it? Black liberal theology is really concerned with class struggle and not about black people per se. What is “black” and “white” according to the BLT books?
Black = anyone regardless of race or color who is economically and politically oppressed by the upper classes.
White = anyone regardless of race or color who is guilty of oppressing the lower classes.
Walter McCray in his book, The Black Presence In The Bible, quotes with approval the definition of blackness given by his liberal mentor, Charles Copher.
Additionally, one may be defined as black regardless of color or race; all who suffer oppression…are classified as black.(p. 161, n.72.)
This irrational definition ends up with some white people being “black” and some black people being “white.” According to BLT’s definition, a blond, blue- eyed, white Swede on drugs and welfare is “black” while the successful black man who owns his own company is “white.” Other absurdities abound in their writings.
A. BLT claims that Adam and Eve were black. If this is true, then all men are “black” because they came from the first black parents. On what grounds then does BLT divide up mankind into black vs white and black vs yellow? Aren’t we all “black” having come from the same original black DNA?
B. BLT claims that Noah, his wife and their three sons and wives were all blacks. Yet, they also claim that the blacks descended from Ham. And they run through the Bible looking for Hamite references to track the history of the black race. How can this obvious contradiction be resolved ?
C. As part of its Marxist ideology, BLT believes that history is as relative as morals. Thus BLT rewrites history to foster its own socio-political goals. This is why BLT does not hesitate to teach lies and to practice academic chicanery. The “truth” is not their concern. To manipulate young blacks into racist rage is always their real goal.
D. BLT claims that nearly every individual and nation mentioned in the Bible was black. They do not prove that this true. They simply asset that this is so. Anyone who disagrees with them is labeled a racist.
E. BLT claims that the ancient Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians were all black. Yet, they were the cruelest oppressors known in history. For example, the Assyrians enslaved and deported entire populations. Mass murder was their favorite means of oppression. How can they be “black” when they were worse oppressors than Hitler or Stalin?
F. BLT claims that the ancient Egyptians were black and that the Jews were black as well. But since the Egyptians were a very oppressive society which enslaved the Jews and other minorities and conquered many surrounding nations, how can the Egyptians be “black” and oppress people at the same time?
G. BLT just like the KKK and other racist groups claims that its race is the sole source of all that is good in all cultures. But this is a two edged sword. If the blacks are responsible for all the good in the world, then they are equally responsible for all the evil. To claim that the black man can do no wrong and that the white man and yellow man can do no good, is absurd as well as racist.
H. BLT claims that the ancient Greeks were black and thus Greek philosophy was created by blacks. But then BLT also says that the white Greeks stole their philosophy from African blacks. How can the Greeks be black and white at the same time? But if they were all blacks, then what is wrong with blacks sharing ideas?
I. BLT claims that the Greeks stole their ideas from black Africans and thus all the good in Western culture comes from blacks. But if this is true, how can BLT condemn Western culture on one hand and then claim that it came from blacks on the other hand?
J. BLT also claims that all the good in Oriental culture came from African blacks. The Orientals thus stole their culture from the blacks. But if this is true, why are African motifs missing in Oriental philosophies and art?
K. BLT authors claim that the Egyptian word Kemet means “the land of the Blacks.” In reality, the word actually means “the black land” referring to the dark soil along the flood plain of the Nile. It is used in Egyptian literature in opposition to the word Deshret which literally means “the red land,” a reference to the color of the dirt or sand in the desert.
VIII. Black Liberal Theology Contradicts The Bible
In order to make everyone in the Bible black, BLT takes passages out of context, ignores the grammar of Hebrew and Greek, and then attacks anyone who disagrees with them as “racist” or “white.” But BLT violates several clear Scriptures.
1. Acts 17:26 “He made from one all the nations of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.”
The Bible teaches that there is only one race –the human race– regardless of size, shape or color. Thus there is no “black” or “white” blood. There is only human blood which can be transfused from one man to the next regardless of color or race. BLT con-tradicts this by talking about “black blood.”
2. Rom. 2:11 “There is no partiality with God.”
God does not treat people any differently because they are red, yellow, black or white. They are all precious in His sight. But BLT claims that God is partial to blacks! This is just as wrong as the Nazis who claimed the same thing for the Ayrian race or the KKK who claims the same for the white race.
3. Gal. 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
BLT divides the Church into different economic classes and pits them against each other. Thus they try to put asunder what God has joined together. The Body of Christ is one.
4. Eph. 4:4-5:2 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
BLT preaches bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and that blacks should seek revenge instead of taking the path of forgiveness.
5. 1 Sam 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
BLT looks only at the outward appearance. This is wrong. We must judge people not by their color but by their moral character or lack of it.
Conclusion
Black liberal theology is not of God but of the devil. It is nothing more than “white liberal religion” and is used by white theologians and politicians to keep blacks down in order to use them as cannon fodder for a Marxist revolution. Black liberal theologians slave for their white Marxist masters to bring about a violent revolution that would guarantee that all men, blacks included, would always be poor and oppressed. The only answer to liberal theology, regardless of the color of those who teach it, is personal salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Once you have experienced the love of God in Christ, you do not have any room in you heart for the self-hate and racist rage upon which BLT feeds. The black community needs a revival– not a revolution; Jesus–not Marx; Christianity –not liberalism. Jesus is the only One who can change the hearts of all men and set them free from their bondage to sin.
Copyright © 1994 Research & Education Foundation (REF)