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Texas Baptists and Usury Aaron Weaver Christian Ethics Today A Journal of Christian Ethics Volume 23, Number 1 Aggregate Issue 96 Winter 2015 “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” Isaiah 40:3; John 1:23 ARTICLES The Struggle for Justice in Latin America Raimundo César Barreto Jr. ........ 2 …On CIA Interrogation Methods Senator John McCain .......................................... 9 Mary Louise Valentine: Blessed Memories Darold Morgan .............................11 A Debate on Fracking Safer than you think Dr. Joe Cartwright ..........................................................................12 Too risky by far Dr. Jeremy Leggett ........................................................................................13 Remembering a More Generous Economy Rick Burnette ..................................14 Three Lessons from Christian Bale’s Moses Jennifer Danielle Crumpton ......15 The Theo-Politics of Near/Far K. Jason Coker .............................................................17 Texas Baptists and Usury Aaron Weaver ........................................................................19 The Beginnings of the Texas Baptist CLC Bill Jones ............................................22 Theodicy in Providing Holistic Healthcare Ryan E. and Howard K. Batson ...25 Voting Rights in Texas Terry Austin.....................................................................................26 BOOK REVIEWS Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World By Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel Reviewed by Justin Phillips ....28 The Christian Consumer: Living Faithfully in a Fragile World by Laura M. Hartman Reviewed by Ray Higgins .................................................................28 IN MEMORIAM Memorial Reflections About Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler Catherine B. Allen ...29 Holy/Unholy Alliances: Taking Sides in the Struggle for Justice in Latin America Raimundo César Barreto Jr. he intent of this paper is to neither authoritarian nor merely pri- tively “witness[es] to the sovereignty Thonor the life and work of Glen vatistic?”1 of God or the Lordship of Christ Stassen by looking at him as a tactical In the past four decades, Latin through all of life.”3 Glen was not ally for public ethics in Latin America America produced a very influ- satisfied with witness that does not – more particularly in Brazil. ential public theology: liberation take risks. Instead, he moved beyond As a white North American evan- theology. Different versions of lib- an ethic of ideals and found a voice gelical, Glen engaged the world as a eration theology have influenced in the midst of many other pub- Christian ethicist from a particular Christian thought in Africa, Asia, the lic voices. He called us to critically location. He was faithful to the way Caribbean and North America, par- engage ideologies in the public arena, of Jesus and careful in his treatment ticularly among minority groups. making “tactical alliances” with other of the biblical witness. He resisted In addition to some Protestant languages spoken in public discourse the temptation of the privatization antecedents, liberation theology in the context where Christian ethics of Christian ethics imposed on it by “makes its witness.”4 secularization. And he resisted any In his introduction to Yoder’s The authoritarian version of Christian eth- It is wrong to make God War of the Lamb, Glen says, “We need ics that did not take seriously the plu- into an infinite, universal to understand and assess society’s lan- rality of voices in the public sphere. guages in order to develop antibodies Glen could be found in the abstraction. against being manipulated into sup- Revolution of Candles that contrib- porting unjust ideologies of the pow- uted to the fall of the Berlin Wall, was for the most part developed by ers and authorities.”5 In my view, in the Civil Rights Movement, and and among Catholic theologians Glen’s Christocentric, incarnational in the anti-nuclear movements. As in Latin American countries. Jose ethics can help evangelicals in Brazil the Director of the Baptist World Miguez Bonino, Rubem Alves, Elza critically and faithfully respond to the Alliance’s Division on Freedom and Tamez and Julio de Santana represent challenges they are forced to face. Justice, I shared his involvement in minority Protestant voices among the Latin American liberation theo- peace processes in Burma/Myanmar, leading Latin American liberation logians have long argued for the his- Northeast India and other places. theologians. But most Protestant – toricity of God’s action in the world. He worked in the Baptist World especially evangelical – Christians still Glen’s incarnational ethics, instead of Alliance’s Commissions on Peace and emphasize individualistic and privatis- affirming principles or ideals, empha- on Baptist-Muslim Relations. He tic approaches to Christian theology sizes the incarnated work of God in presented papers and engaged Baptist and ethics. a particular context. Glen advocates peacemakers, pastors and scholars In the case of Brazil, Paulo de that it is wrong to make God into an from different parts of the world. His Góes and Rubem Alves denounce the infinite, universal abstraction. For incarnational approach to Christian individualistic nature of the domi- him, God gets very particular. Thus, ethics respected the historical nature nant kind of Protestantism in that for him biblical faith affirms God’s of Christian responses to particular country.2 That approach to ethics disclosure in specific historical drama, challenges. He offered himself as a emphasizes rules and norms regard- particularly in the Exodus and the partner and an ally to Christians seek- ing individual or personal behavior drama of Jesus. This approach reso- ing to effectively witness in different of the believer, and neglects the need nates with the historical approach contexts. for effective Christian witness and taken by many theologians and ethi- Sadly, Glen’s approach to Christian response to the social maladies affect- cists in Latin America. ethics has not been engaged by many ing the larger Brazilian society. Those Glen’s approach to Christian Christians in Latin America, particu- maladies systematically privilege a ethics, like that of many Christians larly in Brazil. In this essay, I want to small elite to the exclusion or mar- in Latin America, is one that takes review some of the responses offered ginalization of many on the basis of sides with the marginalized and the by Latin American Protestants to the social class, race, gender and sexual oppressed against “ideologies of greed question that drove Glen’s concern orientation. and domination.” It is in this context for Christian ethics: “How do we find Glen Stassen advanced the call for that Glen warns us against approaches the solid ground for an ethic that is a public Christian ethics which effec- to public ethics and theology which 2 • WINTER 2015 • CHRISTIAN ETHICS TODAY actually lead to “unholy alliances” from the rich. Migration on any great with the emergence of evangelicals with such ideologies. scale is impermissible. There is no and Pentecostals in the past 50 years. “Only by showing how a more systematic redistribution of income. As Wesley Gramberg-Michaelson historically located and realistic While there is ethnic strife among the has noted, “by 2010, Latin America understanding of Jesus opposes some well-to-do, the strife is more vicious was home to nearly 550 million ideologies and affirms connecting and destructive among the poor.”9 Christians, and 20 percent were from with some other strands in public African descendants and the non-Catholic expressions of Christian ethics, such as covenant, community, indigenous Latin American peoples faith. These are growing at three times common good, and human rights, are among the poorest among the the rate of Catholic growth.”12 can we articulate the Lordship of poor. In Brazil, a study conducted That considerable growth has led Christ through all of life. But the between 1999 and 2001 showed that to greater participation of evangeli- challenge is to get free from unholy 63 percent of the poor in Brazil are cals and Pentecostals in public life, as alliances with ideologies of greed and black and 61.2 percent of the black sociologists such as Paul Freston have domination.”6 population is poor or indigent.10 noted.13 Such a sudden move from According to Luis Rivera-Pagan, The authors of the study reached the the private realm to participation in the history of Christianity in the inescapable conclusion that to be the public square has provoked some Americas began with an act of expro- born mulatto or black significantly contrasts. Whereas Protestant groups priation, a political and religious increases the likelihood of a Brazilian more identified with the cause of the conquest, which he properly called “a being poor.11 poor seem to be able to ally them- violent evangelism.”7 This was one of The control of oligarchies, disregard selves with other social movements the initial unholy alliances in the his- for the poor and systemic violation of without losing the distinctiveness of tory of Christianity in Latin America. human rights continue to impact the their own voices, those groups which The pain of that suffering is still felt lives of many in Latin America. In have suddenly moved from a previ- particularly by the native peoples. response to this history of more than ously “apolitical” attitude of non-par- Enrique Dussel has shown that five centuries,
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