PROPHETIC UTTERANCE AND THE BLACK CHURCH

LESSON TWO

Dr. Ricky A. Woods Senior Minister First Baptist Church-West Charlotte, NC

To better understand why there is a need for black theology or liberation theology one only has to look deeper into post-Constantine theology that serves as the primary basis for theology in the west.

Constantine was a Roman Emperor who was converted to Christianity the night before a great battle. Tradition has it that the Roman army was greatly outnumbered by its enemies and during the night Constantine received a vision where he saw the symbol of a cross and a voice said, “Rise and conquer under this symbol.” The next day the Roman army was successful in battle and the very state that had persecuted Christians since the days of Nero, who blamed Christians for burning Rome, made Christianity the official religion of the state.

Again, Obey Hendricks helps us in his work The Politics of Jesus : “With Constantine’s actions, the repression and murder of followers of Christ that had been waged since the mid-first century now came to an end. This was a blessed development for Christians; because it finally affords them the security of the official legitimacy and freedom from persecution their faith had long been denied. Yet, ironically, this development began a cycle of distortion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has never ended.”

Constantine’s first distortion of Christianity was to confuse militarism and domination with the same cause of Christ. Constantine gave himself the title Chief Priest and made the emperor head of the church. Immediately what we see at work is what Charles Campbell calls the powers resisting the change that the gospel brings. For the ministry of Jesus is a ministry of resistance to a culture bent on domination. Campbell calls the powers that we wrestle against a system of domination that uses violence, idolatry and domination as tools for its own survival. All that matters is that the powers survive and we are often made willing and unwilling participants.

An example of the powers at work is the recent rate hike in the Charlotte water bill. While consumers saved water at the government’s request, that same government in the middle of the rainy season said we need more money because you use too little water. Moreover, we are told that it is needed to protect against a shortfall in revenue that has not even appeared till this date. Further questions prompt answers such as the rating system for bonds says we need it and forget the economic hard times people are having. And our elected leaders vote for it saying, “What could I do? It was over my head.”

2 The powers seek to make us participants in a culture of domination. Campbell argues the whole temptation narrative of Jesus is to seek to make him a participant in a culture of domination by using the power of God in ways that God never intended, either by turning stone into bread or by defying gravity. “The devil tempts Jesus to use God for his own ends, to make God an instrument for his own success and popularity,” writes Campbell. It is a ministry of resistance to the powers of the world that leads to his crucifixion and gives the cross its distinctive meaning. The cross is a symbol of resistance that says the powers have been defeated. This is why the popular culture downplays the cross or seeks to change its meaning.

Constantine gave in to the temptation of domination and allowed the church to become the new face of domination with religious and governmental sanction. Confusion of militarism and domination with Christianity has led to the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Slave Trade, the Holocaust and the war in Iraq. Constantine uses Christianity to set up the first totalitarian state. Constantine gave us the Christ not as a resister of the powers but one who wanted us to work with the powers to use Christianity as our own means for forwarding a human agenda. It is a view that scholars call triumphantalism where so much focus is placing on the reigning Christ that we ignore the meaning of his earthly ministry and its demand for justice in all relationships.

Constantine also gave to the church a hierarchical structure that was not based upon service or calling but by selection. As Emperor and head of the church, Constantine determined who could do what and who could do nothing. Those who disagreed with his theology were banished or barred from church proceedings. Constantine also used the threat of withholding money as a means to getting what he sought as well because the church was no longer funded by the believers but by the state. The legacy of Constantine can be seen today by a government that is not past taking actions against churches and believers who question governmental polices.

Given this overview of how much western theology has been impacted by Constantine and a view not centered in the historical ministry of Jesus and the prophets, one can begin to see the need for a different kind of theology.

Thus, emerges black theology.

3 Dr. James Cone states that black theologians and preachers have rejected the white church’s attempt to separate love from justice and religion from politics because we are proud descendants of a black religious tradition that has always interpreted its confession of faith according to the people’s commitment to the struggle for earthly freedom. Instead of looking to white theologians for guidance during troubled times, we search our past for insight, strength and courage to speak to the extreme situation of oppression. Richard Allen, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. became household names as we attempted to create new theological categories that would express our historical fight for justice.

Social context and example inform this theology. It is similar to how Israel constantly refers to Yahweh as the God that delivered Israel from the house of bondage in the land of Egypt. Past bondage and God’s liberating action is Israel’s departure point to talk about how God works among them. In like manner, black theology then is the story of black people’s struggle for liberation in an extreme situation of oppression. Consequently, there is no sharp distinction between thought and practice, worship and theology, because black theological reflections about God occurred in the black struggle of freedom.

Blacks were more concerned not with creeds that spoke of the trinity, virgin birth and the like--these were taken as givens. What blacks were concerned about was their status in American society that claimed divine favor in light of the injustices heaped upon black people. Did Jesus care and was there any word from God to suffering people? While whites spoke on individual salvation and counted the success of ministry based upon decisions for Christ, i.e., Billy Graham, blacks wanted to know what about the systems of evil such as Jim Crow and other forms of discrimination that crushed black hopes every day? What was needed was a theology that was biblically true but also energized persons for struggle and resistance.

A landmark work came at the hands of black scholar James Cone in God of the Oppressed . Cone’s claim was that the God of the Hebrew Bible was often on the side of the oppressed. God revealed Himself by putting His power on display to help those who have no other help. Israel’s deliverance from slavery is the example cited as a basis for this theology. The images of Pharaoh and Moses found a footing in black consciousness, which was also used during the fight against slavery. In short, one could sum up black theology as a theology that is concerned with liberation not just of individuals from sin but liberation from the powers of domination and the systems of institutional sin that serve a fallen world. Black theology is about speaking truth to power--tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Black theology tells us that God has not forgotten the marginalized and the good news is for them as well.

4