Theology of liberation

Dear editor,

At the “Restoring Honor Rally” at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Aug. 31, commentator Glenn Beck stated that U.S. President Barack Obama’s political message is “a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

From an authentic Christian perspective “liberation” is first and foremost liberation from the radical slavery of sin. This is not the kind of liberation that President Obama preaches though he claims to be Christian.

Obama’s aspiration for justice is captive to ideologies which hide or pervert its true meaning, and which propose to people struggling for their liberation goals which are contrary to the true purpose of human life.

He proposes ways of action which imply the systematic recourse to violence, contrary to any ethic which is respectful of persons. This is all evident in his support for homosexuality and his militant push for abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

Obama’s theology of liberation proposes a novel interpretation of both the content of faith and of Christian existence which seriously departs from the faith of Christ and, in fact, actually constitutes a practical negation.

Concepts uncritically borrowed from Marxist ideology and recourse to theses of a biblical hermeneutical marked by rationalism are the basis of his new interpretation.

Paul Kokoski Hamilton, Ontario, Canada pkokoski@mountaincable.net