I still haven’t figured out how I do this – no matter how hard I try to keep my “currently reading” list to two or three books, I inevitably end up with a mountain of books sitting on my nightstand, usually about 6 deep. This is where I am right about now. *sigh* Oh well…this is the life of a book junkie.

Anyway, one of the books I’m reading at the moment is Peacemaking Women: Biblical Hope for Resolving Conflict. I was led to this book through an article by Carolyn McCulley. 

In the introduction of the book, I came across this proclamation; two simple sentences that say so much:

“The gospel itself is the greatest message of peacemaking – we are reconciled to God through Christ. That same gospel is our foundation for reconciliation with other people.”

My current lines of thought have led me to read more about different types of “liberation theologies”. Black liberation theology and Feminist liberation theology are the two that I have focused on. What is interesting to me about all strands of liberation theology is that they begin with the particular people group that is being oppressed. Salvation is freedom of oppression for that group of people. Salvation comes through becoming concious of your oppressed state and working in community to overcome that oppression. The “people of God” are those “conscious” folk who have joined the pursuit of freedom. God’s plan of salvation is really all about helping us achieve our human potential. Shalom is humanity’s job, and God is merely our helper. We will create a new humanity, a new created order. God has merely shown us by examples (with Christ being the chief of these examples) how we can do this.

This is wrong on so many levels – I don’t have time to go into every detail! What I will say is this has it all backward. We cannot start with ourselves and hope for any kind of meaningful reconciliation. If we simply take a step back and consider this, the whole idea seems to self-destruct. If each group has its own definition or oppression, its own identification of the causes or enemies, and its own set of solutions, how does everyone come together? And what of those who belong to two groups of “oppressed people”, each of which has developed their own defintion of problem/cause/solution that must be embraced to find freedom/”salvation”? As a Black woman…whose “liberation” do I champion first? What takes precedence – my race or my gender?  

Never mind all that for a moment…here’s the real deal: This line of thinking does not take into account our sin nature (in fact, the idea of a “sin nature” or “original sin” is one of the first things that is booted in liberation theologies). Our emnity is first with God: “Against You and You only have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4) – this written by David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrated her husband’s murder. His sin involved and affected people…but he acknowledges that the first offended Party was God Himself. Our first issue is that we have set ourselves against the Lord, and have determined to be our own gods. Only when we see ourselves as sinners, enemies of God, lawbreakers and transgressors in need of mercy will be all be on the same level. Only when we see how deeply we have been forgiven will we be able to forgive each other and move toward the reconciliation that is possible through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what I was referring a few months back when I stated that we must have solid doctrinal understanding before we can begin to address the social issues of the day. If we have a faulty view of God, of man, and of salvation, we will not begin in the right place, and therefore will not end up with the right answers.

In my mind, if we take to heart what was expressed in the quote above as well as the one I posted the other day, we will begin to see the bigger, grander picture that we are a part of, and true reconciliation could be a real possibility.

My brain hurts right about now, so I’ll stop here.

More later.

Grace and peace…