Black Theology and Sexual Theology - Essay Example

Black Theology and Sexual Theology Introduction The United s history is one filled with challenges in racial differences in most of country’s undertakings. Discrimination reigned from politics to trade, religion, and even settlements. Slavery trade existed between the Whites and Blacks with blacks facing discrimination in all activities that existed in the country. The whites settled in the most fertile lands leaving blacks to infertile ones which could not support agricultural activities. Religions also differed between blacks and whites, which led to differences in beliefs. This essay discusses Black Theology of Liberation and Sexual Theology in America, and how different scholars approach them. 1. Black Theology Roots in Slave religion During the slave trade, African slaves sold to America did not leave their religion back, but instead came with it to the United States. However, their white masters mostly in North America denied them the freedom to practice it openly because they that Africans used their religion to rebel against the slave trade. However, Africans continued practicing their religion in music, their speech patterns, dance, and thought (Hopkins 17). At first, slaves did not access information about Christianity, but later white missionaries persuaded slave masters to believe that Christianity makes the slaves obedient to them. After the introduction of Christianity to blacks, their conversion to Christianity differed with that of their masters. They believed that their worship could not be the same as that of their owners given their differences in life. Blacks thought that though they might have used the same words to sing or preach, they could not mean the same to them and their owners because of their social and political realities. These differences brought blacks’ stance on their religion as they kept their faith alive by intimately communicating with their families and friends and in secret meetings (Hopkins 16). As white preachers talked of God’s ordination of slavery, blacks clung to their belief that God wills them to live in Freedom, a belief that made them sneak at night into the swamps or forests to sing, preach, and pray for their freedom (Hopkins 17). These secret meetings did not only give birth to rebellion against slavery, but also created room for new black gospel songs; the Negro Spirituals in search of freedom. Social movements that fed black theology growth However, while still practicing Christianity, blacks faced discrimination from the whites in the church, which led to the emergence of independent black churches and movements fight against discrimination and separation in the church (Hopkins 28). Blacks formed a separatist movement that rejected prejudice of the white religionists, which led to formation of churches that segregation and prejudice in the house of God as evil and insulting. These movements gave blacks strength to directly confront their white owners. Black leaders who preached liberation compared keeping slaves in slavery by their masters as wrong as those people who bought Africans as slaves from the African coast, and encouraged the same resistance to fight for liberty arguing that liberty is God-given. The high-spirited fight for liberty and religion in American history flowed and grew leading to formation of more movements in the 1950s and 1960s. Key civil rights movements came into existence to give a hand in issues of justice, hope, liberation, suffering and love that churches preached. They used the church property to congregate as they lured people to support them at conferences organized by the church. The social movements had one agenda as the black theology of fighting for liberty from their oppressors. Methodology Methodology in theology is the process that helps achieve goals of the theology. It determines the relation between God, Humans, and the world (Hopkins 41). Black theology used colonialism, as a method of determining how it contributed to the oppression of blacks. Blacks in the colonial America experienced challenges in economic exploitation, racism, unequal resource distribution, poverty, inequality, cultural imperialism, and ecological imperialism, among others, challenges that affected their daily lives. These factors contributed much to the oppression of blacks by the whites because there was no equality between the two groups. Blacks who sought self independence from white domination sought to achieve their political position, independence from colonial rule, and cultural dominance of the white that kept black in bondage. The need for black freedom led to black theology, which sought to give rise to revolutionary action of colonized groups to attain freedom. The fight for black power brought revolutionary violence that would lead to reconciliation. Black power contributes to the study of black theology in that through it scholars recognize how colonial Christianity and western imperialism affected both white and black Christianity. Use of post colonialism in studying black theology helps understand the efforts the theology puts in fighting for their rights. Black Theology spoke of poor black Americans as being the centre of God’s liberating mission in the world. The theology spoke of black power’s compatibility with Christianity, which granted many people access to innumerable rights that they could not access under state political and social separation. These rights included voting rights and racial integration in public institutions, among others. Martin Luther King Jr.’s theology of the cross according to James Cone In ancient days of the Roman Empire, crucifixion acted as a form of execution for rebels (Cone 1). However, crucifixion of Jesus on the cross was seen to bring hope to people though Jews in the time of Jesus believed that anybody who died through being hung on a tree was under God’s curse (Cone 2). Blacks who heard of the message of the cross believed that Jesus’ death on the cross was God’s love geared towards liberating them from the suffering of the world, and that it was a gift for all. Cone brings Martin’s thinking about the relationship of Christians’ bearing the cross and the work of social justice in a number of ways. According to Cone, acceptance of black religion gave King a conviction about God, and applied it in the fight for civil rights (Cone 71). King believed in justice for the poor, liberation from oppression and hoped that God still lives in the midst of His people. Martin King’s believe was that in order to acquire justice, those in need of it had to undergo suffering. As Cone points, King related the fight for democratic freedom to the biblical concept of justice and liberation as found in Exodus. King integrated the biblical idea of love in Jesus’ death, and as Cone says, the theology that King fashioned in America could challenge Americans to create a community in which all people are equal because God created blacks and whites to live together (Cone 70). However, the white supremacy separated people in America and other countries in the world, but God sent Jesus to reconcile them through death on the cross. According to Cone, King understood that white supremacy did not mean anything about human relationships (Cone 71). The power of the cross leads to reconciliation without violence as opposed to hate and white supremacy, which led to violence and alienation. Through the power of the cross, the blacks sought a religion, which became their weapon in their fight for freedom. As opposed to other leaders who thought that the struggle for freedom needed those in power, King’s believe was that Jesus’ cross gave power to those who had faith in Him to overcome anything seen impossible before them (Cone 72). As Cone points, the black theology inspired King with knowledge of the cross and lived and interpreted it with his life, thus knew its power. In the American context, the crucified people were the black who were enslaved, segregated and lynched. King saw and accepted this truth and was ready to sacrifice his life in the civil rights movement (Cone 73). Conclusion The study of black theology brings a clear indication of the power of the cross that King relates to blacks fight for freedom in America. Although death on the lynching tree acted as punishment to those rebelling against white rule, Jesus’ death on the cross acted as liberation from oppression, giving hope and love to those who have faith in Him (Hopkins 5). The relationship between Christian’s bearing the cross and social justice work contributes a lot to African American’s fight for freedom. As Cone points, black Christians felt the redemptive power of the cross, and pleaded Jesus to keep them near the cross in a song (Cone 73). Understanding theology and religion by the blacks helped them understand the power of the cross in redemption, and applied redemptive power in the fight for their freedom. 2. Sexual Theology Indecent theology is a method of theology and sexuality which results from Latin American Liberation Theology (Althaus-Reid, “On Wearing Skirts” 39). It aims at continuing with the method of doing theology. Indecent theology seeks to address ideological understandings of decency and indecency, and how the two have been used to address human issues in Latin America. According to man's decency implies trustworthiness and honesty, but for women it is behaviour according to age and the civil state. It also involves sexual understandings regarding dress codes, hairstyle, and mobility. In Latin America, people consider poor women as more indecent compared to wealthy ones, and if the women are black, the degree of indecency rises with them facing oppression. Therefore in Latin America, decency and indecency are gender, economics, sexual, and racial categories that exist in defining normality of people’s lives. However, what Latin America considers proper for women to be decent covers a number of oppressions on women. Indecent theology seeks to address these problems that people call proper for women in Latin America and the entire world. According to Althaus-Reid, indecent theology is a positive theology that seeks to uncover, unmask, and unclothe false hermeneutics, which considers itself decent and proper for women mostly in sexual matters (Althaus-Reid, “On wearing Skirts” 39) Heteronormative sexual ideology argues that there are roles for different genders or sex. Indecent theory critiques this ideology in the way it acknowledges people. Heteronormative ideology considers various roles to specific sex or gender where Christ of the poor is the Christ of the poor communities, which include marginalized women (Althaus-Reid, “Outing Theology” 58). To critique this ideology, indecent theology points out that the ideology depicts Christ of Basic Ecclesial Communities as workmen with naked chests and not women without underwear. When indecent theology tries to depict the Virgin Mary as a child prostitute in the Sao Paulo streets and Christ as a girl prostitute following the liberationists’ argument of Christ is neither male nor female, the liberationists consider it indecent. This is because indecent theology tries to unclothe the hidden sexual oppression that women face, and this gives a clear difference between indecent and liberationist theology (Althau-Reid, “On Wearing Skirts” 41). Indecent theology accepts and calls people to acknowledge who they are and come out of their sexuality situations like lesbianism, bisexuality, and heterosexuality, among others. Indecent theory accusation on the church Indecent theology accuses the Christian churches and Christian faith discourse as sources of secular and heterosexism through a number of ways. The church has made sexual subject insignificant in its teachings, consequently there exist no sexual theology among them (Althaus-Reid, et al 88). This contributes much to heterosexism. When gender studies confront theology on the ideological roles of males and females in the society, the church does not show concern on sexual subjects. This lack of church control on heterosexual behaviour and gender assignments have contributed to behaviours like gay and lesbianism, among others. Indecent theology also accuses the society as sources of secular or cultural heterosexism During the Cold war; the Argentinean society did not value the gospel. People considered the Latin American Bible as going against military systems, and they considered it and the theologians indecent (Althaus-Reid, “From Liberation Theology” 22). These people saw the Bible as indecent because it incited people to challenge the imposed decency of the normative values set in the society, which saw it normal to throw pregnant women out of airplanes into the river below. Hermeneutical Circle of Indecent Theology This circle begins with having experience in indecency. Experience is sharing the stories in the community that people see as indecent, understanding them and relating them to live in the community. Through understanding the community’s way of life, people will acknowledge who they are and come out the way they are. Through the hermeneutical circle of indecent theory, theologians understand how the community thinks about itself and its people. In Althaus-Reid’s indecent theology, hermeneutical circle critically helps her understand life stories in the community through identifying the outcome of reflecting into relations of women’s work and modes of production (Althaus-Reid, “On Wearing Skirts” 44). It also gives an insight on how traditional and historical exclusion of women from theological production. According to indecent theology, Althaus-Reid tells of the community’s sexual stories, and experiences of women, marginalized people and blacks. The system they live in makes what is an unusual turn usual by enforcing gender constructions considered normal by the legislature in order to hide or destroy various manifestation sexual behaviours in the community (Althaus-Reid, “On Wearing Skirts” 48). Queer Theory As opposed to the traditional understanding of queer, here it is used positively to stress on unconventionality, nonconformity, and disruption (Althaus-Reid, et al 89). It addresses the element which sustains all the discourses and public battles of the Church on sexuality. Its perspectives act as a theoretical background for indecent theology in that it seeks concern of the church of the poor or of the popular. According to this theory, it is easy to forget that theologians never considered the poor and popular culture as a worthy theological subject. Queer theory originated from women's movements in the USA who rebelled against racial, cultural and class implications of the definition imposed on their lesbian identities by the privileged in the USA. There existed a time when indigenous people felt less represented. Theology in those times ignored the historical religious experience of women, black people, indigenous communities, and gays and subjected them to religious social discrimination and oppression (Althaus-Reid, et al 92). These concerns on representation of the marginalized in queer theory back up Althaus-Reid’s concerns in indecent theology. Relevance of sexuality in religion Sexuality is a theme of major concern in the life of religion as it is a struggle in many religions trying to live with it. Different churches have discriminated the various sexualities existing within them. Women face discrimination when participating in community roles. Some religions believe that particular roles belong to certain groups and cannot be conducted by others. Churches also discriminate the various sexualities that exist in the community and forget that God created all people to be equal before His eyes. Instead of acting as a source of liberation to the oppressed and discriminated, many churches oppress and discriminate the poor, giving prevalence to the privileged (Althaus-Reid, “From Liberation Theology” 24). It is time religion acknowledged that everyone counts before the eyes of God, and accept them the way they are. Although people termed indecent theology as “indecent”, it seeks to ensure that the poor, marginalized, women, and blacks achieve justice even in the church. Thus, religions should consider sexuality as an issue of concern in order to fulfil God’s will for everyone. Conclusion Understanding sexual theology has proved difficult among theologians given the differences among them. Many churches do not consider sexuality in their teachings, and thus fail to understand the power of sexuality in human life. Different theologies like Althaus-Reid’s indecent and queer theologies aim at fighting heterosexism and other related theologies existing in some Christian churches. Theologians who aimed at liberating people from oppression risked their lives, but nowadays churches do not even consider the price these theologians paid (Althaus-Reid, “From Liberation Theology” 95). Thus, the role of uncovering sexuality issues in churches needs a strong contribution of the church faithful in order to end racial, sexual, gender and cultural discrimination in the society. Work Cited Althaus-Reid, Marcella et al., editors, Homosexualities: London: SCM Press, 2008. Althaus-Reid, Marcella “On Wearing Skirts Without Underwear: Indecent Theology' Challenging the Liberation Theology of the Pueblo,” Feminist Theology, 1999, 20:39-51 Althaus-Reid, Marcella. “From Liberation Theology to Indecent Theology: The Trouble with Normality in Theology,” in Latin American Liberation Theology: The Next Generation, edited by Ivan Petrella. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005, pp. 20-38. Althaus-Reid, Marcella. “Outing Theology; Thinking Christianity out of the Church Closet, Feminist Theology, 27, 2001. Pp.57-67 Cone, James H. The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 2011. Print. Hopkins, Dwight N. Introducing Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, N.Y: Orbis Books, 1999. Print. Read More