What is wrong with Liberation Theology?

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What is wrong with Liberation Theology? What is it in a very dumbed down way so that I can understand. 😃
 
It is pure marxism. It seeks social justice under any cost. In doing so it departs from the Gospel whose primary message is conversion of heart and following God. LT has made politics its primary goal with a veil of Christianity around it. I’m afraid I can’t give you any sources for reading but I am sure other posters will have something.
 
Liberation theology began in the late-1960s and was a theological movement, particularly in Latin America, that emphasized that the gospel was a means of liberating the poor and downtrodden from their earthly poverty and oppression, with little or no emphasis on spiritual liberation from sin. The main problem with this approach to the gospel is that while Jesus had concern for the poor and distributed alms to them (cf. John 13:29), he was much more concerned about the spiritual welfare of all mankind, whom he had come to save from sin, not from destitution

Michelle Arnold

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=15747

Pope Warns against “Deceitful” Marxist-Based Theology to Brazilian Bishops

lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2009/dec/09120805
 
In my opinion –
Liberation Theology is ultimately a form of egotism, i.e. “My People have suffered more than anyone else, and everybody else has such an easy life compared to Poor Us.” Obviously, suffering and happiness are found everywhere, in all sorts of circumstance, but Liberation Theology reduces the potential for happiness or justice to mere demographic characteristics. It’s a set of beliefs that also is obsessively dependent upon “identity politics,” i.e. nobody can understand Poor Us but Us. The most egregious example of all this would be Louis Farrahkan and the Nation of [sic.] Islam. Liberation Theology ultimately results in despair – if you’re continually thinking of yourself as Poor Me, it’s pretty hard to get anything challenging done, let alone have any fun. And, it splits communities into pieces, to the point where anyone who is supposed to be one of the Poor Me’s who somehow manages to succeed at something is ridiculed as a sell-out (or worse.) I’d check out the Anti-Defamation League’s site for more info on Farrahkan, et al., and Google the video “Indoctrinate U” for examples of how people who are African-American and against affirmative action, for instance, wind up targeted for all kinds of harassment.
 
Contra_Mundum said:
It is pure marxism. It seeks social justice under any cost. In doing so it departs from the Gospel whose primary message is conversion of heart and following God. LT has made politics its primary goal with a veil of Christianity around it. I’m afraid I can’t give you any sources for reading but I am sure other posters will have something.
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Modern Catholic Dictionary:

LIBERATION THEOLOGY. A movement in the Roman Catholic Church that makes criticism of oppression essential to the task of theology. The forms of oppression to be criticized are mainly social and economic evils. Originating in Latin America, liberation theology has held as its main concern the exploitation of the poor, but it also seeks to defend the rights of minority and ethnic groups and to support women’s liberation. It is, therefore, a theory of deliverance from the injustices caused to people by the power structures of modern society.

It is a new approach to theology, and its leaders urge a reinterpretation of the Christian faith to concentrate on the main task of the Church today, to deliver people everywhere from the inhumanity to which they are being subjected, especially by those in political power. Accordingly all the main doctrines of historic Christianity are to be reassessed and, if need be, revised. Christ becomes an inspired human deliverer of the weak and oppressed; God’s kingdom centers on this world, and not on the next; sin is essentially social evil and not an offense against God; the Church’s mission is mainly sociopolitical and not eschatological; and objective divine revelation is subordinated to personal experience.

Aware of both the potential and risks of liberation theology, Pope John Paul II addressed himself mainly to this subject on his visit to Mexico in early 1979. He told the bishops of Latin America, met at Puebla for their General Conference: “The Church feels the duty to proclaim the liberation of millions of human beings, the duty to help this liberation become firmly established.” At the same time, “. . . she also feels the corresponding duty to proclaim liberation in its integral and profound meaning, as Jesus proclaimed and realized it.” Then, drawing on Pope Paul VI’s teaching, he declared that it is “above all, liberation from sin and the evil one, in the joy of knowing God and being known by him.”

The Pope finally set down the norms “that help to distinguish when the liberation in question is Christian and when on the other hand it is based rather on ideologies that rob it of consistency with an evangelical point of view.” Basically these norms refer to the content “of what the evangelizers proclaim” and to “the concrete attitudes that they adopt.” On the level of content, “one must see what is their fidelity to the word of God, to the Church’s living Tradition and to her Magisterium.” On the level of attitudes, “one must consider what sense of communion they have with the bishops, in the first place, and with the other sectors of the People of God; what contribution they make to the real building up of the community; in what form they lovingly show care for the poor, the sick, the dispossessed, the neglected and the oppressed, and in what way they find in them the image of the poor and suffering Jesus, and strive to relieve their need and serve Christ in them” (address to the Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, January 28, 1979).
 
thistle said:
Modern Catholic Dictionary:

LIBERATION THEOLOGY. A movement in the Roman Catholic Church that makes criticism of oppression essential to the task of theology. The forms of oppression to be criticized are mainly social and economic evils. Originating in Latin America, liberation theology has held as its main concern the exploitation of the poor, but it also seeks to defend the rights of minority and ethnic groups and to support women’s liberation. It is, therefore, a theory of deliverance from the injustices caused to people by the power structures of modern society.

It is a new approach to theology, and its leaders urge a reinterpretation of the Christian faith to concentrate on the main task of the Church today, to deliver people everywhere from the inhumanity to which they are being subjected, especially by those in political power. Accordingly all the main doctrines of historic Christianity are to be reassessed and, if need be, revised. Christ becomes an inspired human deliverer of the weak and oppressed; God’s kingdom centers on this world, and not on the next; sin is essentially social evil and not an offense against God; the Church’s mission is mainly sociopolitical and not eschatological; and objective divine revelation is subordinated to personal experience.

Aware of both the potential and risks of liberation theology, Pope John Paul II addressed himself mainly to this subject on his visit to Mexico in early 1979. He told the bishops of Latin America, met at Puebla for their General Conference: “The Church feels the duty to proclaim the liberation of millions of human beings, the duty to help this liberation become firmly established.” At the same time, “. . . she also feels the corresponding duty to proclaim liberation in its integral and profound meaning, as Jesus proclaimed and realized it.” Then, drawing on Pope Paul VI’s teaching, he declared that it is “above all, liberation from sin and the evil one, in the joy of knowing God and being known by him.”

The Pope finally set down the norms “that help to distinguish when the liberation in question is Christian and when on the other hand it is based rather on ideologies that rob it of consistency with an evangelical point of view.” Basically these norms refer to the content “of what the evangelizers proclaim” and to “the concrete attitudes that they adopt.” On the level of content, “one must see what is their fidelity to the word of God, to the Church’s living Tradition and to her Magisterium.” On the level of attitudes, “one must consider what sense of communion they have with the bishops, in the first place, and with the other sectors of the People of God; what contribution they make to the real building up of the community; in what form they lovingly show care for the poor, the sick, the dispossessed, the neglected and the oppressed, and in what way they find in them the image of the poor and suffering Jesus, and strive to relieve their need and serve Christ in them” (address to the Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, January 28, 1979).
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thankyou for the explanation:thumbsup:
 
Turtle_Turtle said:
What is wrong with Liberation Theology? What is it in a very dumbed down way so that I can understand. 😃
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As the others have explained, what is wrong with Liberation Theology is that it overemphasizes an element of Jesus’ message - concerning social justice - to the exclusion of the others. 😉
 
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer this question. I started reading it and it sounded good, but now I know why it is wrong and why it is right to be condemend by the Vatican and by the Holy Pontiff.
 
It seems to teach that salvation (from societal ills) comes by way of the government.

It is worship of government, which is what Marxism is all about.
 
What’s wrong with liberation theology is that it advocates seizing a person’s property in the form of taxes and giving it to others. This is unchristian because all charity is to come from the willing alms giver, not from a dictatorship that seizes wealth to increase its power and then dribbles out a few coins to the poor make it look good.
 
Charlemagne_II said:
What’s wrong with liberation theology is that it advocates seizing a person’s property in the form of taxes and giving it to others. This is unchristian because all charity is to come from the willing alms giver, not from a dictatorship that seizes wealth to increase its power and then dribbles out a few coins to the poor make it look good.
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That’s exactly whats been happening in the US with the current administration.
 
Turtle_Turtle said:
What is wrong with Liberation Theology? What is it in a very dumbed down way so that I can understand. 😃
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The Catholic Church has never condemned liberation theology itself, though the right-wing folks who dominate this forum will try to persuade you otherwise.

The Magisterium has expressed serious concerns about certain aspects of liberation theology.

Basically, the core idea of liberation theology is that the Gospel is not just about salvation in the next life, but also about liberation from everything that enslaves and oppresses and degrades people in this life.

In itself, this is not only a legitimate opinion but surely a much-needed theological development. Christianity is at its core an apocalyptic religion, and it’s clear in light of modern scholarship that apocalyptic religion has consequences for this world–it is not about just escaping this world and going to heaven.

However, the potential for error in liberation theology is twofold:
  1. In some of its forms, it seems to deny the transcendent and otherworldly aspects of Christianity altogether, reducing the Gospel to a social-political program. That’s obviously an overreaction to the tendency of much traditional Christianity to over-spiritualize the Gospel.
  2. “Liberation” can be understood in strictly political and worldly terms, so that liberation theology supports a certain kind of power politics, usually involving Marxist revolutionary ideology.
However, contrary to what many folks on this forum will tell you, these errors are incidental to the core claims of liberation theology, not essential.

Liberation theology, like all theological trends, met a serious need but is not sufficient on its own–it needs to be interpreted and applied in the context of the Tradition as a whole.

Edwin
 
Charlemagne_II said:
What’s wrong with liberation theology is that it advocates seizing a person’s property in the form of taxes and giving it to others. This is unchristian because all charity is to come from the willing alms giver, not from a dictatorship that seizes wealth to increase its power and then dribbles out a few coins to the poor make it look good.
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That’s nonsense. The idea that rulers have the authority to levy taxes for the common good is a perfectly traditional one.

Edwin
 
BobCatholic said:
It seems to teach that salvation (from societal ills) comes by way of the government.

It is worship of government, which is what Marxism is all about.
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No, quite the reverse.

It corrects the tendency in much of traditional Christian society to worship the government by reducing the Gospel to a purely otherworldly message, leaving the government firmly in control of matters pertaining to this life.

Edwin
 
Turtle_Turtle said:
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer this question. I started reading it and it sounded good, but now I know why it is wrong and why it is right to be condemend by the Vatican and by the Holy Pontiff.
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How can you say that, when the Vatican documents do not condemn it, but merely warn against “certain aspects.”

All theological trends have potentially unorthodox elements.

It’s the Vatican’s job to warn against these.

The idea that these warnings constitute a condemnation of liberation theology itself is pure propaganda.

I urge you to think more critically about what you are being told on this forum, and to consult a diversity of Catholic opinion in trying to understand the magisterial documents that have been cited.
 
Turtle Turtle, in short:

(1) It is an invented theology which select only certain portions of Jesus’ message as the dominant drive of Christianity.
(2) It is based on political goals.
(3) It misinterprets Jesus’ message as a political one, which also relies on political means.
(4) Its method of “proof” or “proof-texting,” is eisegetical, not exegetical. I don’t know of a single scripture scholar who is respected across the board, who supports the key features of Liberation Theology.

That’s what’s “wrong” with it. 🙂
 
Contarini said:
No, quite the reverse.

It corrects the tendency in much of traditional Christian society to worship the government by reducing the Gospel to a purely otherworldly message, leaving the government firmly in control of matters pertaining to this life.

Edwin
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And yet it seems to result in communist style governments that establish an iron-handed and violent rule over its subjects. What Liberation Theology really does might not actually be printed in the brochure.
 
Non_sum_dignus said:
And yet it seems to result in communist style governments that establish an iron-handed and violent rule over its subjects. What Liberation Theology really does might not actually be printed in the brochure.
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Yes. Seems to me this is one of those situations where you have to look at the fruits of the belief system. I don’t know of any instance where Liberation Theology has been used to justify setting up a free-market democracy. And, there’s an implication that if one isn’t supportive of The Movement, one must be in favor of whatever oppressions are going on. In other words, if you’re not supportive of the Socialist/Marxist Revolution in question, you must be in favor of wide-spread poverty, disenfranchisement, etc. – a false dichotomy designed to silence debate and suppress alternative ideas (like, say, that free-market democracy.)
 
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