Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

• John 12:4-8

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

• Titus 3:1-2

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

• Romans 8:20-21

Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.

• Leviticus 25:10

“ ‘The pastoral activity of the church does not flow as a conclusion from theological premises. Theology does not produce pastoral activity – rather it reflects upon it … This is a theology which does not stop with reflecting on the world, but rather tries to be part of the process through which the world is transformed.’ (Theology of Liberation, Chapter I).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928-present) is a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian and Dominican priest.  He is said to be the founder of Latin American Liberation Theology.

To understand his theology, you must look at the situation in South America.  In the last century, people who thought they were doing the continent a favor brought in development to welcome the continent to the Twentieth Century.  Gutiérrez argued that they needed liberation instead of development.  The poor (presently around 30% of the population compared to 11.5% in the USA) are oppressed by the government, the rich in the country, and by aggressive capitalism by other nations taking advantage of people willing to work for extremely poor wages.

Think of all the corporations in the USA that outsource much of their workforce to other countries.  This contributes to the poor in underdeveloped countries remaining poor.

What is an example of the oppression is that prior to the pandemic, the poor of South America was about 33%, post pandemic a fraction below 30%.  The obvious conclusion is that this contagious disease affected the poor adversely.  There was limited means of isolation, and the poor could not afford good health care.

It is a noble concept to link liberation with salvation, although salvation is obtained without works.  But as I heard in an advertisement for a Bible society years ago, people could care less where they spend eternity if they have no means of having a meal before they go to bed, or something like that.  These days, political correctness calls it food insecurity.  While I agree with not calling people by ethnic slur names, I am irritated by the PC police that wish to silence Christians just because they are Christians.  But food insecurity is used because if you said people are starving or malnourished, people might want to do something about it.  Food insecurity almost sounds nice.

But I digress.

Jesus said that we will always have the poor, but he was talking to Judas Iscariot who was helping himself to the donations to Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus was making a true statement, but we do not have to sit idly by and watch people starve.

The word “poor” is mentioned 176 times in the NIV.  Add another 21 times that poverty is mentioned.  Then you have the times God admonishes us to never forget the widows and fatherless (orphans in the NT).  God never wished for us to leave someone behind.

But when foreign countries go into an underdeveloped part of the world and flash the cash at the government officials, they end up getting cheap labor who have jobs, but still at the poverty level, and oddly, the shirt or screwdriver costs the same as the American made version when it reaches the customer.  As Professor Lane stated, in his description of Liberation Theology, “aggressive capitalism.”

But Titus 3 and Romans 13 both talk about being subject to local authorities.  Without an honest government of the people, does that mean revolution?  The Founding Fathers in the USA prayed about this a lot before they determined that they must have a revolution.  But when the Latin American governments favor the government and the rich, the poor have no means in which to revolt.

The only place liberated appears in the NIV is in Romans 8:20-21, but this is talking about how God’s creation is decaying, broken due to the sin of man, but one day it will be liberated from that decay.

And only one time is liberty mentioned.  It is God’s plan, in Levitical Law to not make slavery ever be permanent.  In the Jubilee year liberty must be granted to all in the nation.  But how do you “free” people who are free in name only, but enslaved to subsistence income or enslaved to a poverty level income?

Basing a theology on this is dangerous grounds in my opinion, but it goes back to the comment above that when someone is hungry, they do not care much about salvation after they die.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.