Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
- James 1:27
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
- John 8:34-36
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
- Romans 6:15-18
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
- Matthew 16:26
“In 1984 Ratzinger issued the Congregation’s response to Liberation Theology: Instruction on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation. This document reaffirms the ‘preferential option for the poor’ and urges Christians to ‘become involved in the struggle for justice, freedom and human dignity’. It is not against liberation as such but warns about ‘certain forms of liberation theology which use, in an insufficiently critical manner, concepts borrowed from various currents of Marxist thought’. It is wrong so to emphasize earthly and this-worldly liberation that liberation from sin becomes secondary. In particular, the uncritical use of Marxist concepts is dangerous. If the class struggle is seen as the basic fact of history, all Christian doctrines are interpreted in the light of it and seriously distorted. Starting with revolutionary ‘praxis‘ or action rather than belief means that all contrary ideas are discredited in advance as reflecting the class interests of the oppressors. Furthermore, such an approach encourages the setting up of totalitarian regimes.
“ ‘A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people ... The class struggle as a road toward a classless society is a myth which slows reform and aggravates poverty and injustice. (Instruction 11.10-11)”
- Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought
Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022) was a German theologian, from Bavaria, who became pope. When he resigned, he preferred the title of “Pope Emeritus.” Among his many contributions, he built upon the concept of Liberation Theology.
The first paragraph from the quote is the author’s point regarding the difficulty in certain regions of the world. When you use the poor for your own ends under the guise of a class struggle, the people fighting for their liberty become the pawns and a totalitarian government subjects them even more fiercely than they had been before. The lure of socialistic government today throughout the world will lead to the same type of issue. History has proven this to be true.
The poor are ill-equipped to rule themselves. Their role models are dictators and any challenge to their control must be dealt with or they will lose power. Sure, the lure is that everyone will be treated the same, but the same will be with an iron fist and everyone will be subject to the ruler and barely making ends meet.
The only way out of such tyranny is through illegal means, such as the copying of movies for cheap sale and knockoff designer goods. China hid that type of activity when they hosted a world Expo in Shanghai and then two years later hosted the Olympics in Beijing. It was still available, but you had to ask the right questions, and you had to be willing to go down a few dimly lit alleys. I did not participate when the police were cracking down, but I will have to admit that I bought a few DvDs.
And in professor Lane’s comments, the melding of Christianity with a Marxist class struggle will soon turn Christianity into a factor of the oppression rather than a means of relief from the oppression. We see that today in the lies that paint Christianity as a religion of hate. True Christianity does not oppress and is a religion founded on God’s Laws to love God and love all those around us. Marxism is by its very nature an atheistic government as a result. And as the world turns away from Christianity due to the false narrative of being oppressive, we are left with totalitarian governments as the norm. The democracies that exist in the world are tenuous cooperations between political parties that do not trust each other, most at crossed purposes with each other.
And where Christianity has a focus of liberation from the slavery of sin, a Liberation Theology loses that concept in the struggle to free the people from governmental oppression. Joseph Ratzinger did not completely go against Liberation Theology, for the mission focus of the church should be on the poor, but Joseph Ratzinger was stating that the class struggle beyond the church’s purview was a dangerous step to take. If we lose the focus of Christianity in spreading the Gospel, salvation is lost. We run the risk of forfeiting many souls for a class struggle that benefits so few.
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.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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