This week at school, I offered a presentation (in Spanish, of course!) on Liberation Theology, which has been an important movement in Latin America over the last 40 years or so. Here is a PDF version of the original presentation in Spanish. Below is a rough English translation that offers a brief overview of the movement.
1. A Short History: Colonialism and a Theology of Liberation
For the better part of its history, across the world, the Church has participated in forms of oppression. This is lamentable, but it is a simple fact of history. The history of Latin America in general and Mexico in particular represents a special case, because the Catholic Church and the official powers of Spain and Portugal were interconnected. This connection, between church and state, supported a particularly harsh oppression of the indigenous peoples of “New Spain.” This oppression was supported by official church theology. The religious hierarchy in Spain told the colonists that the indigenous people were first of all people, people who needed to be baptized into the Catholic faith. But after being baptized, if they died from harsh treatment, it really wasn’t that important. While the church declared that the souls of the indigenous people were important, their bodies were not. The church taught that the people needed only a place in heaven; life here on earth was not that important. If people were suffering here, all the better for the afterlife in heaven with God. With this kind of teaching, the church concentrated solely on the death of Jesus – his life and social teaching were virtually ignored. As a result of these things, the church supported the status quo in Latin America for centuries. Many times, the church has been very powerful and wealthy. In reality, it has often been an enemy of the people, the poor.
During the 1960’s, however, things began to change. A few priests, leaders in the church, and writers began to use Marxist analysis in their thoughts, sermons and theological writings. With a renewed understanding of the importance of social location (i.e. socioeconomic status, etc.), they studied the Bible, the teaching of the church, and history itself with new eyes. They perceived that the God of Scripture is not the God of the rich, but of the poor. This was the birth of liberation theology. According to Phillip Berryman, some Catholic bishops “denounced ‘institutional violence’ and named it as a ‘situation of sin…’ They called for ‘rapid, vigorous and profound changes’” in their societies. Many times, those who do not like the liberationist movement say that it is only a form of Marxism, but this is not accurate. It is a movement that has used many resources in order to demonstrate the close relationship between liberation – social, political and economic – and the kingdom of God. The question of location is extremely important because this movement has challenged the idea that all important theology has been articulated from seats of power, such as Europe and the United States. Liberation theology believes that the poor also have the power to “do” theology. The Bible has much to offer on this point.
2. The Bible and the Theme of Liberation
One essential concept for liberation theology is that “God has a preferential option for the poor.” Usually for us, this does not seem just; we believe that God is impartial. However, many times, an “impartial” God merely supports an unjust status quo. Here are three scriptural examples (drawn from a vast wealth of texts) that demonstrate God’s commitment to the poor:
“Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!” (Is. 10:1-2)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).
“Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor” (James 2:5-6).
These examples demonstrate God’s option in favor of the poor, against the rich and powerful. Liberation theology simply asks that the church listen to these texts! The true people of God are the poor, the marginalized, the weak, the sick.
We find another example of the way in which liberation theology reads Scripture in the story of the Exodus. Liberation theology understands this story to one of injustice, of power, of land and slavery, of the struggle for economic justice, of freedom and liberation from oppression. This point here is that God wants to liberate God’s people from slavery and poverty:
Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:7-8).
If the church wants to work with God, it must work with and for the poor, against poverty, with all its power. Because God is God of the poor, the church must also be the church of the poor. This is the essence of liberation. According to Gustavo Gutierrez, a father of the movement, “A profound relationship exists between the kingdom of God and the elimination of poverty and oppression. The kingdom has come in order to suppress injustice.” When the church does not incarnate the reign of God, it is not really the church – it is at least not the true church. In general, then, liberation theologians read both the Bible and their real-life situations with the eyes of the poor, embracing God’s preferential option for the poor.
3. The Labor of Liberation Theology
During the last 40 years, liberation theology has improved the lives of thousands of people across Latin America. In the form of local churches, liberation theology has offered the poor a place to organize and fight for their rights against the rich and powerful. While the adversaries of this movement claim that it is merely a religious form of Marxism, the reality is much more complicated. It is true that many liberationist priests have political tendencies to the left, but hardly any have become guerrillas. Rather, these priests have chosen to fight with their words and their deeds (but not with weapons). I believe that it is better to think of this movement as a reform movement within the Catholic church. Officially, there are many reasons why the hierarchy has not supported liberation theology. Pope Benedict XVI, for example, has been a strong adversary of the movement for many years. Obviously, the church has much to lose in terms of power, wealth and status if it really were to become the church of the poor. And many priests and bishops would suffer. But these are the costs, liberationists hold, of fidelity to Scripture and, ultimately, to God.
I do not really know the current state of liberation theology here in Mexico at the moment. Often, it is strongest in areas that are the most poor; there are many more adherents in regions such as Chiapas and Oaxaca than in Zacatecas. Hopefully, I will be interviewing a priest here in Zacatecas to learn his thoughts and reflections on liberation theology.
I would like to conclude with a very brief outline of a liberationist priest here in Mexico, Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia, from Chiapas. He became bishop in 1960, and after arriving in Chiapas he began to observe the structural injustices that wreaked havoc on many thousands of lives. Ruiz studied and learned the indigenous languages (a step few priests take), and he invited the largely indigenous population to come and tell him what they wanted their church to be. Over a thousand people took him up on his invitation, and at a conference they told him that they wanted indigenous priests, recognition of their right to their land, education and health care. Obviously, the rich and powerful landowners in Chiapas grew to hate Ruiz, because he supported the rights of the indigenous. In 1994, when the Zapatista movement took shape, the Zapatistas would only accept Ruiz as a mediator with the government. With 40 years of fighting for the rights of the indigenous people in Chiapas, Ruiz is a living example of the power of liberation theology to change people’s daily lives, on the ground.
