Black Lives Matters (BLM) is launching a revolution according to the blueprint of Marxism. “We are trained Marxists,” Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors said on June 20, 2020.[1]
According to Marxism, for most of history, there has been a struggle of classes, with oppressors and oppressed. This struggle is seen in the oppression of women, oppression of races, and, most importantly, oppression of the poor. The Marxist solution is a revolution that will replace capitalism with communism, with socialism serving sometimes as an intermediate state through redistribution of income and wealth. Incredible as it sounds, some Adventists are adopting a Marxist theology called liberation theology to liberate women, destitute people, and blacks from oppression. They market this false theology through social justice.
Liberation theology is a synthesis of Christian theology and socio-economic analyses, based on far-left politics, particularly Marxism, that emphasizes "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples."[2] The father of the Liberation Theology said that its “goal is not only better living conditions, a radical change of structures, a social revolution; it is much more: the continuous creation, never ending, of a new way to be a man, a permanent cultural revolution.”[3] They are seeking “a New Order,” implying liberation from a system centered in oppression. With this understanding of contextualization many are looking for a revolutionary extension of God’s kingdom using violence and Marxism.[4]
Adventists will not endorse violence but some pastors and professors are adopting liberation theology! They may not be aware that this theology is “an attempt to reconcile the traditional conflict between theology and Marxist notions.”[5] Some are looking for a revolutionary extension of God’s Kingdom by the use of “the socioanalytical tools . . . and the revolutionary ethos and programme [of Marxism].”[6]
“Whether everything Marx said is accepted or not, and in whatever way one may conceive his ‘essential’ thinking, there can be no doubt that present-day social thought will be ‘Marxist’ to some extent, that is, profoundly indebted to Marx.”[7] That BLM be a tool to use unaware people to create a Communist revolution is not a surprise, but that certain SDA pastors and professors embrace social justice causes, liberation theology or support secular movements that seek a revolution is profoundly alarming.
Unaware Seventh-day Adventists are supporting BLM without discerning their agenda and Adventist organizations while others are urging to adopt a curriculum loaded with liberation theology. On July 3, 2020, the Adventist Society of Religious Studies (ASRS) adopted a statement that reads:
“As a society of scholars who study the Bible and explore religion in its sacred and social dimensions, we especially condemn the invasive behaviors of law enforcement on Black people as an assault on the dignity of human beings created in the image of God. We call on our colleagues in the Adventist Society for Religious Studies to commit to the study and understanding of race as shaped our religious and social worldviews. We ask to integrate race studies and Black religious studies into the classroom as a way to educate and fight against racism and white supremacy. Black Lives Matter. When we proclaim, ‘Black Lives Matter,’ we say that the entirety of Black people’s lives hold sacred value—the physical body, the feelings, the experiences, the history, the music, the art, the scholarship, and the institutions.”
Without using the term “liberation theology,” some institutions or, at least, some professors have already adopted this humanistic theology. ASRS says that the purpose is “to educate and fight against racism and white supremacy.”
Do we need to fight against injustice? Yes! However, there are ways that Christians should not be involved. Instead of delegating the fight or endorsing a Marxist organization that promotes the struggle of classes, Christians should involve themselves in outreach to the black community in ministries of education and salvation that will offer them liberation from drug addiction, of violence, and promiscuity. Giving them money so they will not need to work will not make them good but will make them worse.
Instead of promoting the struggle of classes and speak “against racism and white supremacy,” Adventists institutions should be champions of equality among all races, not to promote hatred and further division. Instead of endorsing an organization that uses terrorism through killing, destruction, and looting to make a point, which is illegal and immoral, Seventh-day Adventists need to discern the appropriate ways to participate in a change. Adopting liberation theology and endorsing BLM is regrettable mistake.
What is the way Adventist should adopt? Ellen White wrote:
“The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses,—extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.”[8]
The last two lines of the citation above provide the key. It is much easier to delegate the responsibility of educating Blacks and Hispanics to the government than getting personally involved. Even Adventists find it easier to delegate that responsibility to a church department, or to a major evangelist preaching in a fancy auditorium. We may preach about social justice from the pulpit, but this will not make an impact among drug addicts, promiscuous girls, violent gangs, and families living in abject poverty. It is much easier to participate in a protest than giving personal Bible studies in depressed neighborhoods. It is worrisome that a new generation of pastors think that in order to appear relevant they must participate in protests.
“Christ’s method”[9] is the only way to contribute positively to a change—meet people where they are! Go to their neglected neighborhoods and mingle with them! Win their confidence! Help them! Most importantly, share the gospel with them! The Holy Spirit Will do what we cannot accomplish, nor the police, nor the social gospel, nor the methods of liberation theology--regenerate the heart. A regenerate drug addict will share Jesus with his friends. That girl will have children with a loving Christian father. That son of an illiterate mother will become a Christian physician. That poor boy apparently without a future will become an evangelist. Liberation Theology, protests, a social gospel are counterfeit solutions to the root of the problem, namely sin.
The tragedy of liberation theology is that many good people, with right intentions, are deceived into believing that Christians could fruitfully collaborate with Marxists in building a more humane society. We are told that “the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.” More than ever, what the world needs is people who will adopt a theology with a high view of the Scriptures. Adventists need to pay attention to the instructions of the Spirit of Prophecy. We should not be distracted but focus on our mission to “preach the gospel to every creature,” to all nations, because all lives matter.
[Editor: Part of his article was posted on Facebook a couple days ago. It was so widely read, that the left-leaning department (and chair) of the SAU History & Political Studies Department issued a defense of BLM and denied any connection to Marxism (Matthew 15:14).]
[1]See the last minute of video available at https://twitter.com/i/status/1274336621702373377.
[2]Chris Cook, ed., Dictionary of Historical Terms (Bexley, OH: Gramercy Books, 1998), 203.
[3]Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, trans. and ed. by Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973), 880.
[4]For example, IDO-C, When All Else Fails: Christian Arguments on Violent Revolution (Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1970); Jose Miguez-Bonino, Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975).
[5]Alfredo Mirande, The Chicano Experience (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985), 138.
[6]Jose Miguez-Bonino, Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 35; also see Jose Miguez-Bonino, Christians and Marxists: The Mutual Challenge to Revolution (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976); and J. Andrew Kirk, Theology Encounters Revolution (London, Inter-Varsity Press, 1980).
[7]Juan Luis Segundo, The Liberation of Theology, trans. John Drury (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1976), 35, note 10.
[8] Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, 507.
[9] Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, 143.
