The Shepard’s Crook of Christianity

Ebola is to humans what Black Liberation Theology is to the church.

Ebola was popularized in the movie “Outbreak” and the book, “Hot Zone.” The virus is what they call a Level 4 pathogen that causes severe hemorrhaging and rapid death through the massive destruction of the liver. But, unfortunately, for those in favor of reducing the number of people on the planet, it also kills animals. The strains of the virus have eerie sounding names – Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Reston, Ebola Tai and Marburg.

Amazingly, the Ebola virus under an electron microscope looks a little like a sheep herder’s staff, hence the name, “Shepard’s Crook.” If it happens to show up in your blood, or in that of your pet monkey, there is a nine out of 10 chance of death.

Black Liberation Theology (BLT) is the Shepard’s Crook of Christianity and one of its prophets is Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Without one of his flock running for President of the United States, Wright’s message would probably not have hit front page news. But since Obama, unifying-man-for-all-seasons and candidate-for-Hope-and-Change, is running for the top job it only makes sense that all of his background examined. Ooops. Bad timing for him, Wright, and BLT.

Obama is now in triage, a political casualty of Wright’s BLT-inspired raving rants.

Glenn Beck interviewed former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell on March 20, 2008. Blackwell, a black man, said, “The proponents of liberation theology like Reverend Wright say that God commands us to form government that will supervise our economy to create government subsidized jobs under central government planning, guaranteed healthcare and education by having government control both.”

In other words, liberation theology is socialism wrapped in Christianity. BLT’s contribution to the gift is a racial ribbon and bow.

BLT consists of 12 primary points and a few sub-points. They are available for review on the Trinity United Church of Christ (Chicago) website. According to TUCC, “These Black Ethics must be taught and exemplified in homes, churches, nurseries and schools, wherever Blacks are gathered.”

Most have explanations following them and, unfortunately, the explanation sometimes makes the palatable much less, and the less than palatable much worse. An example is the first one, “Commitment to God.” Normally, I would applaud anyone urging this affirmation. But, when the explanation includes racially charged words like, “Black Christian Activists,” and “soldiers for Black freedom,” I am less inclined.

1. Commitment to God.
2. Commitment to the Black Community.
3. Commitment to the Black Family.
4. Dedication to the Pursuit of Education.
5. Dedication to the Pursuit of Excellence.
6. Adherence to the Black Work Ethic.
7. Commitment to Self-Discipline and Self-Respect.
8. Disavowal of the Pursuit of “Middleclassness.”
9. Pledge to Make the Fruits of All Developing and Acquired Skills Available to the Black Community.
10. Pledge to Allocate Regularly, a Portion of Personal Resources for Strengthening and Supporting Black Institutions.
11. Pledge Allegiance to All Black Leadership Who Espouse and Embrace the Black Value System.
12. Personal Commitment to Embracement of the Black Value System.

A Find and Replace of “Black” for “White” illustrates how abhorrent the principals actually are – Imagine if your local AG, Presbyterian or Baptist church had a value system kicking off with Commitment to God and the White Community. Meanwhile, a Find and Delete of “Black,” with some minor grammatical edits, illustrates how noble they could be. (The exception that you can’t put a positive spin on is the disavowal of “Middleclassness,” which is a tone ringing similar to, “Revolution of the Proletariat.”)

With this as a value system, it is no wonder Wright has said the things he has, while what is to be wondered is how much Obama actually believes.

There is some good news though. Blackwell, in the same interview with Glenn Beck, also observed that Obama’s home church does not express the “dominant view” of the African-American Christian community.

For Obama it isn’t so much that he attended Wright’s church, but that he remained there for so long. He was recruited there, indoctrinated there, got married there, saw his children baptized there, has stayed there for 20 years, and apparently is planning on staying for that much longer. The disconcerting explanations for his sojourn might be that either Obama had BLT before he arrived, or that Wright’s message was the means for infection. In either case not many incubators could culture BLT better than TUCC.

There is another possibility. Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., may be the one in 10 that is immune. If he ends up as President let’s hope so.