In his recent remarks to the National Press Club in Washington, Rev. Jeremiah Wright defended his controversial sermons that have become a topic of discussion over the past few weeks.

Wright said, “Black preaching is different from European and European-American preaching. It is not deficient; it is just different. It is not bombastic, it is not controversial, and it’s different.”

REV. HAROLD LEWIS

Wright called the slams against him for his so-called “rants” not an attack on him, but an “attack on the Black Church.” Wright also referenced the term “liberation theology.” He said liberation theology began from the vantage point of the oppressed. Wright said the prophetic theology of the Black Church during the days of segregation, lynching and Jim Crow was a theology of liberation.

“It was preached to set the African-American free from the notion of second-class citizenship.” He said it is preached in our day to set African-American’s and all other Americans free from the misconceived notion that different means deficient.

The New Pittsburgh Courier asked area church leaders what might be the local take on the phrase “Truth to power and liberation theology” and its role in their respective churches?

REV. JOHN WELCH

Reverend John Welch, former pastor of Bidwell Presbyterian Church on the North Side, Vice President for Student Services and Dean of Students at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and president of the African-American Leadership Commission of the Gamaliel Foundation, and president of the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN), weighed in on the matter.

Welch said that the first thing you have to ask is who is the object of the one speaking?  And where is the power?

“The presumption is that the power is in the hand of those who make decisions that affect the lives of others,” said Welch. He said that from a biblical perspective, the truth is that which uncovers error, uncovers deceit, uncovers malice and uncovers conspiracy.

So the sum total of the statement speaking “truth to power” simply mean you are willing to uncover error, deceit, malice, and conspiracy to those who are the architects of those things be it intentional or not.

Welch said by looking at the boldness of the Old Testament prophets, the church’s role in matters like this is evident.

“Amos uncovered the conspiracy of the religious leaders when he said, ‘the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals’ or Micah when he says, ‘Woe to those who devise iniquity, and work out evil on their beds. At morning light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and take them by violence, also houses, and seize them.’

“God has always been a God of justice and has commissioned his people to live and promote justice.”  

He said it is his opinion that to separate faith from politics and to acquiesce to political will is one of the gravest sins of the church. He said Martin Luther King’s letter from the Birmingham jail was written as an indictment against the apathetic religious leaders of the time, and can be applied in this situation.

“Today, speaking truth to power is about confronting the elected officials, confronting corporate leaders and even apathetic church leaders with the moral imperative of caring for those who are unable to care for themselves, to welcome those who are not like us, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”

Reverend. Harold Lewis rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Shadyside, and adjunct professor in church and society at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, says, “That which distinguishes liberation theology from “traditional theology” is that the latter, historically, has been written by the “haves,” those in privileged positions, which in the Western church have been white males; whereas liberation theology has been written by the “have-nots,” the poor, destitute and marginalized in society.”

Lewis adds that liberation theologians, especially Central and African-Americans in the U.S., have rightly claimed that their “brand” of theology is in many ways closer to what they have called the “option for the poor” as expressed in the Gospels. Jesus, in his teaching and preaching, was a champion for the oppressed and not a chaplain to the status quo.

“Calvary Episcopal Church, although a majority white congregation, and one which has historically counted among its parishioners members of the Pittsburgh elite, has nevertheless consistently preached a liberation theology,” Lewis explains.

Calvary has had its share of firsts when it comes to reaching out to the underserved and dealing with controversial issues. In the 1980s, when AIDS was widely regarded as a scourge against the homosexual community, Calvary was the first church of any denomination in the area to establish a ministry to those living with AIDS.

At a time when the church at large was still somewhat skeptical of women’s ordination, Calvary was the first parish in the Episcopal Church to have a woman priest on its staff.  In 1996 Lewis became the first African-American rector of the congregation since it’s founding in 1855.

“More recently, we have consistently preached ‘truth to power’ in our efforts to strike a blow for those in our diocese and church who have been theologically and ideologically marginalized.”

Lewis says these historical developments are significant because it speaks to how liberation theology is not only a brand of theology embraced by “the Black church,” but by Christians of all races who understand the Gospel to be a force for empowerment of all of God’s people.

Lewis said it’s important to remember Jeremiah Wright is the pastor of a congregation not in an historically Black denomination, but is instead a member of the mostly white United Church of Christ, which has historically been a church standing foursquare for issues of social justice.