Obama's Former Pastor's Theology

Senator Barack Omama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright

In the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web Today, 3-18-08 James Tarranto describes how Rev. Jeremiah Wright describes his own theology as "Black Liberation Theology," and talks about its source in the writings of James Cone:

"...from what Wright himself, in the "talking points" page of his congregation's Web site, describes as "systematized black liberation theology." As we noted yesterday, Wright credits James Cone of New York's Union Theological Seminary with having undertaken this systematization. Here again is Cone's description of black liberation theology:

"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community. . . . Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."