Faith in Action
Liberation Theology
Week 10: Faith in Action
Question Everything, Love God, Love Neighbor
In the book, God of the Oppressed, theologian James Cone states “a community that does not analyze its existence theologically is a community that does not care about what it says or does. It is a community with no identity.”
The Neighborhood is a faith community that seeks to “question everything, love God, and love neighbor,” we cannot do this by sitting idly by, inactive in the face of injustice and suffering. Missouri UMC was established to serve Mizzou and its students. Yet, the relationship between the church and university was damaged severely when the church failed to take a stance during the outrage of Vietnam and the Civil rights movement. To avoid repeating the mistakes of our church’s history, this community commits to: learn from the history of our church, identify systems of oppression, and our relationship with those systems, and partner with God to cease acts of oppression within our community.
Because God is within ourselves and our neighbor, we have continuous opportunities to encounter holiness. It is not enough to simply know God. Within the Methodist tradition, we believe in practicing faith by using our head, heart, and hands. Life is all about balance. If we spend too much time focussing on our knowledge or heart towards God we can forget about the ways we are called to participate in the world. Our actions matter deeply. God calls us to participate in liberating the world from pain, and oppression. In an effort to end the cycles of oppression, we must see the humanity and inherent value in our neighbor. Our relationship with the divine moves us to love our neighbor, not out of obligation, but genuine care.
Our job is to partner with the justice work God is already doing within communities of oppression. Instead of trying to come to the oppressed to change them, we should ask ourselves how God is speaking to and through their community. In the words of James Cone, “To know God is to know what God is doing in human history for the oppressed of the land.” We need to see the humanity in those around us who are suffering, and work relentlessly to meet the needs of our neighbors.
Throughout this semester, we’ve learned the history of Missouri UMC within various justice issues. Our goal is to not repeat history, and to better this community by learning, growing, and acting against oppression.
Boff’s steps toward liberation:
See: see and feel the harsh suffering and injustice in the world.
Learn: learn the facts, analyze the problem, and study the implications of our faith.
Act: act towards ending injustice, and become an ally for the oppressed.
Celebrate: acknowledge and celebrate the advancements in liberation and recognize that this is a part of bringing about redemption on earth.
Crew Discussion Questions:
Think about Boff’s steps toward liberation as you answer the following questions on an individual and communal scale.
See: see and feel the harsh suffering and injustice in the world.
Learn: learn the facts, analyze the problem, and study the implications of our faith.
Act: act towards ending injustice, and become an ally for the oppressed.
Celebrate: acknowledge and celebrate the advancements in liberation and recognize that this is a part of bringing about redemption on earth.
Individual:
What issues have you been learning about?
What justice issues are you passionate about?
Where can you begin to take action as an individual?
Group:
What issues do you want to learn about moving forward?
Where can we begin to take action as a group?
What can we celebrate as a community?