This week our study of Liberation Theology for Armchair Theologians comes to an end.  It's a little sad, I know, but there's so much content in these final chapters, we will have plenty to think about in the days and weeks ahead.  Some highlights from this podcast episode include: a brief discussion of the Israel-Palestine situation, Doctrine of Discovery, a critical examination of the notion of promised land, and an eclipse joke... I couldn't help myself. 

The most important piece of the episode is that we ask you to share with us how this book is changing you.  What has it meant for you?  How has it disturbed or disrupted you?  We want to know.  

Until next time... 

This week we get into the liberation movements in North America.  In just one short chapter, Miguel introduces us to liberation movements related to feminist, African American, Hispanic, and Asian American spiritualities and theologies.  It's a quick overview with a lot of content, and critique!  So if you're new to liberation thought, take your time with this chapter.   We had a ton of fun recording this episode so we hope y'all enjoy it!

Spoiler alert: The best part is when Ben explains "mansplaining." 

Public Service Announcement:  Ben has some well-deserved vacation coming up, Chrissy is prepping to preach later this month... we're going to take a brief hiatus from the weekly episodes but we look forward to returning in a week or so.  We'll wrap up our conversation about Liberation Theology for Armchair Theologians when things return to normal (whatever that means).  In the meantime, carry on the conversation in the comments section.  I (Chrissy) will try to keep up and chime in every now and then.  But don't wait for one of us to reply, engage one another in some healthy theological debate!!!  

Many of us are learning the stories of Gutierrez, the Boff brothers, Segundo, Sobrino, Ellacuria, and others for the first time.  This week, while we were reading their stories, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rev. Dr. Peter Wherry of Mayfield Memorial Missionary Baptist Church to listen to his first encounters with Jon Sobrino, sitting in the very room where Ellacuria and four others were murdered (story we read about in Ch. 4).  The words Peter uses to describe how he felt, "their blood cried out from the ground."  These words echo the Genesis text in which God says that Abel's blood cries out from the ground, after he'd been murdered by his brother, Cain.  

These words haunted the Deep South Pilgrims as we traveled through rural Alabama on the Deep South Pilgrimage, knowing that the very trees we saw could have been the execution site for African Americans who were lynched in the Jim Crow era.  Dr. Wherry's application of this Genesis text to both the lynching era and the beginnings of Latin American liberation thought is a powerful connection that makes me wonder, when will we ever learn?  When will we bring an end to the senseless violence, oppression, and death that results from greed and insecurity?

During our conversation, Peter also engages Miguel's theology of sin and pushes back a little to the notion that liberation theology always has an orthopraxy to orthodoxy structure.  AND... continuing the conversation about where liberation theology actually begins, Peter goes WAY back and finds the origins in North Carolina!  

Tune in to learn more!

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