Liberation Theology

via robot-heart-politics: azspot:

“It’s not hard to see what Beck has against “liberation theology.” It’s the same reason people are often against “social justice.” Both ideas ask us to consider the plight of the poor. And that’s disturbing. Some liberation theologians even consider the poor to be privileged carriers of God’s grace. In his book The True Church and the Poor, Jon Sobrino, a Jesuit theologian wrote, “The poor are accepted as constituting the primary recipients of the Good News and, therefore, as having an inherent capacity of understanding it better than anyone else.” That’s pretty threatening for any comfortable Christian. For not only do we have to help the poor, not only do we have to advocate on their behalf, we also have to see them as perhaps understanding God better than we do. But that’s not a new idea: It goes back to Jesus. The poor, the sick and the outcast “got” him better than the wealthy did. Perhaps because there was less standing between the poor and God. Less stuff. Maybe that’s why Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “If you wish to be perfect, sell all you have, and you will have treasure in heaven, and follow me.” Like I said, pretty disturbing, then and now. It’s hardly “the opposite of the Gospel,” as Beck said. The opposite of the Gospel would be to acquire wealth and fail to work on behalf of the poor.”—Glenn Beck vs. Christ the Liberator

I remember reading this type of Christian belief in something about Mother Theresa, she held the thought that helping the poor was the way to heaven, that through them you got closer to Jesus. This left her open to criticism because her methods seemed to focus on comforting the poor rather than trying to decrease actual poverty. In the article, Rev. James Martin also points out it’s problematic to box the poor as poor.

Anyway, it’s not as simple as love thy neighbor and the complexities vary based on who you talk to. If you talk to Glenn Beck however, a little dash of insanity makes it into the conversation. Besides the fact that it’s highly suspicious this new Beck tactic follows on the heels of increasingly loud anti-Muslim rhetoric, he assumes enough people are going to believe he’s got a line into Obama’s personal religious beliefs because Obama certainly isn’t talking about it or going all out to help close economic gaps. I can’t even imagine the mess he made on his chalkboard coming up with this one.

Pass This On {The Knife}

What would I do without the Swedish?

Daley Budget Suggestion: Cut Remedial Classes From Community Colleges

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley this week called for an end to the “open
door” admissions policy at Chicago City Colleges, citing concerns about
the cost of remedial courses and a desire to build a quality program.
Every year, the system spends about $30 million for remedial
classes—about 6 percent of its $457.5 million budget. Daley suggested
that a better approach might be to offer programs through alternative
high schools to get students up to speed before they enter college.
Is this a sign of things to come?

Let’s pretty much give away our parking meter revenue but change one of the best aspects of community colleges for 6% of the budget. No reason why we should help limit the steps that enable secondary education so that more people have access to higher paying careers that go back into powering our economy, let’s just send them back to the places that failed them.

Random thing about tonight’s True Blood, the outside shot of the museum Eric finds Russell in is the Overture Center in Madison, right across the street from upper ERC where we studied/read. They didn’t even change the street names. I haven’t been on this corner in a long time and I went in this place maybe twice but a 2 second shot of it made me feel warm and funny. Brain stuff.

Random thing about tonight’s True Blood, the outside shot of the museum Eric finds Russell in is the Overture Center in Madison, right across the street from upper ERC where we studied/read. They didn’t even change the street names. I haven’t been on this corner in a long time and I went in this place maybe twice but a 2 second shot of it made me feel warm and funny. Brain stuff.

“I’m surprised that people still fight the idea we’re descended from apes. Have you ever seen chimpazees? They’re a bunch of ASSHOLES.”
aimeemann HA By the way, she is performing at Old Town. It’s pricey but it’s a small venue.

'How I Got Over'

Mahalia Jackson In DC singing right after MLK delivered ‘I Have A Dream’. Nothing and no one can change what this moment in history meant to this country.

"Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama"

bollywoodsuperstar:

Jane Mayer’s excellent new article in The New Yorker, on the infamous Koch brothers and their funding of libertarian politics. Must-read.

What I don’t get about these people is how they can claim a pride in their country when they want to do away with the very things that help present a national unit; social programs and everything else that ensures massive amounts of people don’t fall through the cracks. Who’s gonna be left to build your industry for very little money? Scratch that, I know why they claim it, I just don’t understand how people buy it so easily.

Picnicing/playing here tomorrow.

Picnicing/playing here tomorrow.

Olbermann’s point about Mehlman and the Southern Strategy is important. The man accepted and talked about the racism the Republican party stoked for decades (still ongoing FYI, just substitute brown immigrants as the primary target) in the south to get votes while he was doing the same thing with homophobia. The Republican party is still chasing the homophobic vote. Mehlman indeed has a long way to go in his path to emotional maturity, his insistence that gays turn their gay survival need into Republican support via xenophobia is almost psychotic. Savage’s suggestion that he do ‘more than one fundraiser’ is pretty pathetic; the guy just needs to stay way the hell away from us, he is not an ally.

John Mayer to Huffington Post: 'Go F—k Yourself'

HuffPo must be black then, right?

You’re a stripper wearing reading glasses. Or maybe you’re an insolvent law student willing to dance for a few extra dollars. Either way, it’s uncomfortable to watch you try to wrap yourself around a pole when you have that C-Span scar.

So, his tendency to belittle women hasn’t changed. Apparently it only takes a few months for him to think we’ve forgotten what a douche he is.