So. Baptist Convergence - Liberation Theology in the Bible Belt?

Few evangelicals deny that the Bible has social implications, but “the apostles launched no social reform movement,” writes R. Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the S.B.C.’s flagship seminary. “Instead, they preached the Gospel of Christ and planted Gospel churches. Our task is to follow Christ’s command and the example of the apostles,” he added. Despite the efforts of some evangelicals to combine conservative theology with progressive politics — or at least contest the notion that Jesus opposed the minimum wage — those evangelicals with the most political clout have helped turn the party of Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt into a pseudo-religion with its own Holy Trinity: the flag, the traditional family and the free market.

It is always risky to generalize about the so-called Black Church, a wildly diverse faith community whose representatives range from the civil rights hero Andrew Young to the prosperity-preaching televangelist Creflo Dollar. Yet it is fair to say that for most black Protestants — conservative and liberal — “social justice” remains one of Christ’s core commands. Preaching the gospel includes challenging an unjust social order that first condoned slavery and still traps African-Americans in a web of inequality and prejudice. While conservative white evangelicals have tended to focus their compassion ministry on caring for individuals, black Christians are more likely to locate the sources of injustice in social structures as well as in the hearts of sinners.

Corporate sins — institutionalized racism and economic inequalities enshrined in tax codes, the justice system and the distribution of social services — demand repentance. Federal law and government institutions have perpetuated great wrongs in the past, and some black Christians, like Evans, believe that the church is the best agent of social transformation. But many others will never forget that the civil rights movement owed as much to Supreme Court decisions and federal legislation as it did to grassroots cultural change. This legacy encourages them to see “big government” as a crucial ally in reform, and to question the Christian Right’s vision of Washington as a socialist hydra that strangles freedom.