Liberation Theology Links

For today's sermon on liberation theology (Word format) in the context of the election of Pope Francis, I drew on a number of sources, which I provide here for those who wish to read further.

LATE NEWS: National Public Radio reports that the prosecution of Guatemala's dictator Efrain Rios Montt appears to be in serious jeopardy, as a judge is throwing out two years worth of testimony. I would have included this in the sermon had I known earlier. My first awareness of Rios Montt came at a meeting of Kansas City Youth for Christ in the 1970s. This evangelical group considered him an upstanding Christian bringing salvation to a heathen country. My understanding was considerably changed by the work of Rigoberta Menchu about a decade later.

Another Central American connection that I failed to mention was that this service took place on the anniversary of the assassination of Benjamin Linder, the only U.S. citizen to have been killed in the Contra War in Nicaragua.

For the first time in six centuries, one pope greets another. What does the transition mean for non-Catholics?

Surprising Appointment of Controversial Pope
by Kimberly Bullard, Research Associated at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, March 25, 2013

The Pope's Holy War Against Liberation Theology

by Nikolas Kozloff, North American Congress on Latin America, April 30, 2008

Bye Bye Benedict: Joseph Ratzinger, Marxism and the Smothering of Liberation Theology

by Joe Morby for The North Star, February 23, 2013

Vatican Official: Romero Saint Effort 'Unblocked'

Associate Press, April 22, 2013

Our community minister, Rev. Rachel Tedesco, also provided these valuable print resources:

Boff, Leonardo  and Clodovis Boff. 1996. Introducing Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

Hangan, Eric. 1991. The Challenge of Liberation Theology for Unitarian Universalists. Unitarian Universalist Christian 46(1-2): 5-11.

Soelle, Dorothee. 1991. Orthodox, Liberal, Radical -- Three Basic Theological Frameworks. Chapter 2 in Thinking About God.

Liberation Theology. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought.

On the altar table this morning, I placed a Peruvian slingshot on the altar table, as a representation of indigenous resistance to the commodification of resources in Latin America. I discuss this more deeply throughout my Environmental Geography blog, particularly in a recent post on Cochabamba.

I also mentioned the geographic relationship among Argentina, Italy, Cape Verde, and Boston, which I discuss in more detail on our BSU-EarthView blog, in an article about Cape Verde as global crossroads.

For explorations of religion in general, I recommend Pam Hayes-Bohanan's Religion Maxguide.

Making It Last

Church members Pam and James Hayes-Bohanan get their 15 minutes of fame with this great story from the New York Times

Tom Miller Lectures

As I announced this morning, one of our country's greatest authors -- Tom Miller -- will be in town this week for two entertaining presentations. The first is about the U.S. Southwest and the other is about Cuba. Both will be witty, insightful, and enjoyable. Details are on the Geography Department blog at
http://bsc-geography.blogspot.com/2013/04/tom-miller-two-fer.html.

We hope to see you there. (By the way, First Parish's own Pamela Hayes-Bohanan did some of the fact-checking for the Cuba book he will be discussing on Tuesday!)