When 'Liberation' Leads to Bondage
Some well-meaning (or maybe not-so-well-meaning, only God knows, I suppose) folks out there have decided that the timeless message of the Gospel isn’t spicy enough. Enter the tag team of Liberation Theology and Critical Race Theory—a dynamic duo that’s been making the rounds in churches, seminaries, and academic circles like they’ve got something new to offer for far too long.
Newsflash: they don’t.
Now, for those of you still using the actual Bible (not the Social Gospel Translation), you might have noticed that Jesus didn’t come down to earth to talk about “systems of oppression” or “redistributing wealth” as a central focus of His ministry. That whole “salvation through faith” thing? It’s pretty clear. But it seems that some of today’s self-proclaimed “followers of Jesus” have decided that what He really meant to say was,...
“Take up your cross, your Marxist manifesto, and follow me.”
Liberation Theology, for instance, says that Jesus was basically the first revolutionary guerrilla fighter—a kind of first-century Che Guevara. I don’t know what Bible they’re reading, but mine doesn’t have Jesus running around with a red bandana overthrowing Roman oppressors with a sickle and hammer. This theology is supposed to liberate the oppressed, but in reality, it liberates people from biblical truth and plunges them into an ideology where earthly power and victimhood become the new idols.
If that’s not bondage, I don’t know what is.
Then there’s Critical Race Theory—the delusional, sorry, intellectual offspring of Marxism and identity politics. Somehow, some Christians, or at least those professing to be so, have been duped into thinking that a worldview that divides people into permanent categories of “oppressor” and “oppressed” is compatible with the Gospel.
Never mind that in Galatians 3:28, Paul says, . . .
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Apparently, Paul didn’t get the memo about intersectionality.
What’s particularly laughable (in a tragic kind of way) is that these pseudo-logians think they’re being “prophetic.” They want to be the modern-day Amos or Micah, railing against injustice. But the thing is, those prophets were calling God’s people back to His law—not urging them to create a woke theocracy where race and power dynamics are the new and different Gospel.
“Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8) has somehow turned into “Write think pieces on systemic racism, deconstruct whiteness and walk proudly in your victimhood.”
As a Christian who approaches the Bible exegetically, as one should always do when seeking to interpret ancient texts, I must object. We know that Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone) is the final authority.
Not Marx.
Not Foucault.
Not the latest TikTok activist with a PhD in grievance studies.
Jesus didn’t die to usher in a socialist utopia or to confirm your victim narrative. He died for the sins of humanity, to free us from the bondage of sin, not the bondage of capitalism, patriarchy, or whatever oppression is trending this week.
The Gospel is offensive enough on its own (you know, the whole “you're a sinner who deserves wrath” part). Still, it seems that for the Liberation Theologians and Critical Race Theorists out there, the Gospel just isn’t offensive in the right way.
Instead of being offensive because it calls people to repentance, they’d rather the Gospel be offensive to ‘systems of power’ and privilege.
Well, the only system the Bible really rails against is the kingdom of darkness, not “white supremacy.”
In their desperate attempt to stay culturally relevant, these misguided Christians (or, again, at least those professing to be) have lost sight of the actual mission: proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for the redemption of souls—not standing on the street corner demanding reparations.
They’ve replaced the cross with a soapbox and the empty tomb with an empty ideology that promises liberation but delivers nothing but division, which is a form of bondage, you know.
To all the Christians (or those professing to be) out there dabbling in this nonsense, I have one question:
Do you really think Jesus cares about your woke credentials?
When you stand before Him, will He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you dismantled systemic oppression” or “Depart from me, for you preached another gospel, one that divided my body along lines I died to erase”?
Wake up.
This isn’t Christianity.
It’s a bait-and-switch heresy. Return to the Gospel, the one where Jesus saves sinners, not systems.
You don’t need a revolution, a reparation, or a sociopolitical platform.
You need repentance. That’s the real liberation.