Why We Need Public Theologians

By Rev. Dr. Leonard L. Edloe *Th.M Union ’18

While driving to a meeting, I heard a conversation that intimated that Dr. Martin Luther King was not a public theologian, just one speaking against segregation and Jim Crow. Those of you who have heard of me know that I quickly dialed the host of the show and got the record straight. One of the first speeches Dr. King made when the Montgomery Bus Boycott started was one that was not only inspiring but drew deeply from his theological roots. In that speech, that few have listened to and is not widely talked about, Dr King made it clear that most Black people believed in the Christian religion – teachings of Jesus Christ.  Dr. King differentiated the Bus Boycott Movement from the KKK and White Citizen’s Council stating that no crosses would be burned at bus stops in Montgomery. He equated the treatment of Black people in Montgomery with the iron feet of oppression in the book of Daniel.

Dr. King mixed that theology and public policy by saying, “If we are wrong, the Supreme Court is wrong; if we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong; if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong; if we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a Utopian dreamer that never came to earth.” For too long we have led too many Christians to believe that theology was reserved for discussion behind the ivory walls of the seminary.  Black Christians, too many of us have allowed our theological views to be informed by the teachings of dead white men. When you say you don’t believe in God; that is a theological statement.

Many of you read the article I wrote on the silence of the Church concerning the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue in Richmond. Those statues support a false narrative of slavery in these United States, along with Jim and Jane Crow; and the white supremacy movement we see today. That is an ideology that used a perverted theology to enforce those beliefs.  It is a theology that needs to be untaught, not only in the white community but also in the Black community.  My thesis at Union Presbyterian was on the Rural Black Church. Too many of those Churches still embrace the theology of the slave master. The members suffer, looking for a reward in heaven, rather than embracing an abundant and eternal life right now.

Hopefully many of you have taken the time to read The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby and Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Both books make for great reading by members of your congregation and your non-theologian associates.

We also need to encourage those who call themselves Christians to read the Gospels more and follow the example of Jesus. Many Black Christians that I meet are too caught up in Paul, who in too many instances is accommodating the theology of Rome. If we truly follow Jesus, we would not treat women, immigrants, and our LBGTQ brothers and sisters the way we do.

We need more public theologians. Not just on a national level, but in our local communities to right the wrongs of a society that professes that it is employing the teachings of Jesus when it is not!