Title:
"Intractable" homicide rates and being the Christian Church in Baltimore City's "White L": toward a praxis of integral liberation
Author:
Vincent Lui
Thesis Advisor:
D. Castillo
Committee Member:
A. Sutherland
Committee Member:
N. Reibe
Committee Member:
R. Eklund
Committee Member:
S. Fowl
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola Univeristy Maryland
Date Created:
2022
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
From the perspective of liberation theology, what does it mean to be a Christian and what does it mean to be the “Church” within the “White L” of Baltimore City’s “Black Butterfly,” as Baltimore City faces the seemingly intractable problem of high rates of deadly violence and its systemic and structural causes? The analysis, although local, may apply to other cities in various ways. This paper argues that the depth of the sin that has manifested in Baltimore calls for a depth of repentance reflective of integral liberation. The White L and Black Butterfly describe the geography of Baltimore’s racial and spatial inequity. Before the analysis, I argue that theological analysis should be used in conjunction with public policy analysis. Because of the topic, I address my standpoint, situatedness, and current political context. Gustavo Gutiérrez’s concept, integral liberation, is set up as the analytical frame. Next, Baltimore’s problems are further defined. As Lawrence Brown explains, the violence means that Black neighborhood destruction has reached a critical stage, due to Black neighborhoods being systemically deprived of resources through ongoing historical trauma. Ongoing trauma is caused in part by the “operative whiteness” of Black political leaders and the disproportionate whiteness of the leaders of philanthropies, as well as “segrenomics”—economics built upon “hypersegregation.” Historical trauma includes enslavement, up to the enactment of segregationist public policies, driven by white supremacists. The root of the trauma— White European Christian colonialism—is well-known, but theological analysis by Willie Jennings traces the “diseased social imagination” of racialized and racist thinking within Christian theology, exposing the “depth of this theological mistake.” The task of liberation theology—“critical reflection on Christian praxis in light of the word of God”—is then applied to Baltimore. Three models from the Book of Acts are utilized: Pentecost, the consequent sharing of resources, and Saul as an example of misguided religious elites who are comfortable amidst violence. The evaluation reveals the depth of sin in Baltimore’s inequity, which has four dimensions: (1) the depth of the theological mistake due to the lack of invincible ignorance, (2) historical guilt, (3) the overlapping identities of whiteness and Christian identity, and (4) sins of commission and sins of omission. The four dimensions anticipate the claim of Christians within the White L that, somehow, they are not implicated in the sins. To discuss sin is to call for repentance, but the depth of repentance must match the depth of the sin. And given that repentance is the act that leads one to salvation—that is, liberation from sin—then the endeavor that is to be undertaken by Christians and churches in the White L of Baltimore City is integral liberation. Using the framework of integral liberation, reparations and other corrective actions are proposed, along with a spirituality that prepares one for corrective action. The paper concludes by offering a few concrete steps toward a praxis of integral liberation, connecting another example from Acts to a real-world example: a Christian nonprofit called The Center, in Baltimore City.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Subject:
Academic theses
Degree:
Master of Theological Studies
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Theology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online after three years.
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Identifier:
LuiVH-23
