Black Theology and Sexual Theology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Black Theology and Sexual Theology - Essay Example These secret meetings did not only give birth to rebellion against slavery, but also created room for new black gospel songs; the Negro Spirituals in search of freedom. Social movements that fed black theology growth However, while still practicing Christianity, blacks faced discrimination from the whites in the church, which led to the emergence of independent black churches and movements fight against discrimination and separation in the church (Hopkins 28). Blacks formed a separatist movement that rejected prejudice of the white religionists, which led to formation of churches that segregation and prejudice in the house of God as evil and insulting. These movements gave blacks strength to directly confront their white owners. Black leaders who preached liberation compared keeping slaves in slavery by their masters as wrong as those people who bought Africans as slaves from the African coast, and encouraged the same resistance to fight for liberty arguing that liberty is God-given. The high-spirited fight for liberty and religion in American history flowed and grew leading to formation of more movements in the 1950s and 1960s. Key civil rights movements came into existence to give a hand in issues of justice, hope, liberation, suffering and love that churches preached. They used the church property to congregate as they lured people to support them at conferences organized by the church. The social movements had one agenda as the black theology of fighting for liberty from their oppressors. Methodology Methodology in theology is the process that helps achieve goals of the theology. It determines the relation between God, Humans, and the world (Hopkins 41). Black theology used colonialism, as a method of determining how it contributed to the oppression of... The author concludes that the study of black theology brings a clear indication of the power of the cross that King relates to blacks fight for freedom in America. Although death on the lynching tree acted as punishment to those rebelling against white rule, Jesus’ death on the cross acted as liberation from oppression, giving hope and love to those who have faith in Him. The relationship between Christian’s bearing the cross and social justice work contributes a lot to African American’s fight for freedom. Black Christians felt the redemptive power of the cross, and pleaded Jesus to keep them near the cross in a song. Understanding theology and religion by the blacks helped them understand the power of the cross in redemption, and applied redemptive power in the fight for their freedom. Understanding sexual theology has proved difficult among theologians given the differences among them. Many churches do not consider sexuality in their teachings, and thus fail t o understand the power of sexuality in human life. Different theologies like Althaus-Reid’s indecent and queer theologies aim at fighting heterosexism and other related theologies existing in some Christian churches. Theologians who aimed at liberating people from oppression risked their lives, but nowadays churches do not even consider the price these theologians paid. Thus, the role of uncovering sexuality issues in churches needs a strong contribution of the church faithful in order to end racial, sexual, gender and cultural discrimination in the society.

Robert McNamara and the Vietnam War Research Paper

Robert McNamara and the Vietnam War - Research Paper Example He took a number of steps to reform the military strategy and capabilities, for instance, by lessening the vulnerability of missile attacks in addition to the establishment of the United States Strike Command which was mandated to draw forces when necessary from the military services. The United States Strike Command was to report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff who would, in turn, report to the secretary of defense. â€Å"Other major reforms on the military service include an increase of long-range airlift and sealift capabilities, consolidation of military functions to have all the powers center on the secretary of defense.†1 During the War, McNamara gradually doubted whether the war was in a real sense necessary. â€Å"He objected the idea posed by the military commanders to increase troops to South Vietnam as well as the intensifying bombing of northern Vietnam.†2, McNamara’s declaration that he had supported Vietnam War strategy out of his loyalty to the admini stration complicated matters with President Lyndon Baines Johnson who later announced that McNamara was to leave the secretary of defense job to join the world. ... The speculations and rumors came to pass later in November 1967, after McNamara gave a recommendation to President Lyndon Baines Johnson to stop attacks on North Vietnam, lessen the size of troops and hand over ground fighting to South Vietnam, this idea was immediately rejected by President Johnson. According to his belief, the military strategy in the Vietnam War had failed. From the reasons for objection as presented by McNamara, it almost became apparent that Vietnam War lacked the necessary support to achieve its objectives as stated in his documentary ‘the Vietnam war’, â€Å"None of our allies supported us†¦if we can’t persuade these nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we’d better re-examine our reasoning.†3 According to him, the war would have had a justified reason had it been fully supported by America’s close allies such as Japan, Germany, Britain, and France. He later announced his resignation in November the same year and joined the World Bank. After his departure, a number of questions arose on what actually compelled him to leave the defense job with some like Baral in his book The Pentagon and the making of U.S. foreign policy alleging that McNamara was fired by President Lyndon Baines Johnson.4 This paper seeks to look at McNamara’s life and the war’s moral consequences and the reason behind his haunting after he was fired. It seems from history that McNamara was up to a different agenda from that held by President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the military chiefs during the Vietnam War.