1. Liberation Theology and an LDS Perspective: Lesson 09
REL E 630 World Religions and Security Analysis

2. Liberation Theology
The Concepts of Justice and Peace a Call for Social Action
Mathew 25:36…And I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me.
Liberation from unjust social, economic and political conditions
Is a letter of Love to God
It is an effort to respond
Liberation Theology has never been condemned by any Pope
Liberation from sin, to forgive, etc.
Poverty can destroy faith
Luke 16:19-31
To know God is to do action
A theology of Love

3. Liberation Theology The Good News of Liberation—Three emphases
Liberation from unjust social structures
Liberation from the power of fate
Liberation from personal sin and guilt—the reality of grace, the assurance that mercy and forgiveness are always at hand.
Why—because
Christ is the Liberator
To know God is to do Justice
Poverty and Oppression is the direct result of the sinfulness of society

4. Liberation Theology Class Struggle, and the Oppression of the Poor
First emphasis is liberation from unjust social structures
Liberation from the power of fate
Liberation from personal sin and guilt—the reality of grace, the assurance that mercy and forgiveness are always at hand.
Christ is the Liberator
To know God is to do Justice

5. Liberation Theology and Mormonism
King Benjamin’s Address
Mosiah 4: Condemns those who reject the poor He says, And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just––But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

6. Liberation Theology and Mormonism
In the Book of Mormon
Told through the standpoint of the oppressors
Written about a people that are rich and powerful
People fall if they do not devoid themselves of pride, wealth, and privilege
Socio-economic order of living righteously—elimination of poverty
Sin causes society to fall, e.g., socio-economic classes
The cycle of the fall (pride and wealth)

7. Influence of Liberation Theology

8. Influence of Liberation Theology

9. Influence of Liberation Theology

10. The Journey

11. Cunen

12. Cunen

13. Three Areas of Social Justice: Education Health Land Reform

14. Three Areas of Social Justice: Education

15. Three Areas of Social Justice: Education

16. Three Areas of Social Justice: Education

17. Three Areas of Social Justice: Health

18. Three Areas of Social Justice: Health

19. Three Areas of Social Justice: Health

20. Three Areas of Social Justice: Land Reform
Father Stan Rother, Santiago
Atitlan
Father Marco Maruzzo, Quriqua
Father Luis Pellecer, Guat City
Father Juan Fernandez, Cunen
and Uspantan
Father Jose Cirera, Quiche
Father Walter Voordecker,
Esquitla
Father Conrado de la Cruz

21. Three Areas of Social Justice: Land Reform

22. The LDS Church

23. The LDS Church

24. So What of Liberation Theology