beaconchurches

Friends -

The New Republic has posted a brief essay which expresses distain for compemporary self-proclaimed prophets. Money quotes-

There is no more empty or abused word in contemporary American theology than "prophetic." It hallows all kinds of absurdities and calumnies. Is it prophetic to proclaim that the government loosed aids upon the black community? If so, it is false prophecy.

.... contemporary prophecy, you see, is another name for the left. The equally countercultural wrath of John Hagee or Pat Robertson is not "critique." Whereas Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, James Cone, Audre Lorde, Maulana Karenga--they are prophets all. Was prophecy ever so easy? An anti-Petraeus piece in The Nation, a jibe at the Patriot Act on Bill Maher, a rant at the National Press Club, and you are vatic.

<>< Ron Troup

This is something that crystalized for me during the flak about Jeremiah Wright. I came to the realization during that controversy that, in the current religious landscape (at least in the ABC-USA anyway), it can only be "properly" called "prophecy," if it reflects a liberal/progressive viewpoint. Anti-American vitriol is "prophetic" while taking a biblical stand on abortion, homosexuality, or any of a host of other sins, is seen as misguided and un-Baptist at best, and mean spirited at worst.

I have to wonder how much of this goes back forty years or so when (as I understand it) the big evangelistic push in the convention was to stop oppression by systems of power rather than calling individuals to repentance. I might understand some of this better if personal sin is seen simply as the unfortunate, but predictable, response of people to oppressive power systems over them. Thus the people aren't to blame, and calling corporations and governments to repentance will remove their incentive to sin thus solving the problem. Hence the "speaking truth to power," that has become synonymous with "prophecy." Do any of you see it at all this way, or am I running down the wrong rabbit trail?