Global Conflict and the Preaching Tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dale Andrews Saturday, 1 March 2008

The international crises in the Middle East and North Africa, the "war on terrorism", the "preemptive" war on Iraq, and other global issues expose a troubling theological trend in African American preaching. When preaching responds to suffering, difference, or social conflict with self-directed claims of divine favor, there exists a tragic breakdown between pastoral theology and prophetic consciousness. This breakdown occurs when the pastoral and the prophetic fail to synthesize in ways that allow faith communities to see themselves in a dialectic relationship between God and all of humanity. Specifically, instead of viewing global unrest and tragedy as opportunities for Christians to respond to God's call for loving and serving our neighbor, many black preachers are taking cues from the "prosperity gospel" and simplistically interpreting such catastrophic events as divine punishment for human immorality.

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