What do Passports, Liberation Theology and the Charismatic Movement have in Common?

I want to start by apologizing that it has been so long since my last blog post! This semester I simply said yes to far too many things, with the result being that I was a little overwhelmed work/school-wise. I have seen the error of my ways and will be blogging much more regularly from now on!

To get this blog post started, I want you to imaginatively put yourself in my shoes: It is Friday November 22nd, and you are headed to your first ever Society of Biblical Literature meeting in San Diego, California! You are understandably excited - SBL is the largest (about 8000 people!) scholarly society for the study of the Bible in the world and this is your first time ever attending! You are leaving, rather conveniently, just before a blizzard and beard-freezingly low temperatures sweep into Calgary. And something about California is so exciting and movie-esque; even the licence plates on the backs of the cars seem to promise grand adventures ahead. Everything is going brilliantly: you have a very stimulating conversation with a fellow SBL-attendee who is sitting next to you on the plane, you are salivating (mentally, not physically, I hope) at the prospect of hearing so much cutting-edge biblical scholarship in but a few hours, and you are relishing the opportunity to see friends and make new connections. You share an uber ride to the hotel with some of your classmates from Toronto, walk up to the check in desk and are greeted with a very promising-sounding 'Welcome, Mr. Ross, could I please see your ID?' Reaching for your pocket, your mood turns from internal jubilation to internal and external panic: 'Where is my passport?'

Well, apparently you can be smart enough to do a PhD and also stupid enough to leave your passport on the plane, which is now half way back to Calgary! My mind immediately shifted from planning all the fun that was in store for the next few days to very real concerns about my ability to get back home at all. After some investigations, I was informed by the Canadian consulate that I only had two options for getting back to Canada sans passport: 1. Cross the land border on a Canadian driver's licence (bear in mind that San Diego is right next to the Mexican border, so a very long drive away!), or 2. Travel to LA (a 2.5 hour drive away) and wait three days at the consulate for an emergency travel document, and then fly back to Canada. My mind then began devising several hair-brained schemes at the same time: A. What if I rented a car and drove to Montana (a cool 17.5 hour drive), then Claire (my wife) could drive down to Montana to pick me up and bring me back home to Calgary? Oh, wait, that won't work, the rental car costs $7000 USD and won't have winter tires which will be necessary in Montana in late November. B. Okay, what if I drive to LA, apply for the document, then drive to my uncle’s house in the Bay area (6.5 hour drive from LA), stay overnight with him for three days so that I don't have to drop 800 USD on a hotel in LA, then drive back to LA, then book a different flight home to Calgary? Eventually, thanks to God's grace, I did manage to find a reasonable solution: I let go of my return flight to Calgary and booked a domestic flight to Buffalo, New York, then my step-dad drove down from Toronto to Buffalo, and I crossed the land border (currently you can fly domestically in the US and cross the land border on a Canadian driver’s licence), then flew from Toronto back to Calgary a few days later on my drivers.

As compelling a story as this is, you may be wondering what on earth this has to do with my thoughts on the charismatic movement? Hear me out. When I realized that I had lost my passport, in a moment of time I went from having the freedom to essentially do whatever I wanted, to having a much more limited set of options. Being a white male from a middle-class upbringing, I realized as I groped around for the not-present passport, that this was something I was not accustomed to. Having grown up in a privileged situation, I was not accustomed to facing these kinds of practical problems. Generally, if you have the right passport and enough money, you can do pretty much whatever you want, within the bounds of the law. But now suddenly I was wondering if I was even going to be able to make it back to Calgary anytime soon and how I was going to afford a $7000 USD rental car! Now don't get me wrong, the fact that I am a middle-class white male does not mean that I have never faced any challenges in life, far from it. I was severely mentally ill for most of my 20s, and it took a great deal of grit and determination on my part, empowered by God's grace, to overcome that. But there was something about the sudden switch from 'I have a Canadian passport and can do whatever I want' to 'I do not have any passport at all and I am in significant trouble with limited options' that was very noticeable and instructive for me. Over the coming days, as I still managed to have a great time at SBL and with my PhD friends, I began ruminating on what this learning moment I was experiencing might be able to say to me theologically.

As an aspiring academic, I am used to needing to cite my sources with rigor. But this time I am off the hook (!) because nobody is actually sure where this well-known quotation originated (take that citation police...): "Liberation theology opted for the poor and the poor opted for Pentecostalism." A little bit of explanation is necessary here: Liberation theology is a branch of theology which arose from the Catholic Church in Latin America in response to the many injustices that people face there. Very sadly, we actually just recently lost the key originator of this theology, the Peruvian Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928 - 2024). Gutiérrez and others gave birth to a new way of doing theology - rather than working from the upper echelons of society (people lucky enough to have the means to pursue a PhD in theology), theology needs to originate in the margins of society, and its central goal is the liberation of oppressed people. Jesus was, after-all, a champion of the marginalized and well-versed in speaking truth to oppressive religious power structures. This theology was met with much resistance (people with influence and power usually don't love the idea of giving some of it away!). But over time liberation theology has gained significant traction. While I personally would want to distance myself from manifestations of liberation theology that veered towards the use of violence in the name of liberation, I am deeply drawn to the many non-violent expressions of it. We are now ready to appropriate our initial quotation in this blog post: "Liberation theology opted for the poor and the poor opted for Pentecostalism." At this point in time, all over Latin America, and in other majority world places such as various African nations, it is charismatic/Pentecostal expressions of Christianity that are exploding. Despite the concerted efforts now being mounted in more established Christian traditions to mobilize liberative action for the marginalized, why is it that specifically charismatic/Pentecostal expressions of Christianity are so appealing to the very people in need of liberation?

At this point it is important for me to admit the limits of my already limited knowledge: I really do not know all that much about liberation theology, or the cultural/political factors at work in Latin America, or the precise nature of the reception of charismatic/Pentecostal expressions of Christianity in these places. So, I proceed cautiously as a mere arm-chair observer. That said, this is a rather compelling question when viewed from the vantage point of reflection on charismatic theology and practice.

In the split second when I realized that my passport was missing, my situation in the world and therefore my perception of it changed. I went from, in a manner of speaking, having the world at my fingertips, to being in a very threatening situation with no promising options immediately before me. I assume (as I said, as an unknowledgeable outsider) that this small taste of difficulty in losing my passport is, when magnified by several thousand degrees, the everyday experience of many marginalized people, whether they live in majority world countries or somewhere like the US, Canada or the UK. My passport experience was a microcosm of marginalization; an experience I was not particularly used to. I think that one possible reason why many people in Latin American are opting for Pentecostalism is because charismatic/Pentecostal expressions of Christianity tend to emphasize God's very real and practical saving intervention in the lives of his people. Remember, the people who wrote the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament were not 33-year-old PhD students with enough money and both a UK and a Canadian passport like me! They were people for whom the world was a difficult place, and every moment was pregnant with the threat of danger, loss or lack. Think about the people of Judah under Hezekiah as the invading Assyrians (the superpower of the day) cry out "Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? Who of all the gods of these countries have been able to save their lands from me? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” (Isaiah 36:18-20, NIV). The Bible was written by, for and to people who were in danger and lack and in constant need of being saved. As much as I do have significant concerns about several aspects of the charismatic movement in North America today, I for one think it is important that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater and do continue to contend for a healthy, ethical and biblical expression of charismatic Christianity, because when faced with danger or lack human beings are in need of a God who answers prayer with life-changing, saving, intervening power. This is something that the charismatic movement understands and practices well. I think that this has the potential to be a meaningful contribution to both the larger Church and to academic Christian theology.