Walter Altmann, World Council of Churches, Liberation Theology and Soviet Ghosts
By Julio
Severo
To have a prominent leader of the powerful
liberal World Council of Churches complaining that an article against
Liberation Theology has impacted negatively his activities is no small honor to
a conservative.
Perhaps, because Tooley’s article was in
English, it would have had no impact in Brazil if it had not been translated
into Portuguese.
I translated it and published
it in Brazil in 2007. Since then, Altmann, who is a former president of the Evangelical
Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (ECLCB, the largest Lutheran
denomination in Brazil), has seen, as he told in his Facebook post, his own
Facebook friends publishing my translation of Tooley’s article in his own
Facebook page!
So at last he unburdened his heart to his
Facebook friends, saying:
“When one intends to accuse another person of something that
he is supposed to have committed, an elemental ethical principle is to give the
person beforehand the opportunity to clarify and defend himself, for whoever
makes the accusation public, if unfounded, will have incurred in slander and
defamation. And, certainly, you have broken the biblical commandment to not
bear false witness against anyone. Well, it happens routinely for one of my
‘friends’ to pass on as an indisputable truth the claim that I was a ‘Soviet
agent’… They do so by reproducing a slanderous article, from a page of Washington’s
extreme religious right, translated into Portuguese in 2007, by Julio Severo…”
Altmann’s Facebook post is interestingly
titled “EU – FANTASMA SOVIÉTICO?” (AM I A SOVIET GHOST?)
In this point, I can clarify and even defend
Altmann. He is not a Soviet ghost! In fact, Tooley’s article never said that Altmann
was a Soviet ghost and did not target him mainly. It targeted the World
Council of Churches (WCC), making it very clear that its reference to Soviet
ghosts meant the Soviet influences in movements and conferences supported by
WCC.
If Altmann’s friends are using my
translation of Tooley’s article to request a biblical accountability from him,
why doesn’t he listen to their plea?
Even if Altmann had never been the Moderator
of the World Council of Churches and even if he never attended conferences
influenced by Soviets, his spiritual problems are not solved.
In October 1999, when he was the president
of the Latin American Council of Churches, Altmann
met communist dictator Fidel Castro and gave him his book “Lutero e
Libertação” (Luther and Liberation). So, even without Soviet ghosts, the hard
truth is that Altmann, in his activities and books, has been an advocate of the
Liberation Theology, which Luther never advocated.
In 2009, Mark D. Tooley published his
article “Resurrecting
Liberation Theology: The World Council of Churches tries to revive Marxism in
religious garb,” in FrontPage Magazine, where Altmann was quoted as saying
in a WCC publication:
“Since
the fall of the Berlin Wall, twenty years ago, many critics have been quick to
sign liberation theology’s death certificate. Most of them did so because they
understood it to be an apology of bygone Soviet-style socialism. It seems,
though, that this death certificate has been issued prematurely.”
According to Altmann, as quoted by Tooley,
“Liberation
theology is spiritually grounded on — and gets its motivation from — the life
changing encounter with Christ as liberator and with our neighbors,” whose
suffering results from “systemic injustices and oppression.”
Alas for Altmann, I translated and published
Tooley’s article in Brazil!
Even though Liberation Theology is not
Protestant, because of his ecumenical involvements through WCC he eventually adapted
it to the Lutheran perspective. The Protestant version of Liberation Theology
is Theology of Integral Mission. The Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession
in Brazil is
prominent in both liberal theologies, thanks to leaders like Altmann.
So am I accusing Altmann of being a former
Soviet agent because he advocates Liberation Theology? No. Even though the KGB
used Liberation Theology for its own advantage, it was not produced by the KGB.
Such mistaken
propaganda was probably created by a former communist who for years has been
sponsored by the CIA. As recognized by a Brazilian traditionalist Catholic
in the article “Liberation
Theology, a KGB Invention? That Is Way Too Simple...,” Liberation Theology
was born in the Catholic Church before the KGB.
If Altmann had got involved only in the
Gospel, by proclaiming it, healing the sick and expelling demons — just as
Jesus and his disciples did —, he would never have had time or interest to get
involved in a political theology that uses the Gospel to proclaim Marxism and make
Christians sick and demonized.
Ecumenism drew Altmann away from Jesus’s
Gospel and brought him near “Christian” Marxism, or Liberation Theology.
Even if Soviets had never used Liberation
Theology, it is not Christian, because it uses the Gospel as a left-wing
political platform.
Liberation Theology is not spiritually
grounded on Christ as liberator, as Altmann alleged, making Christ a political
liberator at the service of the leftist ideology. He bore false witness. Is
Christ a Deliverer? Certainly. He delivers people, even Christians, from
diseases and demons. And Christians who preach Liberation Theology are
spiritually oppressed and need to be delivered from demons.
I have publicly clarified that Altmann is
not a Soviet ghost. But he was involved with Soviet ghosts and he was certainly
influenced by the Catholic liberal theology through ecumenism.
So if these public accusations are based
on Altmann’s public activities and writings, why does he insist on saying that
these accusation are “unfounded” and that Tooley and I have “incurred in
slander and defamation”?
If he actually believed in his own unfounded
accusations, he would have long ago pressed charges against us.
Altmann should stop whining about the
consequences of his ideological choices.
He should be kept accountable for having borne
false witness against the Gospel of Jesus Christ by using it to promote
Liberation Theology.
The Gospel belongs to Jesus Christ.
Liberation Theology belongs to the Catholic Church. And Marxism belongs to Karl
Marx. So give back to the Catholic Church what is Catholic Church’s. Give back
to Marxism what is Marxism’s. And give back to Jesus Christ what is Jesus
Christ’s.
The Lutheran Church does not need
Liberation Theology imported, through ecumenism, from the Catholic Church. It
needs deliverance from the demons of Liberation Theology and Marxism. It
needs a charismatic renewal from the Holy Spirit.
Portuguese version of this article: Walter
Altmann, Conselho Mundial de Igrejas, Teologia da Libertação e Fantasmas
Soviéticos
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