Just in time for Holy Week and Easter, a prominent professor at a United Methodist seminary has derided traditional views about Christ’s crucifixion. He even faults them for centuries of “crusades, religious wars, pogroms, inquisitions, witch trials, colonialism, the genocide of ‘pagans,’ the enslavement of ‘infidels’ and the Holocaust. Christianity’s fascination with blood made it the cause for most of the world’s bloodletting.”
Good Friday indeed!
He explains the real and apparently exclusive meaning of Christ on the cross.
“Crucifixion’s only signification is the unjust death of a just person at the hands of religious and political leaders,” blogged Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, one of United Methodism’s 13 official seminaries. (De La Torre graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary but later shifted theologically.) “Jesus’ death neither pays a ransom nor is a substitution for us. Crucifixion is an act of radical solidarity, specifically, Jesus’ choice to accompany in solidarity those dying on the crosses of religious and political oppression.”
Obviously, De La Torre prefers a narrow moral exemplar perspective on the Crucifixion over any version of substitutionary atonement. Traditional Christianity includes both and more. Christ’s sacrifice on the Christ is the supreme cosmic event upon which the destiny of creation rests. Its message is unending and myriad. No human mind can comprehend all that His sacrifice and suffering gifted to us. Our redemption and hope depend on His work on the cross.
But De La Torre rules out and mocks the cross’s atoning, salvific purpose. Such theology is even destructive, he insists, asking: “What do you do when the hymns we sing reinforce a theology which is, and continues to be, detrimental to the marginalized, those who liberationist theologian Jon Sobrino called “the Crucified People”?
As an example of this dangerous and destructive theology of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, De La Torre cites lyrics of an old hymn:
Would you be free from the burden of sin? There’s power in the blood, power in the blood; Would you over evil a victory win? There’s wonderful power in the blood. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.
Every major Christian tradition, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox, indeed believes there is “power in the blood,” to which De La Torre objects. He complains:
We have so embraced a theology of substitution that to question its authenticity feels as if we are on the verge of heresy. And yet, this theology of substitution is but an interpretation — an interpretation which, at best, is wrong and, at worse, damning to the disenfranchised.
Hundreds of millions of Christians in the Global South, who flock to growing churches that contrast with what graduates of De La Torre’s seminary preside over, hearken to the Christ who sacrificed Himself on the cross for the world’s sins.
But De La Torre evidently thinks they’ve all been seduced by sadistic European colonialist theology which caused “crusades, religious wars, pogroms, inquisitions, witch trials, colonialism, the genocide of “pagans,” the enslavement of ‘infidels’ and the Holocaust.”
Traditional Christian understanding of the cross’s “salvific-ness” tragically “glorifies pain, humiliation and abuse as the means of imitating Jesus,” De La Torre frets. “For those on the margins of society, such a theology provides false hope that their present suffering in the here-and-now will be rewarded in the hereafter. Suffering now is confused with suffering for Jesus, a redemptive act.”
“The world’s disenfranchised should always be afraid — deeply afraid — when privileged euroamericans call them to be good Christians and ‘freely suffer … freely serve,’” De La Torre warns, criticizing Stanley Hauerwas for embracing this theology of suffering. He asks: “What if crucifixion is not salvific?” What if it’s actually just a tool of exploitation? After all “euroamericans — especially those complicit with institutional racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism — insist suffering and servitude is expected from those on their margins.”
Ironically, De La Torre’s liberationist perspective is mostly espoused in privileged and wealthy North American liberal Protestant institutions like his own Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Hundreds of millions of Global South Christians would deem his claims bizarre if not heretical.
Against “white Christian nationalism,” according to De La Torre, “today’s crucified people” need to “resignify the Jesus of the dominant culture by rejecting their bloody theology,” admitting that the “cross is what it is: a symbol of sadism and evil.”
De La Torre says that if Jesus died of old age, “his existence would still have been redemptive.” The crucifixion was only the “unjust death of unjust person.” It is neither a “ransom” nor a “substitution for us.” Following Jesus is not an “invitation not to suffer but to stand in solidarity with the oppressed of the world, a solidarity which might cost us everything.”
Yes, every major branch of Christianity, even including the conservative American Christians whom De La Torre disdains, of course agrees, if not always heeding, that following Jesus entails solidarity with the oppressed, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted, and to seek a world pointing towards divine justice and mercy.
But at the core of Christianity’s call to love and serve is the bleeding Savior on the cross, who left His throne to become a despised sacrifice that saves the world. Without the cross, there is no redemption, resurrection, and restoration. The hymn De La Torre mocks “Power in the Blood,” concludes by asking: “Would you do service for Jesus, your King?”
The answer on all days, but especially Good Friday, is yes, yes. As St. Paul wrote: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Comment by David S. on April 6, 2023 at 10:42 pm
My God grant him the ability to genuinely repent one day, otherwise, God have mercy.
Comment by Gary on April 6, 2023 at 10:58 pm
Why is this man even a member of the clergy?
Comment by WillTex on April 6, 2023 at 10:58 pm
When I saw “Latinx” in the credits, I promptly disregarded all the rest of it…
Comment by Ben K on April 6, 2023 at 11:26 pm
This man went to seminary to study and came out with a head full of nonsense.
Comment by Rev Clare Twomey on April 7, 2023 at 6:46 am
Well done Miguel!! Once again you have held to the fire the toxic theology which has informed and directed an immeasurable genocidal history of Christian white body supremacy! Proud to call you mentor and friend Prof.
Comment by Darryl Trimiew on April 7, 2023 at 8:42 am
Miguel is my friend and colleague. He is a man of integrity. BUT I have read his comments with dismay. He has taken a drastic and wrong turn. As a liberation ethicist, I have always joined him in the rejection of racist, sexist, and homophobic Eurocentric distortions of Christianity. His latest remarks are simply wrong and implicit rejections of the salvation of God. This turn is not for me. God loves humanity and Jesus the Christ died and rosé again for the atonement of our sins.
Comment by GVD on April 7, 2023 at 10:20 am
I am 83 years of age and this is the first time in my life that public discourse dates ask the soul-searching question? Given the diversity of religions of the world, each seeking in its own domain , truths about eternity????
Comment by Johan on April 7, 2023 at 10:30 am
He’s thinking independently and questioning pre-modern beliefs? What kind of Christian does he think he is?
Comment by Mary on April 7, 2023 at 10:45 am
Thank you Mark for your prompt response to the article by De La Torre. I read his article this morning and almost wept. Woe is us.
Comment by Dan on April 7, 2023 at 1:41 pm
Isaiah 45:9 says “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’”. And in 2 Corinthian 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
OK, so what this guy is espousing is heresy. It goes against the Bible and 2,000 years of tradition. It’s not just a matter of emphasis, it’s denial of basic doctrine. This is why UMC seminaries for the most part turn out theologically illiterate and heterodox pastors. For those who call him colleague and friend, you need to counsel him to acknowledge his error and repent of it.
Comment by Elizabeth Mae Magill on April 7, 2023 at 2:53 pm
De La Torre is the voice of hope for a world that will find new ways to live this old and valuable faith. I’m aware that those clinging to the old way will have a hard time, but please, accept that there is more than one, more than two, more than twenty ways to love and follow Jesus.
No need to spend your time disdaining other believers.
Comment by Kelly McClendon on April 7, 2023 at 3:54 pm
The only way to come to his conclusions is to dismiss much of the New Testament. Some seminary students, lay people, and even active clergy who are ignorant of the Scriptures fail to see the contradictions and can even find such thoughts profound or enlightened. In fact, this is nothing more than a type of false gospel (which no gospel at all) like that referred to in Galatians 1:8, which says, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”
This guy is no angel.
Comment by Roger on April 7, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Miguel, is not close to the Bible, and coming out of a seminary is antiproductive to faith and The Methodist Church.. An Absolute is, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. How could he have escaped this verse of scripture doing his book on the blood. Jesus’ blood is not human blood. It is the Spiritual blood of a Holy God. Yes, Jesus’ was born of a woman, but the blood comes from the Father not the woman. This is why Jesus had to be born of a Virgin. The sin nature is passed down from old Adam to every human, and this would have tainted Jesus. The price of Redemption was his blood. This is the only blood that could atone for sin. There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb of God.
Comment by April User on April 7, 2023 at 4:14 pm
The redounding impact of the Reformation continues with heretical views such as this.
Comment by Earl H. Foote on April 7, 2023 at 4:36 pm
I agree with your viewpoint, Mark, and I’m going to link your article to FB page devoted to traditional Anglicans/Episcopalians. My previous parish had a parallel complaint (also based on politicizing the crucifixion). A parishioner who ardently worked to oppose the death penalty said that she “couldn’t stand” seeing the cross, since it was “an instrument of torture and death.” Yeah, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? While Jesus, through his sayings and his actions, urged us to revisit our earthly hierarchies (starting with Mother Mary, who proclaimed, “he has given the hungry good things, and the rich he has sent away empty,” we need to remember the primary message of the crucifixion. It wasn’t just a political act, it was a divine act of salvation.
Comment by Tom on April 7, 2023 at 5:29 pm
“What if the crucifixion is not salvific?”
Then we’re all going to burn in hell for all eternity, praising God for His justice in sending us there. That’s what if the crucifixion is not salvific.
Comment by Gary Bebop on April 7, 2023 at 5:45 pm
Thanks, Mark, for quickly providing a counterpoint. In the PNW we have self-anointed explainers who contradict the historic received tradition and (seem to) speak for the liberal-progressive sect without check. The UMC social register has virtually gone over to the Enemy. To confront error in this carnival of depravity is tedious, taxing, and dangerous work.
Comment by Murph on April 8, 2023 at 4:07 am
So, if the crucifixion does not provide salvation, then Christ’s death on the cross, has no meaning. The Bible has no purpose. Paul’s ministry is useless, and a lie. The disciples all died for nothing. Jesus, his appearance after the resurrection we’re all fake.
Sorry, but this guy is not a Christian. He has no business teaching at a seminary. He has no business standing in front of a congregation of believers. He is a tool of Satan, and he would try to turn honest believers away from the true faith.
I do not know exactly what Paul meant when he talked about “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit“, but this guy’s comments cannot be far off of that mark.
I pray that one day, this man may see the error of his ways. That he may turn to the saving power of Christ on the cross. But woe to him if he leads even one of gods children, astray!
Comment by David on April 8, 2023 at 7:39 am
Jeremiah 31:30 New Living Translation (NLT)
“All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.”
Comment by Jennifer Haar on April 8, 2023 at 9:35 am
This is why I call Seminaries “Cemeteries” (especially United Methodist ones). It’s where faith goes to die.
Comment by Search4Truth on April 8, 2023 at 11:35 am
Wonderful article Mark. What is so heart breaking here is that someone posing as a learned member of the Christian clergy is preaching such a sick misrepresentation of the Christian message.
De La Torre apparently completely denies the nature and punishment due sin – most of especially the privileged west, have no concept of what life under an absolute king, that most of humanity through the ages lived under.
He keeps referring to the oppression of the euroamericans, but has he given any consideration to the spreading if Islam through the swore for centuries, the brutality of Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pots?
This is sadly a very sick American who has grabbed a sick idea and rather than working to correct ills, is attacking the country that has, with many mistakes, spread more good is the world than any other country in history.
Comment by Tom thomas on April 8, 2023 at 4:38 pm
Professor Miguel A. De La Torre’s view is as cutting edge as the 16th century when Faustus Socinus promoted the substance of De La Torre’s opinion.
Forsake such piffel, and stick to the Apostle Paul’s word from Jesus, “Christ died for our sins”, which has revolutionized art, music, education, medical care, marriage and the family, societal relations, and the human soul.
Comment by Palamas on April 8, 2023 at 6:02 pm
“We have so embraced a theology of substitution that to question its authenticity feels as if we are on the verge of heresy.”
There’s no “verge” here. This is heresy, plain and simple. A total rejection of both Jesus’ and Paul’s understanding of the significance of the Cross.
“Well done Miguel!! Once again you have held to the fire the toxic theology which has informed and directed an immeasurable genocidal history of Christian white body supremacy! Proud to call you mentor and friend Prof.” (Rev. Clare Twomey)
A Unitarian Considering Christ (UCC) pastor who rejects the gospel in favor of politics and race-baiting. What a surprise.
Comment by Frederick Collins on April 8, 2023 at 8:32 pm
It never ceases to bemuse me when people who came into this world kicking and screaming, and not knowing anything of the world before, gain enough confidence to rule on such a matter. Same as the others who confidently speak of “millions of years” as if they were there and saw it.
Comment by Ken on April 8, 2023 at 10:55 pm
Galatians 1:7 “ ‘There are some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. ‘
Heresy. Just another reason to shake off the dust and leave the UMC behind.
Comment by Douglas Ehrhardt on April 9, 2023 at 6:43 am
And the dread homophobia.
Comment by Abby on April 11, 2023 at 10:44 pm
I find it so interesting that self-identifying Christians are so quick to quote the Old Testament to support their views. If you are a Christian, your covenant is with Jesus and the OT has no bearing on your life. That is the point of the New Covenant. Too many claim to heed the word of God, but fail to actually understand or embrace them. De La Torre is right – by clinging to the crucifix you have turned the horrific death into idolatry. You seek to have a death clear you of sins, YET, as the article lists, in the name of their faith Christians have sought to destroy “other.” How many of you speaking against De La Torre actually live your faith – feed the poor, clothe the naked, embrace those considered to be on the outside of society? How many of you claim the word, but turn your backs on those in need? Seek out justification from the broken covenant? My father is a UMC pastor, who embraces the teachings of Jesus. Do you?
Comment by Dan W on April 12, 2023 at 1:41 pm
Abby, if you support De La Torre’s ideas, debate his critics on the substance. You are just attacking people you don’t know.
You weren’t paying attention when your father was preaching, were you?
Comment by Robert on April 15, 2023 at 8:30 pm
Reading the last comment, that the Old Testament has “no bearing on my life.” Please step me through how you arrived at this conclusion.