Conspirituality1 Nov 2025

Brief: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 1)

This is the first of a two-part deep dive into how U.S. foreign policy stared down the political threat of Liberation Theology by promoting Evangelical Christianity in Latin America. The CIA and USAID, in league with Vatican conservatives like Cardinal Ratzinger, spent money and social capital on the suppression of this vital new movement which insisted that poverty is political and that faith without structural change is hollow. By contrast, the Evangelical emphasis on individual sin, salvation, and personal prosperity aligned with Cold War and neoliberal interests. Spiritualities engineered to serve empire don’t just pacify the poor abroad—they come back to police democracy at home. The “Evangelical boomerang” shows up in shifting Latino religious demographics and voting patterns, while the “reverse boomerang” hints that Liberation Theology language—once condemned—now shapes Pope Leo’s message in this time of rising fascism. If MAGA mystics, prosperity preachers, and tech-bro shamans offer a gospel of self-aggrandizement, Liberation Theology counters with a message of shared material reality: no one owns the food, we share it; the Sabbath serves people, not power; love of God is inseparable from love for the poor. Part 1 lays the intellectual and historical groundwork; Part 2 follows the covert money networks and then asks whether a newly emboldened Catholic social vision can stiffen global resistance to authoritarian capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episoder(820)

317: Jordan Peterson vs the Nuns

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Brief: Cult Within a Church Does a Schism

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316: The War on Science

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Bonus Sample: Spielberg, Alien Disclosure, and the Death of David Wilcock

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6 Jul 7min

Book Club: America, USA

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315: Lifestyles of the Rich and Optimized

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2 Jul 1h 15min

Bonus Sample: Why Does JD Vance Think Catholic Social Teaching is Cool?

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29 Jun 5min