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Angel Dario Carrero: Your most recent reflection also warns of the temptation to make the poor themselves into an idol.
Gustavo Gutiérrez: That comes from the romanticism of some. Some people say to me: “I have learned everything from the poor. The poor are so good.” Sometimes I say to them jokingly: “You believe that all poor people are good and generous? Then I would not advise you to go into my neighbourhood at two in the morning because you'll come out [naked] as the day you were born, only older.” It is a way to make it clear that the option [for the poor] is not made because the poor are good, but because God is good. If the poor are not good, then it's the same. Many people became disappointed with commitment [to the poor] because they believed the poor were good. If they had committed themselves because God is good, they would still be committed.
These are the words of Gustavo Gutiérrez in an interview to mark his eightieth birthday on 8 June 2008. I came across them towards the end of my research, after some years reflecting on the dangers of the idolizing of the poor in liberation thoelogy. It confirmed me in thinking that the question I have been addressing in this work is an important and relevant one. Liberation theology arose from an engagement with and in response to the situation of the poor of Latin America, and a desire and a faith that God had a word of liberation for this situation.
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