Criticism of religion is a prerequisite of liberation because religion helps preserve, defend, or justify oppressive systems. Even believers who support liberation must engage and critique traditional forms of their own religion. Liberation theology seeks to reform religious traditions from within; liberation atheology dispenses with religion as unreformable, complicit in oppression, and/or hopelessly reactionary. Liberation atheology doesn't guarantee an end to all possible oppression, but ending oppression based on religious tradition and divine will render important tools of authoritarian oppression impotent.
Atheist Liberation: Liberation from Anti-Atheist Bigotry
Most, if not all, anti-atheist bigotry can be traced to assumptions about the superiority of religion and theism. Rebutting and even eliminating anti-atheist bigotry must therefore focus on just those assumptions — if people can no longer assume that being religious or believing in a god are necessary for morality and values, it will no longer be tenable to claim that secular atheists lack morality or values. Atheists working towards any liberation from prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination against atheists must first target instances of religious privilege and then target religion generally in order to undermine confidence that religion or theism are necessary socially, morally, or politically.Political Liberation: Liberation from Authoritarian Religion, Politics
It's rare to find authoritarian religion that doesn't support authoritarian politics or authoritarian politics that's not deriving support from authoritarian religion. Insofar as religion relies upon the demands of gods or limited hierarchies of humans, it will necessarily tend towards authoritarianism. Taken together, this all means that attacks on authoritarian politics cannot be successful if we ignore authoritarian religious traditions and tendencies. If people can be weaned from the belief that they need to be guided by an authoritarian god and/or authoritarian priests, it will be harder to convince them that they need authoritarian politicians or government.Moral Liberation: Liberation from Authoritarian Morality
An important prerequisite for authoritarian politics can be the acceptance of authoritarian morality. It's easier to get people to believe that they have to obey the orders of superiors if they already believe that being moral depends on obeying strict standards or orders from a moral lawgiver. Religion is not the only source of authoritarian morality, but it's one of the most important because of how often morality is presented as something imposed from the outside and which must be interpreted or regulated by a narrow religious hierarchy. Liberation atheology thus needs to target authoritarian morality as part of an overall goal of developing more humanistic and liberal forms of morality.Feminist Liberation: Liberation from Male Privilege, Misogyny
Religion has long been a powerful force in the oppression of women. Everywhere that women have sought political, social, and cultural equality, they have had to fight religious leaders and institutions. Even after basic legal guarantees of equality are achieved, many religious leaders and institutions work hard to undermine those guarantees, promoting an image of women as necessarily subordinate and inferior to men. Leading feminists have frequently been atheists because they recognized that submission to religious traditions were key to keeping women submissive to men and patriarchy. Removing religion removes religious and theological justifications for patriarchy; insofar as patriarchy survives, it is weaker and harder to defend.Gay Liberation: Liberation from Heterosexual Privilege, Homophobia
Religion frequently seeks to control and limit sexuality, sexual expression, and sexual experimentation. Because of the fundamental role which sexuality plays in human identity, controlling sexuality is an important means of controlling people. Undermining religion's control of humanity thus requires that we undermine the ways in which sexuality is limited in the name of religious tradition or divine command. Homosexuality is an especially important case because so many religions have tried to deny gays any sort of social, political, or sexual equality. Liberating gays won't be fully achieved, though, without undermining heterosexual privilege and the religious doctrines which justify it.Racial Liberation: Liberation from White Privilege
The complicity of religion in various forms of racism and ethnic discrimination is difficult to underestimate, but at the same time many people dismiss it because they no longer see religious institutions openly promoting discrimination or prejudice. Religious support for white privilege is not just a historical artifact; the legacy of faith-based racism remains with us today and continues to negatively affect non-whites in a variety of ways which are invisible to white religious believers. Advancing the cause of racial equality and liberation thus requires a more complete engagement with historical racism in religion as well as attacks on the ways in which religion continues to be complicit.Economic Liberation: Liberation from Oppressive Economic Systems
Because religious institutions are invariably associated with other powerful institutions in society, it's inevitable that religion will be found defending or justifying the policies of those institutions — including economic policies which benefit the wealthy but harm others. The power of those institutions and their economic policies can't proceed very far without first eliminating their religious and theological defenses. Some of these defenses are overt while others are more subtle, but there are always ways in which religious leaders defend the economic status quo. Once they are no longer seen as speaking on behalf of supernatural powers or traditions, though, their defenses of the status quo can be seen for what they are.
