James H. Cone The Black Church's Unsung Hero By William Bethea

April 28, 2020 marked two years since the death of Dr. James Hal Cone, the father of black Liberation Theology. Cone is, in my opinion, one of the most under-appreciated figures in both black American and black church history. Despite his numerous contributions to theology and social justice, Cone's legacy is largely ignored by popular church culture. On the Mt. Rushmore of black church luminaries, Dr. Cone's visage belongs alongside those  giants like Dr. King and Adam Clayton Powell. In 1969, Cone wrote Black Theology and Black Power, the first of several seminal works. Before the publication of Black Theology and Black Power, few if any theologians put forth the idea that social justice and the gospel were inextricably intertwined.

During the tumultuous 60’s and early 70s, many believers (both black and white) began to question God’s nature, and some even rejected His existence, as the horrors of both war and racism were being made visible through television for the first time. This reality was exasperated by many clergy who insisted it was not the Christian's place to interfere with “God's plan." The injustices committed against minorities, the men killed in Vietnam,and  the underlying unrest that existed in this country was all a part of that plan. As long as we lived a clean life, despite suffering in this world, we would receive our reward in the next.

Enter The Nation of Islam, a Pro-Black, American offshoot of the Middle Eastern religion. What made Malcolm X and The Nation's message of urgent, immediate, and aggressive action against injustice so attractive to young people, was its rejection of a passive indifferent God. The Nation vocally and forcefully rebuked white theologians who had made Christ like themselves instead of the inverse. Elijah Muhammad and his disciples argued that the founders of this country used the gospel to justify the enslaving of “heathen races" like Native Americans and Africans.  This concept was even implied in official U.S. policy at one point. In order to justify American imperialist expansion of the early 20th century, lawmakers turned to "Jungle Book" author Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem, White Man's Burden, which specifically implored The U.S. to subjugate the Filipino people in the name of civilizing the "half devil and half child" natives. They used the gospel to sedate blacks with a promise of “Pie in the Sky” as long as they stayed in their place and did not interfere with the status quo, which of course maintained white supremacy. Cone adopted Malcolm X's philosophy and integrated it with his theological studies to create the foundation of Black Liberation Theology.

Not unlike the civil rights leaders of the 50s and 60s, Cone was hated by white clergy and theologians during his time. Cone fearlessly rebuked white Christians who remade Christ, literally and figuratively, in their image. He was among the first theologians to publicly reject the idea of a blond haired, blue eyed Christ and more importantly, he called to attention the white Christians’ hypocritical dismissal of racial and social injustice.

In 1970, Cone released his magnum opus, A Black Theology of Liberation. In the book, Cone argues that black people in America are fundamentally connected with Christ because Christ identifies with the poor, the oppressed, and the down-trodden. He argued that denying or  ignoring the poor and suffering, as he claimed white Christianity had, was fundamentally heretical because the gospel’s message is for the oppressed. He states: “Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in a society is not Christ's message. Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology."

Cone challenged white Christians to undergo “true repentance" by abandoning white supremacy and assisting black America in the struggle for equality. Only then would white believers become true Christians. Dr. Cone's rhetoric was provocative and incendiary, but necessary to draw the attention of white Christians. I would argue that if Malcolm X were a Christian, he'd be James Cone. With statements like “If God is white, Kill God” and calling the white church an “Antichrist" because of its anti-Christian dismissal of oppression, it’s not hard to make that argument. Based upon their collective response, white Christians seem to have agreed.

Dr. Cone and his theology were ridiculed and dismissed by his colleagues. He was described as an “angry" and “hostile" black man, and his platform as black nazism “filled with hatred for white people and the assumption of the moral superiority of black over white”, respectively. Dr. Cone even described how many of those colleagues, stunned by  the fact, refused to shake his hand when he became the first black man to earn a Ph.D in Theology from Northwestern University.

Dr. Cone's platform did not come strictly from his studies, but from his personal experience with racism in and outside of the church. He drank from his own well, if you will. Cone was born and raised in rural Arkansas during the height of the Jim Crow era. He was all too familiar with the lynchings and abuse of black people by so-called Christian whites. He described how, as a child, he would fear every night that his father had become a lynching victim. Those days he would arrive home safely, young Cone would leap up in joy.

Cone continued to minister and speak against the injustice perpetrated against the black community.  Embracing blackness is now a hallmark of the black church experience, but this was not always the case. One could argue that Dr. Cone was part of the reason for change. He criticized black churches for burdening themselves with gaining the acceptance and approval of white Christianity by ignoring and excusing injustices committed against them, both culturally and institutionally. In this sense, many black Christians could have been considered modern "house slaves". Dr. Cone would go on to write several other books including The Spirituals and the Blues in 1972, God of the Oppressed in 1975, and The Cross and the Lynching Tree in 2011. In the latter work, he drew a parallel between Christ being hung on a tree by the religious order to elicit fear and keep the populace from defying them and the thousands of lynchings performed for the same end. He also described how both symbols had been transformed from symbols of fear and dread, to symbols of hope and liberty: both Christ and black Americans had overcome and conquered the terrors they endured.

Dr. Cone, along with Gustavo Gutiérrez, pioneered social justice centered theology in the form of Black Liberation Theology and Liberation Theology respectively. These two theologians dared to challenge the religious order of their day and called attention to the Protestant and Catholic church’s hypocritical dismissals of oppression as "God's plan." Cone’s message is still relevant today as the contemporary church finds itself absorbed and corrupted by capitalist ideology to challenge our society’s worship of wealth and consumption at the expense of humanity. As we reflect on and benefit from his contributions, let’s honor the legacy of Dr. James H. Cone by committing to justice for all. Let's continue to fight the good fight until the work is done. Let's make the effort to do as Cone attempted to do, and be a voice for the voiceless of God's children

William Bethea was born and raised in Trenton, NJ. He is an ordained elder in Bibleway Churches Worldwide. He studied at Drexel University in Philly and Rider University in New Jersey where he graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in Political Science. William is married with two children and is a huge Sixers and Eagles fan. Follow him on Twitter at @ourownwells