James Cone

James Cone is another of Bill Moyers interviewees. He is a black theologian who “grew up in the shadow of the lynching tree. The lynching tree story goes back to a time when black children wanted to sit under the same tree that white children sat at school and asked school authorities for permission to do that. Then three nooses where hung from that tree. The school didn’t take the incident seriously but after a bit of violence and the arrest of black students for 2^nd degree murder the case took on newsworthy significance; the students were called the Jena Six. After a public outcry charges were reduced. Moyers also relates the song sang by Billy Holliday, “Strange Fruit” which also relates to lynching of blacks.

Recently I learned that following the civil war, slavery continued but in the form of arrest and threats of black people. They were arrested primarily in the south on any convenient charge and the “sold” to white folk to work wherever. This continued up to WWII.

Back to Cone who teaches systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Who uses the symbol of lynching to compare to the Cross Christ died upon. He uses that imagery to talk to his classes and elsewhere which often makes white folk tend to cringe. It rather puts we white folk in the place of the Romans who crucified Christ; a bad feeling.

Then I thought of an old secretary of mine who would frequently disagree with the parables Jesus told as being basically unfair. The one that comes to mind was the prodigal son who asked for and got his inheritance and then lived a frivolous life only to return home broke and dispirited. Whereupon his father threw a party much to the consternation of the prodigal’s son who had stayed home and worked. “It’s not fair,” she would say. What I saw at work in this thinking is that she saw herself as the faithful home staying son and not the prodigal. The point I believe Jesus was making is that we are all prodigals who run away from God on a constant basis and then come back begging when life turns against us. It is a matter of who you identify with. Thus oppressed folk often have an easier time understanding the gospel good news because of that oppression.

In the past I identified with the civil rights movement and wanted to march against the social inequity. I had empathy with the women’s movement and became part of the church work to work on equality, and so on. Then it was pointed out to me by a caring person who actually belonged to one of those oppressed groups that I was not black nor a woman and I should spend my time working with white folk to change attitudes of prejudice and wrong doing. So, now I understand I am not a black, female, lesbian, Jew or Arab, blind, crippled endangered species etc. But I am a person who seeks to follow in the path of Jesus doing things in thanks to God and for my brothers and sisters no matter what the color, creed or belief system is. And I am the prodigal who forgets that constantly and comes crawling back to God for forgiveness and acceptance.

We constantly have to ask ourselves are we the oppressors or the oppressees? I think that is a large part of the Marches on Wall Street are about; the feeling of oppression. And to a lesser extent it is also reflected in the Tea Party movement, but neither group has a clear agenda; they just feel oppressed. If that feeling leads us to reform and to promote the common good, then these movements will have a positive effect upon our society. If they seek just to become part of the oppressors, we will have moved nowhere.

I also wonder about the upper 1% of the population and how they see themselves. Do they see themselves as the suppressors, those who lynch, or the crucifiers? Or do they justify their position the way we humans justify themselves? Or do they see themselves as the faithful sons who stayed at home and deserve their father’s/countries’ blessings?

While we seek justice and equity in our country, we also need to acknowledge our own prideful ways and own up to the fact that we are all prodigals.

The good I see coming from the current unrest in the country is in realizing that folk looking upon a man on a cross, lynched by his oppressors, began a movement that changed the world and still can. But for that to happen we always need to accept the humility of the prodigal.