Remembering James Cone

A Poem upon reading James Cone 

It’s always “too soon” to talk about oppression and liberation

The conservative assumption that things should be as they were

During the "good old days" that were so bad for so many

Combines with the liberal assumption that we should not rock the boat

And instead allow change to occur by a million tiny increments

Until we postpone any real change indefinitely into the future of God

So that real change always recedes from before our eyes

Like a cloud

Like a sunset

Like the infinitely deferred hope of the Second Coming

And perhaps not “like”

Perhaps it “is”

It is the infinitely deferred hope of the Second Coming

Infinitely deferred 

By our complicity with death and destruction

By our complicity with oppression and apathy

By our complicity with the Cross and the Lynching Tree. 



A Postscript to Poetry

I respect Cone greatly with a hard earned respect. There is only one book during seminary I threw across a room in disgust while reading it. In 2005 it was Cone’s “Black Theology of Liberation”. It was the first time I had read critiques so damning of Western Religion from the perspective of a historically oppressed group. At that time I was mightily struggling with being “liberal” versus being “conservative” as constructed by Euro-Anglo males (which was a big enough struggle at the time). To add in radical theology from oppressed people groups blew up my paradigms completely. 

When reading Cone’s damning critiques, the white conservative in me said: “That’s not fair Cone! We are simply restating the eternal truths of God’s Word!” But I didn’t realize then how my perspective on God’s Word was distorted by my access to wealth, power, and leisure. The budding bourgeoisie liberal in me came along and said “That’s not fair Cone! Haven’t we been sympathetic to your plight and given you people a place at the table!” But I didn’t realize that I was still juxtaposing “my” people with “your” people, and demanding that “we” kept our place of honor at the table. So late one night, in exasperation, with no one around, I threw his book in disgust at the wall. 

And I want to thank my seminary professor Theo Walker for exposing me to Cone, and for assigning me to "read, mark, and inwardly digest" Cone's Theology, even though he knew it would cause many of us to throw his book against the wall in tantrums such as these.

What I didn’t know was that this explosion was the sign of cracks forming in my mental walls to let more of God’s Radical Truth to drip through. It wasn’t overnight. And I’m not saying I’m woke, or as radical as I should be or could be. I’m also not saying I agree with Cone all the time. I still have significant disagreements with both Cone, and with the weaknesses of the identity politics which Cone and others spawned. It seems there are better ways to be radical, which avoid the myopias of classic conservatism and liberalism. But Cone was instrumental in helping me become a little less “bougie” than I had been before, and I think I can hear Jesus a little bit clearer now because of him. 

A few resources on James Cone:

Wikipedia on James Cone

Radical Journalist Chris Hedges on Cone's Legacy

The Cross and the Lynching Tree

A Black Theology of Liberation