Tuesday, November 03, 2009

I ALMOST Agree with James Cone

This is a video clip from Cone's appearance at Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union a few years back. I can agree with some of Cone's critique of the predominantly African-American (and for that matter, American0 church, but notice the distortions. How many can you count in this 7-minute clip?



And it's the stuff that he almost gets right that is the most poisonous and dangerous. Can anybody seriously maintain that this man, a professor of systematic theology, inadvertently misquoted Matthew 16:25 at the end of his comments? What he distorts is so critical to understanding everything that the misquote is sinister.

2 comments:

ajcarter said...

Cone's logic remains an enigma to me. I not have read or heard many more men who say so much, so eloquently, and yet in the end say nothing at all.

His critique of the "black" church is hypocritical because it is the fruit of his liberal, liberation theology. The chickens have come home to roost.

To the question of whether the "black" church has become too political, take a look at this article and see if the answer is not self-evident:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/nyregion/29ministers.html

Amazing and sad at the same time! What shall we do, T? What shall we do?

Wyeth Duncan said...

Several times, Cone comes very close to saying something true and useful. I think he knows exactly what he's saying, though. I think, in reality, he sees no point in losing one's life for Jesus's sake.

My experience has been that the black church has been undermined both by the well-meaning, but ignorant, preachers who unknowingly misuse the Scriptures and by the well-educated preachers like Cone who conceal their heresy with skillful eloquence.