Are You in the Bible?

By: Rev. Angela Lee Price

Quick, can you name three black people in the Bible? Are You in the Bible? You will never know if you are not in it daily - reading it, that is. Exploring the Black presence in the Bible is important today like never before. Many African Americans don’t know the truth of their heritage. They think the Bible is a “white man’s book” due primarily to erroneous all-white depictions of Bible stories in some Bibles, and on television, and our failure to counter those errors with the truth of Scripture.

The Lord says my people perish for lack of knowledge. Far too many African Americans are perishing because they do not know who they are and from whence they came. They don’t know that the origins of civilization began in Africa, that Egypt is in Africa, and that science, geometry, and astronomy originated in Africa. Many people believe Jesus was a white man with blue eyes and long, blond hair. A pervasive lack of knowledge about self, heritage and history, is having an extremely damaging psychological impact upon the psyche of our people.

While the goal should not to romanticize the black presence in the Bible, I believe exploring the black presence in the Word of God to be of paramount importance to the spiritual well being of people of color. It helps us in our quest to grow in spiritual maturity and learn about Jesus. It helps us to better relate to Africans from the Motherland and become more sensitive to the plight of people of African descent. It helps us explain with dignity our heritage to other cultures of the world. Finally, it gives us life more abundantly.

In the pictures seated from left to right is the leadership team of my Sunday school class, Learning About Jesus. Seated from left to right: Sylvia Harper, the Missions/Ministry Coordinator; Marilyn Swinney, Class Administrator; Mattie Smith, Evangelism Coordinator; and standing left to right: me, Teacher; Karen Martin, Co-teacher; and Adrianne Braxton, Activities Coordinator, and Cozett Benson-Curry, Prayer Leader (not pictured). We cordially invite you to attend our class. Bring your Bibles and break the Bread of Life with us as we learn about Jesus, share testimonies, and grow in the Christian faith Sunday mornings at 8:30 a.m. at St. Stephen Church, 1018 South 15th Street, Louisville, KY.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus Saves!

James Cone And the Legitmizing of Black Theology

By: Rev. Angela Lee Price

At the height of the Black Power Movement at a time when strong voices where needed to speak truth to power regarding the African American predicament in America, the Lord put fire in the bones of theologian James H. Cone, using him as a trailblazing catalyst in the development of black theology. James Cone is currently the Charles A Briggs Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. James Cone spoke on the subject of the black church and success in the following video clip from Tavis Smiley's 2003 State of the Black Union IV, The Black Church: Relevant, Repressive, Or Reborn?



In 2006, James Cone caused a stir by declining an honorary degree at the Interdenominational Theological Center Commencement Exercises after discovering that “prosperity preacher” Eddie Long would deliver the commencement address. Cone’s legendary spirit of protest some 39 years has led him to become a major voice in social justice for people of color. At the penning of books, Black Theology and Black Power (1969) and A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), he became known in black church and academic circles as the Father of Black Theology. Cone’s greatest accomplishment to systematic theology has been in successfully positioning black theology as a studied discipline within Christian theology.

James Cone in laying the foundation for legitimizing black theology called upon a range of Protestant theologians from Karl Bath to Jurgen Moltmann, and on the writings of Paul Tillich and others to prove that a theology rooted in the black experience was as legitimate as any. Cone based black theology upon a classical interpretation of the Christian faith. Black theologian Gayraud Wilmore in the book, Black Religion and Black Radicalism stated, “Cone showed how a radical but historically accurate exegesis of the biblical story leads to the conclusion that black power is an expression of the gospel in a particular situation of oppression” (Wilmore, p. 214).

Using terms like “being” and “nonbeing” with regard to white racism and black opposition to it, Cone found in the Protestant writings correlative ideas to argue that black theology was a theology of black liberation and that the message of the gospel was one of liberation. Cone wrote in a statement of the National Commission of Black Churches against the backdrop of the Black Manifesto in the late 1960’s:

Black people affirm their being. This affirmation is made in the whole experience of being black in the hostile American society. Black theology is not a gift of the Christian gospel dispensed to slaves, rather it is an appropriation which black slaves made of the gospel given by their white oppressors. Black theology has been nurtured, sustained and passed on in the black churches in their various ways of expression. Black theology has dealt with all the ultimate and violent issues of life and death for a people despised and degraded (Wilmore and Cone in Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966-1979, p.100-102 found in Wilmore, Black Religion And Black Radicalism, p. 215).

Very early in his discourse, Cone answered the question, is black theology Christian theology? He wrote, “Black Theology is Christian theology precisely because it has the black predicament at its point of departure.” Wilmore stated, “But in an effort to lay the foundation for a systematic theology of black experience that met the requirement of universality, Cone added:

Being black in America has very little to do with your skin color. To be black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are….Therefore, being reconciled to God does not mean that one’s skin is physically black. It essentially depends on the color of your heart, soul and mind (Cone, Black Theology and Black Power, p. 151 found in Wilmore, p. 217).

In A Black Theology of Liberation, Cone also borrowed from Paul Tillich’s writings to further develop his position. Cone wrote, "The focus on blackness does not mean that only blacks suffer as victims in a racist society, but that blackness is an ontological symbol and a visible reality which best describes what oppression means in America…..Blackness, then, stands for all victims of oppression who realize that their humanity is inseparable from man’s liberation from whiteness (Cone, Black Theology of Liberation, p.27-28).

Cone was criticized for using orthodox Eurocentric Christian constructs in developing black theology and postulating Jesus was black and on the side of the oppressed. His critics believed he should have drawn upon the black church fathers, black history, and black culture for its genesis. Wilmore wrote:

To say that being black in America has little to do with skin color is true, but only a half-truth and capable of gross misunderstanding. It is possible to argue that in a world dominated by white power that is inextricable from white Christianity, being black, or identifiably “Negroid,” is a unique experience that has, since the contact of African peoples with the white Christian West, produced a unique religion – closely related to, but not exclusively bound by, the classic Christian tradition. That, in fact, is the reason for the emergence of a black theology. Simply being oppressed, or psychologically and politically in empathy with the dispossessed, does not deliver one into the experience of blackness any more than putting on a blindfold delivers one into the experience of being blind (Wilmore, 218).

In retrospect, however, Cone had only done in developing his thesis what white church fathers had done for centuries in borrowing upon the constructs and languages of other disciplines. The church fathers had done it in using philosophy to explain Christianity. Delores S. Williams made reference to the fact with regard to the atonement in her book Sisters In the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk. Williams wrote, “…theologians since the time of Ireanaeus and Origen have been trying to make the Christian idea of atonement believable by shaping theories about it in the language and thought of the people of a particular time….(Williams, p. 162)

Furthermore, Cone did lay an African American foundation when he wrote, "Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, and Denmark Vesey are examples of free persons. They realized that freedom and death were inseparable. The mythic value of their existence for the black community is incalculable, because they represent the personification of the possibility of being in the midst of nonbeing – the ability to be black in the presence of whiteness (Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, p. 102). "

The significant contribution of theologian James Cone to systematic theology has been his efforts in legitimizing black theology. The preponderance of what has been written over the past 39 years on black theology recognizes his contributions in this area. Cone borrowed upon the motifs of Black Nationalist Malcolm X and others in developing black theology “by any means necessary.” Since his fight was against the Euro-centric Christian establishment, he used the foundations of that establishment, in the writings of Protestant theologians and church fathers, to say that black theology deserved its rightful place with the halls of academia.

Cone did not mix words in A Black Theology of Liberation, nor in his others works for that matter, in communicating the horrific role Euro-centric institutions and religion played in supporting white racism and oppressing people of color. Cone was extremely militant for example in saying Jesus was black. I agree with Gayraud Wilmore that perhaps Cone should have drawn more upon the poor black community, ancestors like W.E.B. DuBois, David Walker, Richard Allen, Sojourner Truth, and others, and our African heritage in pouring the foundation for his two-story building of faith and reason. His critics, like Henry H. Mitchell, failed to come up with solutions that eclipsed Cone’s efforts. So, to the extent that black liberation theology is currently studied in most major American universities, Christian colleges, and historically black colleges and universities, Cone’s strategy worked brilliantly.

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A research paper excerpt. This paper originally written to satisfy requirements for a Christian Theology class at Simmons College of Kentucky, Fall 2007.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

The Reconciliation of Liberation

By: Rev. Angela Lee Price

An esteemed theologian and preeminent scholar, Rev. Dr. J. Deotis Roberts is best known as a founder of Black Theology or the Black Liberation Movement. Black Theology and Black Liberation reached its peak in America at the height of the Black Power Movement in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Its proponents sought to present Jesus Christ and Christian theology through the lenses of black culture and the black religious experience as a means to overcome the effects of slavery and institutional racism in order to liberate the minds and change the dire circumstances of oppressed people of color. Roberts, more so than James Cone, who is known as the father of Black Liberation Theology, offered a more biblical approach to black liberation by including reconciliation, a Biblical mandate, as a necessary component of liberation.

I conducted a brief radio interview with Dr. Roberts on 1350 WLOU the morning of May 17, 2007 wherein Roberts elaborated on the impact his travels abroad in the early 1960’s had on shaping his theological perspective on the reconciliation of liberation:

Angela: ...So, as you began to experience the diversities within cultures and the peoples that you came in contact with, that helped to shape and mold how you perceived theology…?

Dr. Roberts: Yes,…in the middle 1960’s I had a world tour of the religions in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. So, I knew about cultures other than my own long before the black theology movement emerged. For example, I was moved by my time in Japan. I spent two months in India in the middle ‘60’s and I saw the poverty and need there before I began to address the situation in the U.S.

I was drawn back to this country when I was studying abroad because Martin Luther King was beginning to address the civil rights problems we had, and I wanted to come back and join that movement. So, all that happened prior to the emergence of black power. That led into my position. I wanted to bring the King and Civil Rights Movement experience to the Black Power Movement. That was a dimension that I had because of my age and my involvement prior to the Black Power Movement. Both came together in my thoughts and that’s the reason why liberation and reconciliation were addressed. Cone addressed liberation, and I thought that was not sufficient because of my experience and knowledge, so I began to bring the two together. That’s the genesis of that dialogue.

Dr. J. Deotis Roberts set himself apart from black theologians by advocating reconciliation as a component of black liberation. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “…God…has given us a ministry of reconciliation.” We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:19, “… in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.”

Roberts penned his best-known book, Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology in 1971 in response to James Cone’s A Black Theology of Liberation, published in 1970. Roberts asserted that reconciliation was the “balancing” component of liberation. On the reconciliation of liberation, Roberts wrote in the preface of second edition of Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology, page xiii:

"...the balance between liberation and reconciliation remains essential in our pluralistic society....Dr. King's warning, that we either learn to live together as friends or die as fools, is obvious for all thoughtful people. When reconciliation is elevated to its proper ethical level and Christian understanding, it requires serious attention to liberation from social injustices. It cannot be conceived as mere sentimentality or ‘cheap grace.’ Reconciliation requires repentance, forgiveness, and cross-bearing. Thus, I would opt for maintaining a balance between liberation and reconciliation."

Although an advocate for reconciliation, Roberts opposed integration as a goal. In chapter eight of Liberation and Reconciliation, he stated, “The slave-master, servant-boss, inferior-superior mentality underlie all integration schemes in which whites write the agenda. This is why I am against integration.” He advocated reconciliation with co-equal collaboration between races as the goal. On page 94, he wrote:

"Positively, it enables blacks to appreciate their own heritage to the extent that they consider it a worthy commodity to be shared with others. In this manner, liberation leads to reconciliation between equals. This position is productive for the psychological and sociological health of blacks. It is needed for a right perspective for better race relations. It is consistent with an understanding of God as lovingly just, the dignity of all persons, the sinfulness of all, and their reconciliation with God and with one another through Jesus Christ."

Cone, although more outspoken than Roberts, with his “by-any-means-necessary “ approach to Black Theology was a major catalyst for Black Theology’s thrust onto the world stage. He wrote on page 98 of A Black Theology of Liberation, “No black person will ever be good enough in the eyes of whites to merit equality. Therefore, if blacks are to have freedom, they must take it, by any means necessary.” However, he was less thorough and biblical in his critique in omitting the key biblical principle of reconciliation from his writings.

In summary, at the height of the Black Power Movement at a time when strong voices where needed to speak truth to power, the Lord put fire in the bones of black theologians J. Deotis Roberts, James Cone, Albert Cleage, Dwight Hopkins, Delores S. Williams, Gayraud Wilmore, Katie Cannon, Jacqueline Grant, Cornel West, and many other men and women of God. J. Deotis Roberts credits James Cone with the rediscovery of the black man’s religious genius in the late 1960’s on page 147 of his book, A Black Political Theology. And had it not been for the bold, in-your-face style of James Cone and his powerful book, A Black Theology of Liberation, I don’t know if I would have been as interested in the subject as I am. I had to admit to Dr. Roberts in my interview with him that I was not as familiar with his works as I was with those of Cone and others. However, after speaking with him and securing and perusing two of his books at length, I must say that I am blessed to have had corrected in my consciousness the oversight of his tremendous contribution to black theology and black liberation. I highly recommend adding to your library books on black liberation this Christmas season.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

Dr. J. Deotis Roberts Speaks At Simmons College of Kentucky

By: Min. Angela Lee Price

Rev. Dr. J. Deotis Roberts visited Simmons College of Kentucky on May 17th to the delight of students, faculty, staff, and the community. An esteemed theologian, Roberts is best known as a founder of Black Theology or the Black Liberation Movement. He has taught at several major universities, and has written 14 books and over 100 scholarly articles over his 60-year career.

Rev. Michael Lee, an associate minister and the Sunday School superintendent at Joshua Missionary Baptist Church brought several teachers with him to the lecture. “Ordinarily, we would be in teachers’ meeting on Thursdays, but I cancelled it tonight so that we would not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Rev. Lee.

Dr. Roberts reflected on his life experiences as a theologian and opened the floor to questions from the audience. When asked why he included reconciliation in his perspective, he said he and his colleagues at Howard University felt obligated to speak on black liberation in the 1960’s, and that his career pre-dated James Cone’s, who is known as the father of the Black Liberation Movement. “James Cone’s perspective was inadequate in that it did not address reconciliation, a central Gospe1 message,” Roberts explained.

I asked him to elaborate on his position on women in the ministry. He said it was hypocritical for black male preachers to point out the errors of oppressors in literally interpreting Scripture to perpetuate slavery, "Slaves obey your masters....," while literally interpret Scripture themselves to keep women out of the pulpit, "Women keep quite in the church...."

Simmons College of Kentucky President Dr. Kevin Cosby. announced Dr. Roberts as the first renown guest lecturer in the Marshall B. Lanier Lecture Series, named in honor of Marshall B. Lanier, a past Simmons president and 50-year professor.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

A Black Theology Founder, Dr. J. Deotis Roberts Speaks at Simmons College of Kentucky May 17th

By: Rev. Angela Lee Price

Don't miss these three wonderful opportunities to hear from one of the most brilliant black minds in the world. Known as one of the founders of Black Theology, preeminent scholar Rev. Dr. J. Deotis Roberts will speak tomorrow night at Simmons College of Kentucky, Yates Chapel, 1811 Dumesnil Street, 7:00 p.m. You can get a preview of what you don't want to miss when Rev. Dr. Roberts, speaks with me for about 10 minutes, tomorrow morning at 7:05 a.m. on the Bill Price Morning Show and again Friday at 4:00 p.m. on Jesus Saves Ministries LIVE! on 1350 WLOU, Louisville's Praise and Worship Station!

Dr. Roberts is the founder and president of the J. Deotis Roberts Research Library and Institute. He is the author of fourteen books and over one hundred scholarly articles. He is regarded as one of the most prominent theologians in the world. He has taught at Howard Divinity School, Yale University, Duke University, Eastern Baptist Seminary and Palmer Theological Seminary. He is the former past president of the highly regarded Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

On liberation and reconciliation, Roberts wrote in the second edition of Liberation and Reconcilation: A Black Theology, page xiii, "...the balance between liberation and reconciliation remains essential in our pluralistic society....Dr. King's warning, that we either learn to live together as friends or die as fools, is obvious for all thoughtful people."

On the black Messiah, he wrote on page 71, "...there is a preconscious assumption that if Christ is to be worthy of devotion, he must be a member of the white race....I do not need to agree with (Albert)Cleage's version of the black Messiah to see the need for a black understanding of christology. Since the black experience has been disregarded in other versions of christology, there is a need to make Christ and his message speak directly to the black person."

On women in the ministry he wrote in his 1994 book, Prophethood of Black Believers: An African American Political Theology for Ministry, page 77, "I do not see how black male ministers will much longer be able to deny their claims to bona fide ministerial leadership. This situation is not merely an embarrassment. It is one of the major sins of black male leadership in the church. For this sin, we need forgiveness and repentance."

Please don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear Rev. Dr. J. Deotis Roberts tomorrow night, Thursday, May 17th, Simmons College of Kentucky, 1811 Dumesnil Street, 7:00 p.m. There will be a book signing.

Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

Rev. Dr. J. Deotis Roberts to Speak At Simmons College of KY May 17th, 7:00 PM

J. Deotis Roberts is Founder and President of the J. Deotis Roberts Research Library and Institute. Author of more than fourteen books and over a hundred scholarly articles, Roberts is regarded as one of the most prominent theologians in the world. Known as one of the founders of the Black Theology movement, Professor Roberts complete his Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the University of Edinburgh, who later awarded him the D.Litt. degree. After his marriage to Elizabeth Caldwell of Landis, North Carolina, Dr. Roberts shortly thereafter was called to teach theology at the Howard University Divinity School in Washington, D.C. where he taught for many years.

Because of the tumultuous climate of the Black Power movement and student activism on Howard University’s campus, Roberts became actively engaged in the intersection between the question of Black liberation and classical theological notions of forgiveness and reconciliation. These reflections gave rise to his groundbreaking book, Liberation and Reconciliation, in 1971. Throughout his career, Dr. Roberts has taught at colleges, seminaries and universities across the country and internationally, including the Howard Divinity School, Yale University, Duke University, Eastern Baptist Seminary and Palmer Theological Seminary. He is also former president of the highly regarded American Theological Association and past president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia; and founder of the Foundation for Religious and Educational Exchange, Inc.

Reconciliation and dialogue have been the two abiding themes of Professor Roberts lengthy and distinguished career as theologian, minister, peacemaker, and activist. The recent author of Bonhoeffer and King: Speaking Truth to Power, Dr. Roberts is also father of three wonderful daughters (Charmaine, Carlita and Kristina), and son (the late J. Deotis Roberts, Jr.). His autobiography, Seasons of Life, will be released this summer.

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Remember, it is not Mohammad, Buddha, Confucius, nor New Age that saves. Jesus saves!

Mother Wit

By: Angela Lee Price

Mother To Son, by Langston Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor – bare.
But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on,
and reachin’ landin’s, and turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you sit down on the steps ‘cause you find it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now –
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me
ain’t been no crystal stair.

Proverbs 1: 7-9 (KJV)

(V7) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
(V8) My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
(V9) For they shall an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy
neck.”

The poem, Mother to Son by Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes is a classic and popular letter of counsel and encouragement. In it, a mother passionately admonishes her son to stay life’s challenging course as life for her “ain’t been no crystal stair.” Today, life still is no “crystal stair.” How we wisely handle life’s tacks, splinters, bare places - “places with no carpet on the floor,” is what the book of Proverbs is all about.

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom and instruction.” The Original African Heritage Study Bible explains this passage stating, “To the African/Edenic Hebrew the fear (respect) of God is the first step in worshiping the God of Israel,” and “When African people consider God to be omniscient, they are at the same time conferring upon Him the highest possible position of honor and respect, for wisdom commands great respect in African societies.”

In Hughes’ poem, the mother tells her son, “Don’t you set down on the steps ‘cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now - for I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, and life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Does the son respect the Lord and welcome his mother’s wisdom, or does he disrespect the Lord and reject her counsel? We have no way of knowing, for the poet does not provide answers to those questions. The Lord does, however, provide answers in the Bible to all questions. He makes it clear through Solomon in Proverbs Chapter 1 that following the godly instruction and teaching of father and mother will yield positive results, “an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck. (v9)”

(The picture, The Virtuous Woman was taken from The Original African Heritage Study Bible. Proverbs 1:7-9 can be found in the St. Stephen Church Get Some Sense Month July 2006 Study Guide: A Thirty-One Day Personal Meditation.)