Wednesday, April 6, 2011
NPR Interview: Black Liberation Theology
Here is a link to an interview with James Cone that I found on NPR. The interview was conducted in May of 2008 and refers very briefly to Reverend Wright at the beginning. This interview does a fine job of explaining the purpose, development, and intentions of black Liberation theology. Most interesting to me, was a portion at the beginning discussing Mr. Cone's influences, particularly Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
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I find this interview very interesting. Hearing the words of James Cone made black liberation theology make even more sense to me. My favorite part of the interview was when Cone spoke of King's Christian teachings of loving your enemy. He followed this by explaining how one must first love him or herself before he or she can begin trying to love the enemy. The fact that "the worst crime people have created is to teach black people to hate themselves", makes it so obvious why black people would have had such trouble loving themselves at this time. It makes so much sense - of course they would look up to something higher to find the love to be able to love themselves first. Who else would they be able to find their beautiful and significant identity in while surrounded by such a powerful environment of racism? When this was such a large part of black peoples' everyday lives, black liberation theology is necessary, positive, beneficial, and loving. I realize that racism is not completely present these days, but we must remember that it is still present in some places and some situations. Even if slavery was no longer present at all, it is still very recent and very significant history that has affected everyone.
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