James H. Cone - Black Theology and Black Power (1969)

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To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people!

James H. Cone
The Christian does not decide between violence and nonviolence, evil and good. He decides between the less and the greater evil.

James H. Cone
Being black in America has little to do with skin color. Being black means that your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body are where the dispossessed are.

James H. Cone
Therefore, simply to say that Jesus did not use violence is no evidence relevant to the condition of black people as they decide on what to do about white oppression.

James H. Cone
Racism is a complete denial of the Incarnation and thus of Christianity.... If there is any contemporary meaning of the Antichrist (or "the principalities and powers"), the white church seems to be a manifestation of it. It was the white "Christian" church which took the lead in establishing slavery as an institution and segregation as a pattern in society by sanctioning all-white congregations.

James H. Cone
The revolution which Black Theology advocates … [means] confronting white racists and saying: 'If it's a fight you want, I am prepared to oblige you.' This is what the black revolution means.

James H. Cone
Black Power seeks not understanding but conflict; addresses blacks and not whites; seeks to develop black support, but not white good will.

James H. Cone
We cannot solve ethical questions of the twentieth century by looking at what Jesus did in the first. Our choices are not the same as his. Being Christians does not mean following 'in his steps.'

James H. Cone
'People should love each other' sounds like Riis Park at sundown. It has very little meaning to the world at large.

James H. Cone
Whether the American system is beyond redemption we will have to wait and see. But we can be certain that black patience has run out, and unless white America responds positively to the theory and activity of Black Power, then a bloody, protracted civil war is inevitable.

James H. Cone