James Hal Cone Speaks-Father of Black Theology

Some of Cone's quotes have drawn controversy, especially in the political context of the this years Presidential campaign as Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright noted that he had been inspired by Cone's theology.

For example, in his 1969 controversial book “Black Theology and Black Power”, Cone stated that "Either God is for black people in their fight for liberation and against the white oppressors, or he is not."

"Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community ... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."

Some scholars of black theology have noted that the controversial quotes do not neccesarily represent black theology as it is currently practiced or the views of people like Wright who practice it. Cone has responded to the controversy by noting that he was generally writing about white churches that did nothing to oppose slavery and segregation and not about white people as individuals.

Though Obama condemned the most inflammatory rhetoric of pastor Wright, Cone has cited Wright's Trinity church as one of the first examples he would cite of putting liberation theology into practice. Commenting on Obama's presidential candidacy, Cone traced a direct line from Martin Luther King Jr. (through Wright) to Barack Obama: in 1964, King significantly referenced audacity and hope. Cone told Newsweek that in Obama's rhetoric "the fierce urgency of now comes from his church," and he views Obama as a prophetic figure who, like King, embodies the wish for "a society without racial conflict and racial oppression