Interfaith Book Group discussion

Discussion of The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone, facilitated by Nina

For those of you who, like me, are moved by music, here is a link to a song that speaks to the emotional impact of the lynching tree, "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bckob...

I started to read this book, which is bringing up some old issues for me -- that criticism of black people for any reason or of black writers is often viewed as racist. I wonder if any of you feeling critical of anything this author wrote brought up that issue.

I started getting sensitive about this issue during the Civil Rights time period in the 60s and 70s. When I was a college sophomore, year I roomed next to three black girls who loudly partied many nights, often until three in the morning. I was very studious, and certainly could not sleep or concentrate due to the noise. I hesitated to complain but eventually did, to them and to the house manager, but that made little difference, so I moved to another dorm.

When I was moving, one of the women confronted me, asking me if I was moving out because they were black. I said "No, I would be moving out if you were white; I'm moving out because of the noise you all make late at night."

ANYWAY, reading the chapter that seems to be one long quiet tirade against Reinhold Niebuhr, the theologian who was dedicated to fighting injustice, irritated me and soon made me angry. In college I majored in religion and studied Niebuhr, whom I really admired.

But reading the chapter in this book criticizing Neiburh, I felt angry, and got self-conscious about criticizing a black author for his many-paged criticism of a fighter for injustice for not also taking on the cause of justice for blacks in the manner that the author thought he should!

Why on earth did Dr. Cone spend so many pages criticizing Niebuhr for primarily speaking out against racism but only being involved a few times in actual in-person racial injustice events - though he was involved directly in many other fights against injustice? If you're going to criticize leaders, why not criticize those who were racist, and not taking any stand against injustice?

Niebuhr was a theologian and an intellectual. . He was stretched very thin with the causes he was actively supporting - and did far more to support justice in a number of realms than most leaders in the 20th century. But he couldn't give himself personally to every important and unjust cause.

Niebuhr also believed that change happened slowly, and supported and acted for slow change, knowing that if he supported radicial change, as a theologian, he would undermine what he was able to accomplish, helping create significant change WITHIN the system. One can not not usually be effective enough (and take care of oneself) if one spreads oneself too thin.

Clearly, Niebuhr's failure to do what Dr. Cone wanted hit to do, triggered strong reaction in Niebuhr (and his criticism is triggering a strong reaction in me!

Anyway, I think it's important for all of us to be able to express what we find meaningful in this book (probably a lot) but also to freely express any criticisms that we have. Meanwhile, as I finish the book, I remain open to all else that the author wrote.

As you read and explore the many feelings which might be raised by this book, here is a sermon delivered by Dr. Cone at a Conference in 2012.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lhPN...

I am very appreciative of this book being selected. as a Jewish person often have a feeling of discomfort around the cross, both as an instrument of torture and the false accusation that the Jews killed Jesus. and at times in regard to the former aspect it has occurred to me the similarity of the cross and the lynching tree. Tracy i will listen to "Strange Fruit". my non linear mind now thinks of the movie "Lady Sings the Blues" and remembering Billie Holliday's singing of this made a lot of white people uncomfortable.
as a white person I need to look deeply at this book we are reading. I know there is a museum in the south that has a exhibit of soil taken from all the places lynching happened. there were apparently many many small jars of dirt. realizing the irony of American exceptionalism.
only starting this book and hoping to learn much from it.

adding/correcting. it was Nina who posted the link to "Strange Fruit" not Tracy.

Tracy I also have the habit of delving deep into things and as you already know I write long emails and posts too. so totally get it. I think as a book loving groups we likely tend to not be afraid of long writing. so go ahead post away without apology.
I really appreciate your thoughtful writing.

Just starting chapter 2. and what is coming up for me at the part that speaks of crucifixion as a PSA, a message to not disobey.
the following sentence sprang to mind: the lynching of George Floyd. I know he was never hung on a tree, was not technically lynched. but forgive me my nonlinear thinking. his death was, like the crucifixion of Jesus but unlike most lynching. he was remembered and made a huge difference. i also contrast the crucifixion with the Holocaust. where there were thousands of horrible deaths daily. and with deaths in war whether from bombs, hunger. and to me what we need to do is remove the deindividuation. the aggregation. of mass killing of human beings. it needs to be one by one by one. we need to remember. not just all of them but each.
just my stream of consciousness thoughts on the fly.

I too thought of the Holocaust, Laurie, and was aware that lynching per se has been more literally true for black people and more directly related to the cross (being hung).....but basically the Holocaust and other genocides and racist-related murders are also a kind of lynching. In recent years, I've become very aware of the connection between the Jewish experience and the black experience.

I too easily start relating the idea of lynching to my experience being raised as Jew (in an antisemitic neighborhood). But as I read, I'm trying to stay literally with the black experience.

Not being Christian or black, it is a bit alien to me. But I've talked a lot with my housecleaner/personal care attendant - a black evangelical Christian Haitian - about her experience in Haiti and why she fled to the U.S. Directly getting her perspective has been helpful.

I am now on Chapter 4. and wanted to ask a question. Do you agree with Walter White, national secretary of the NAACP , who is quoted in that chapter as saying that lynching could only possibly exist under Christisnity, that it could not have existed under any other religion?
I am just trying to wrap my head around this point.
I am white and non Christian so I am reading this book from a dually limited outsider perspective. Except of course growing up steeped in white privilege as a white child. so I am a part of this whether I admit it or not.

I think all religions can oppress. i am
thinking perhaps each religion has the capacity for inflicting specific form of oppression?

STRANGE FRUIT LYRICS

[Verse 1]
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

[Verse 2]
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

[Verse 3]
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

I am sharing the questions here, but Smith will be sending them in an email very soon.

Questions for Reflection June 2025
“The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James H. Cone

1. On page xiv, Dr. Cone states, “Unfortunately, during the course of 2,000 years of Christian history, this symbol of salvation [the cross] has been detached from any reference to the ongoing suffering and oppression of human beings…..” Do you agree?

Did it ever occur to you to link the cross and lynchings in this country?

2. Much of Chapter Two seems to imply dissatisfaction on the part of Dr. Cone for the theology and examples of Reinhold Niebuhr. Do you think there is some justification for Dr. Cone’s critic, on page 41, that “Niebuhr had “eyes to see” black suffering, but I believe he lacked the “heart to feel” it as his own? Is it enough to reason regarding injustice, or does our faith demand an active response that moves us and society toward some resolution of injustice?

3. On page 82, Dr. Cone makes the statement “King connected the story of the black struggle for dignity with the biblical story of Calvary. In merging the two stories, he was enabled to face his own coming death.” Then on the next page writes, “With the cross at the center of his faith, he could even love the people he knew were trying to kill him, following Jesus’ example on the cross.” How does this observation illuminate the power of King’s work and legacy as a leader of the civil rights movement in America? How does it illuminate the Christian faith?

4. How do the works of black artists reveal something different about the cross? Do depictions of Jesus or Mary as black bring additional depth to the story of the cross or the lynching tree?

5. On p. 125, we read, “The faith of black women gave them courage to fight, patience when they could not, and the hope that whatever they did, God would keep them “from sinking down.”” Various faith declarations are mentioned, like: “God may not come when you want but God is right on time” or “making a way out of no way”……Do any of these declarations speak to you? Why and how?

6. How does linking the cross of Jesus from the Christian faith tradition with the lynching treechange the impact of either? Does that impact filter into how other faith traditions, other than the Christian faith, might inform our understanding of our role in responding to ongoing issues of racism and the legacy of both the cross and the lynching tree?

Another resource for at least the idea of seeing Jesus (and Mary) as black is the movie "The Secret Life of Bees" with Queen Latifah and Dakotah Fanning.

Nina asked: "Do you think there is some justification for Dr. Cone’s critic, on page 41, that “Niebuhr had “eyes to see” black suffering, but I believe he lacked the “heart to feel” it as his own? "

I'm still very irritated with Cone's criticism of Niebuhr, one of my heroes for 54 years. I'd like to ask Dr. Cone: "Did you feel the suffering of Jewish victims of the Holocaust as if it was your own suffering? Have you felt throughout your life the suffering of Native Americans of past and present as if it was your own suffering? Do you feel the suffering of every racial or religious group that has been badly exploited and even murdered for years as if it was your own?

Isn't enough to deeply feel the suffering of some groups and take action regarding them, but just to acknowledge the suffering and exploitations of other groups and speak out against it? Isn't that significant in and of itself? Are you at fault for not "feeling as if it's your own" the suffering of every race or religious group that has been exposed to great injustice and suffering especially for decades or centuries? Cone clearly has an issue with Niebuhr - maybe related to feeling betrayed by a "father figure"....

I don't have issues with anything else that Cone wrote - most of it I knew but what I didn't know was enlightening. Not being black or Christian, this book really challenged me to step "outside the box" of my own experience.

replying to Tracy's question about if feeling suffering as our own is necessary to do justice.
I do not feel it is POSSIBLE to feel someone else's suffering as our own. we can guess how we think they feel. if we are very empathic (I do not identify as an empath but as a compassionate person) we feel what we perceive as their feeling. but i do not think any of us actually feel the feeling of another as our own.
and there is a danger in thinking we do. that danger is that of making the situation about ourself. centering our feeling for others.
I think what we should and must do id focus on what we can do to reduce the suffering, but first finding out what those suffering need and want and responding.

Laurie wrote: "I am now on Chapter 4. and wanted to ask a question. Do you agree with Walter White, national secretary of the NAACP , who is quoted in that chapter as saying that lynching could only possibly exis..."

Tracy wrote: "I too thought of the Holocaust, Laurie, and was aware that lynching per se has been more literally true for black people and more directly related to the cross (being hung).....but basically the Ho..."

I questioned that statement also. Certainly a lot of religions have done a lot of terrible things but I don't really know the answer.

This was a very difficult book to read for many reasons but I think it's an important book. I'm glad we will be discussing it.

Very fitting that we are discussing this book today. as it is Juneteenth

It is also the 61 st anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Amendment.

Read, if you haven't. The Boy Who Painted Christ Black, a short story by John Henrik Clarke. Very Powerful.

Try this link for Black Maddonna.
https://photos.google.com/u/1/photo/A...
Sorry I don't know how to post picture,

Here's a link to take an online, free test about implicit bias:
https://www.learningforjustice.org/pr...

Here's a link to read about white privilege ("Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" - Peggy McIntosh):
https://admin.artsci.washington.edu/s...

Louise wrote:
"Sorry I don't know how to post picture.

If it's not on the Internet, you can go to PHOTOS on the top right of this page and add a photo there.

If anyone is interested, I added a photo of a Black Madonna and Child Statue that I took when I was in Cape Town in August 2019. Probably not the Black Madonna that Louise tried to share, but an awesome piece of art. There are several Black Madonna depictions if you search, from many areas of the world.

Thank you, Nina, for leading a very stimulating discussion! This book brought up a lot for many of us.....

Thank you Nina. and to everybody whi attended. This discussion gave much to think about and food for growth and learning.