James Cone

Though I’m a white non-Christian I experienced Glenn Beck’s recent diatribe against “dangerous” Black Liberation Theology as a personal insult. I went to Union Theological Seminary, the home of James Cone, and a founding author of Black Liberation Theology. As a Jewish student entering Protestant Union Theological Seminary I was a minority. Not surprisingly it waswith Union’s black evangelical students that I felt the greatest measure of acceptance. Many of these students came to Union to learn how to integrate their evangelical faith with Cone’s theology.

Prior to my time at Union like many liberals I associated the term “evangelical” with two things: conservative politics and angry white people from the red states. I assumed that the being “born again” meant that you became a registered Republican. It was my encounter with black evangelical students that changed my views. I quickly learned that one could be a self defined “evangelical” and also an advocate for social justice.