The Cross and the Lynching Tree

by James H. Cone

16] Hate and white supremacy lead to violence and alienation, while love and the cross lead to nonviolence and reconciliation.

One cannot correctly understand the black religious experience without an affirmation of deep faith informed by profound doubt. Suffering naturally gives rise to doubt. How can one believe in God in the face of such horrendous suffering as slavery, segregation, and the lynching tree? Under these circumstances, doubt is not a denial but an integral part of faith. It keeps faith from being sure of itself. But doubt does not have the final word. The final word is faith giving rise to hope.

I could not find one sermon or theological essay, not to mention a book, opposing lynching by a prominent liberal white preacher.[32]

White supremacy tears faith to pieces and turns the heart away from God.

Through private prisons and the “war against drugs,” whites have turned the brutality of their racist legal system into a profit-making venture for dying white towns and cities throughout America.