Psalm 5

I loved this:

The Cross & the Lynching Tree

Well, your editor-in-chief has been back to the cutting room floor to edit another video! Unfortunately, I need to give the same caveat to this film I gave to my last - there are some grim scenes/themes in it! I'm going to get a reputation if I'm not careful!

I wanted to get away from the some of the abstract ways in which the cross is understood and wanted to express the idea of the cross as it really was - a violent lynching. How do you do that without making people think about violence? But I have tried hard to limit the number violent images and certainly avoided at all costs the kind of gratuitous violence of the Mel Gibson variety - a morbid fascination with violence does not interest me, but an interest in understanding the cross for what it really is, is important to me.

I would like to have used Billie Holliday's version of 'Strange Fruit' because there is nothing quite like the haunting brilliance of her performance, sung by someone who knew first hand what lynching was all about. Unfortunately her style just wouldn't allow me to dub over it. You can see her performance here.

I have dubbed over an interview with James Cone. The full interview is worth listening to. You can see it here.

I am still very much aware of the limitations of my film making skills, so please forgive this.




James Cone has said, “The crucifixion of Jesus was a 1st century lynching and it was very violent. Jesus was lynched. Well, America has a tradition of lynching. America lynched more than 5,000 black people in this land. lf we understand the cross correctly we will see it as Jesus being a victim of lynching, a victim of violence… At the heart of the Christian faith is God taking upon God’s self the suffering of the victim. So, Christians in this society want to understand what the cross was all about they have to see it through the lynching experience… When you see a lynched black body that’s who God is. God is present in that body just like God was present in Jesus’ cross. So the cross is very violent in which God is taking the violence of sin and the world upon God’s self… We have to become identified with lynched black victims. If we can’t do that we can’t be identified with the crucifixion of Jesus…The cross is God taking the side of the victim…If the powerful in our society… want to become Christians they have to give up that power and become identified with the powerless,"

Someday us be free

We are accustomed to hearing about the ways in which the Christian religion has been used as a tool to oppress. Of course, it has been used in this way. One black slave in America recorded,

“Those who were Christians [and] held slaves were the hardest masters. A card-player and a drunkard wouldn’t flog you half to death. Well, it is something like this – the Christians will oppress you more.”

Such a comment is certainly sobering. However, there is another side that is not pointed out quite as often about the way the Christian religion has been a force for liberation. I love this quote by a black slave:

“My Uncle, Ben, he could read de Bible and he allus tells us some day us be free. And Massa Henry laugh, “haw, haw, haw.” And he say, “Hell, no, yous never be free. You ain’t got sense ‘nuf to make de living, if yous was free.” Den he takes de Bible ‘way from Uncle Ben and say it put de bad ideas in he head. But Uncle gits ‘nother Bible and hides it, and Massa never finds out.”

If we can use the Bible to liberate or oppress we need to ensure we choose the former rather than the latter.

No one wants our guilt for Christmas

Reading some great liberation theology stuff this morning and came out with overwhelming message -

'The poor do not want our guilt they want our power to become their power'



Sounds like an important theme for our guilty reflections on our consumer Christmas and our considerations of the incarnation - the power the poor Christ child brought into the world and the way he used it.

Liberation Theology comes to Engage

In Engage we don’t just want to take action, we want that action to arise out of our spirituality. See previous post on this.

To do this I suggest we experiment with the method of Liberation Theology. Liberation Theology has its critics (and some of those criticisms are valid), but one of its real pluses is the way it has transformed the way we read the Bible.

Before the innovation of Lib Theol people approached the Bible first and sought to draw insights from it. Then Liberation Theology came along and started with our experience. This experience led to theological reflection, which itself led to action. This action created a new experience upon which to reflect theologically and so the cycle goes on.

Here’s my proposal:
1. We choose a topic of contemporary relevance:
This could be guantanamo, the sex trade, debt, the global financial crisis, the emerging church, being honest with yourself – anything that floats your boat.

2. We ask someone (Schof!) to blog about it - giving us a brief but not superficial overview of the issues.

3. We meet up in late October and bring with us any biblical texts or other aspect of Christian tradition that resonates with the issue we are thinking about.

4. We explore these texts and traditions. Some will be more useful than others.

5. We seek to end with some action points.

The hope is that the action we take arises out of our experience and theological reflection.

So, three questions for you: Is this something you would like to be involved in? Is it a good idea – can it be tweaked? What issue would you like to tackle?