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4

Essential Christian truths, such as the trinity, the virgin birth, and the resurrection
were being scoffed at by Muhammad. Jesus was affirmed as being merely a prophet. In an
environment where the NOI is mocking essential Christian doctrines, a Christian response
must, by necessity, affirm those essential doctrines. A small voice of response that was not well
known was the National Black Evangelical Association, founded in 1963. In response to the
dehumanizing segregation and racism experienced in American Christianity, William H.
Bentley said, "Before ,,Black Power became the rallying cry it later did, some Black evangelicals
among us were thinking seriously in terms of group [Black] consciousness."
15
This group
sought to develop a Black evangelical critique of racism and yet maintain a theological system
that would not succumb to experientialism. Bentley warned, "In fleeing from the lion we seek to
make certain that we do not fall into the arms of the subjective bear."
16

Often, instead of contending for essential Christian doctrine, Black theologys writers
dismissed these doctrines as "secondary," "unimportant," or "petty." By the time of the rise of
Black Power/Theology, the NOI had been attacking Christianity for nearly thirty years.
17
At the
height of his attack, Muhammad boldly claimed that "Rev. King is of no good among black
people."
18
Surely, a black Christian response would defend against such a sustained assault.
To the contrary, often the early writings in support of Black theology reflected an embrace of
Malcolm X as a comrade rather than a foe ridiculing the faith of the Negro church.
19
Some were
shaken by the constant attack and desired to reformulate Christianity.
20
The NOIs assault on
the Negro church (and the Negro churchs response) is important because Elijah Muhammads
followers may have "prompted the articulation of black liberation theology as much, if not more,
than the emergence of Black Power in the summer of 1966" (emphasis mine).
21

Black Power
Third, Stokely Carmichaels 1966 call for "Black Power" signified the emergence of a
new socio-political ideology that was frustrated with the integrationist and nonviolent goals of
Dr. Martin Luther King and the Negro Church-based Civil Rights Movement. Black power
called for a separatist approach to race relations with blacks demanding their rights and
dignity from whites and being willing to take them by "any means necessary", including
violence. This examination of Black theology will often make reference to Black Power, the
socio-political movement in the 1960s. The references are practically inseparable because
many of the proponents of Black theology described it as merely the "religious arm" of the
Black Power movement. Cone reflected back on himself as the "theologian of the Black Power
15
Cone and Wilmore, Black Theology: 1966-1979, 234.
16
Ibid., 237.
17
"The teachings and doctrines of Elijah Muhammads NOI...were specifically developed as a critique
of Christianity and its disastrous effect upon ,,the so-called Negroes in the wilderness of North America...yet, it is
important to note that Elijah Muhammad was not primarily concerned about the distinctive theological claims of
orthodox Islam; he was concerned about repudiating Christianity and developing a black religion that could speak
directly to the social and psychological needs of poor blacks in the urban ghettos of America." Mark Chapman,
Christianity on Trial, 42, 57.
18
Elijah Muhammad, Message to the Black Man (Philadelphia: Hakims Publications, 1965), 242,
quoted in Mark Chapman, Christianity on Trial, 42.
19
Cone said, "We did not care whether Black theology met the intellectual criteria for doing theology as
defined by the White theologians who had taught us. We were listening to the voice of Malcolm X..." Cone and
Wilmore, Black Theology: 1980-1992, 4.
20
Mark Chapman, Christianity on Trial, 64. Chapman said, "Indeed black theologians would do well to
reconsider the theological objections some blacks have to doctrinal Christianity; this might lead to a constructive
reinterpretation of Christian theology that addresses the theological concerns of the African-American community."
21
Mark Chapman, Christianity on Trial, 9. Also, according to Chapman, "when the theology of Elijah
Muhammad joined forces with the cry of Black Power, the trial of Christianity in the African-American community
reached a watershed." Idem, 65.