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movement."

Cone said, "Black Power activists...welcomed Black theology as an intellectual

articulation of the religious dimensions of the black liberation struggle."

These "religious

dimensions" of Black Power could not have been Christian, because many Black Power
advocates were questioning the very sufficiency of Christianity. According to Chapman, the
movement boldly questioned the "integrationist, Civil Rights Movement, and its Christian
foundation", by asking, "could one lay claim to Christian faith and also reject nonviolence?"

Great cultural pressure was brought to bear in the black community that made "Black Power
the litmus test of authentic black leadership." In this atmosphere, young activists "labeled
Martin Luther King and other ministers as ,,Rev. Sambos."

In the 1968 book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, Martin Luther

King provided valuable insight into the mind-set that led to the adoption of the slogan "Black
Power" by members of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE). The weight that should be given to Kings insight is revealed in the
comment by Vincent Harding that "no discussion of black religion in America today [1968] can
ignore the immensely important figure of Martin Luther King."

James Cone finds Kings

significance to American Christianity of long-lasting effect. He says, "after King no theologian or
preacher dares to defend racial segregation. He destroyed its moral legitimacy."

King differed with Stokely Carmichael concerning the issues of: (1) the involvement of

whites in demonstrations and (2) the commitment to nonviolent protest. These were non-
negotiable for King.

The disagreement initially threatened to divide Kings Southern Christian

Leadership Council (SCLC) from SNCC and CORE. However the leaders were able to reach a
compromise. Although King understood the frustration of those calling for new tactics, he
called their tone radically different. He says, "As I listened to all these comments, the words fell
on my ears like strange music from a foreign land. My hearing was not attuned to the sound of
such bitterness."

No secular ideology or theology is developed void of cultural and historical

influences; however King exposed a particular weakness when bitterness is a significant
influence. Describing an unavoidable chain of events, he says, "disappointment produces
despair and despair produces bitterness, and...the one thing certain about bitterness is its

James Cone, Risks of Faith: The Emergence of a Black Theology of Liberation, 1968-1998 (Boston:

Beacon Press, 1999), xxiv. He further says his "turn to blackness was an even deeper conversion-experience than the
turn to Jesus." Idem, xxi.

Cone and Wilmore, Black Theology: 1980-1992, 2. Cone further said, "Since it seeks to interpret

Black Power religiously, Black theology endeavors to reorder the Christian tradition...and destroy the influence of
heretical white American Christianity." Cone, Black Power and Black Theology, 131. In sharp contrast, Roberts
said, "A Christian theologian is not an interpreter of the religion of Black Power. He, as black theologian, may be
the interpreter of Afro-American Christianity. He may be conscious and proud of his heritage. He may be in tune
with the meaning of Black Power. But he is attempting to understand the Christian faith in light of his peoples
experience. His task is not popular. He runs the risk of being misunderstood by black militants and moderates as
well as by white radicals and liberals." J. Deotis Roberts, Liberation and Reconciliation (Philadelphia: The
Westminster Press, 1971), 21.

Mark Chapman, Christianity on Trial, 74.

Ibid., 75.

Cone and Wilmore, Vol. I, "Religion of Black Power" by Vincent Harding, 61.

James Cone, Risks of Faith, xvii.

Martin Luther King, Chaos or Community (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1967), 63. Also

Noel Erskine says, "It goes without saying, however, that King would have problems with the concepts Black
Power, Black theology, and God is black" (emphasis his). Noel Erskine, King Among The Theologians (Cleveland:
The Pilgrim Press, 1994), xii.

Martin Luther King, Chaos or Community, 26. Earlier Benjamin Mays had "urged Negroes to reject

the spirit of hatred and revenge, because they too will be under Gods judgement if they seek to oppress others."
Mark Chapman, Christianity on Trial, 34.