Ensuring That Our Own Power is Used Wisely and Humanely

from the series Peace House Community Journal…

By MARTI MALTBY

I recently reread James H. Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree, which looks at the parallels between Jesus’ crucifixion and the lynchings that occurred during the Jim Crow era (1880-1940). Cone expressed his astonishment that no American theologian, white or black, saw the similarities between an innocent man being tortured and executed with the consent of the political and religious leaders, and the lynchings that took place in this country.

Cone’s book covers many aspects of Christianity and lynching in a brief time (166 pages), but one of the most telling is the observation that crucifixion and lynching each played the same role in their respective societies. While they both inflicted tremendous suffering on the victim, the true target was the victim’s community. Those with the power to lynch others made sure the “others” knew they had the power, knew that what happened to one of them could happen to any of them.

Lynching was a way of maintaining societal order without the bureaucracy of courts or constitutions. If those who ran things decided someone had stepped out of line and was a threat to the way things were supposed to be, they could deal with that person at their leisure, secure in the knowledge that they would not be held accountable for their actions.… Read the rest “Ensuring That Our Own Power is Used Wisely and Humanely”