The late Christian theologian, James H. Cone was, for fifty years, a leading scholar of Black identity and culture and a prominent critic of the culture of the United States. His career was capped with the publication of The Cross and the Lynching Tree, which won him the Grawemeyer Award in Religion in 2018, just weeks before his death. 

 

Rev. Olson will speak on the curious paradox of the Christian faith by which White supremacists act to preserve their “Christian nation” culture and the Christian faith of Black folk who cling to the cross as a symbol of liberation. What do Unitarian Universalists profess in a culturally conservative area that might bring freedom to our times and cultures?

 

“Unfortunately, during the course of 2,000 years of Christian history, [the cross,] this symbol of salvation has been detached from any reference to the ongoing suffering and oppression of human beings…Until we can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with a “recrucified” Black body hanging from a lynching tree, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and White supremacy.”  —James H. Cone, from The Cross and the Lynching Tree

Rev. David Carl Olson is completing a decade of service as Lead Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore (Universalist & Unitarian). He sees Unitarian Universalism and the ministry as places to bring together those who seek personal and social transformation through education, organizing and humanistic spirituality.