I have a recording of James H. Cone (Rest in Peace) and a bunch of other scholars and clergy speaking at Rankin Chapel for the book release of The Cross and the Lynching Tree, but I think I was between jobs at the moment and did not want to get the hardcover. Last week, I picked up a copy at my church at started to read it in preparation for my church’s pilgrimage to The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. I would have to go back to that time in my life and really reflect on my thinking, but Cone’s work is one of the main reasons why I am still a Christian or feel comfortable describing myself that way. His work gave me permission in a way to redefine and broaden how I conceptualized and lived my faith
While I am looking forward to the trip, I am approaching it with a certain amount of reflection and perhaps a bit of hesitancy, as I recently have also been reading a studying the book called My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, which calls attention to the epigenetic and somatic effects that racialized trauma is having on us.
I am not sure I have much more to say other than I am ruminating on these works while also trying to handle the rush of the creative energy that I have been experiencing lately; so I just have to sit with where things are going and try to prepare for what’s next…I hope you will join me for the ride…Stay tuned