Eldridge Cleaver is remembered by most people as a hell-bent revolutionary of the turbulent 1960s. A descendent of Baptist preachers in Arkansas but the product of a broken home in Los Angeles, he spent years in California jails for crimes of violence. His best-selling “Soul on Ice. (1966) was written in prison. In 1967 he became a leader of the Black Panthers. A few days after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., in April, 1968, he was wounded in a shoot-out with Oakland police. He fled to Canada, and over the next seven years he traveled in Cuba and other Communist countries, living in Algeria and then France as a political refugee. In France in 1975 he turned to the Bible during a period of depression and underwent a conversion experience. He returned to America to face trial in connection with the Oakland shoot-out. Various Christians, including a former Black Panther, ministered to him in jail. He was released last summer on $100,000 bail, raised by Christian businessmen. The following interview was conducted by James S. Tinney, a journalism teacher at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
Question. What is your attitude toward the black church?
Answer. I am much more open and understanding of the black church now. In the past I tended to write it off—including the whole tradition of the black church—as a handmaiden of the slave masters. James Cone decisively criticizes the black church, and my attitude came out of that same approach. Now I am thrilled with the history of the black church and its stability. I feel awed by how magnificent it is. It would be easy to criticize it, but I don’t feel it would be helpful.
Q. Some people within the black community have wondered why you seem more involved with white Christian groups than with black Christian groups. Are you being used by white Christians?
A. I have just taken advantage of whatever witness opportunities have come along. It is true that I have been given invitations to speak to a larger number of white gatherings than black ones, but every audience to which I’ve spoken has had some blacks present. This has to do with the attitude many black people took toward me when I came back to the States. Some of my former friends and associates in the black community have called me an FBI or CIA agent. They’ve even asked black people not to help me. When I was in jail, one bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church came to see me, and we had some good fellowship. But he was unique. He wasn’t from California. Other black ministers here wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole. Many white preachers, though, came to see me. I know that a lot of the black preachers didn’t support me because they were confused or didn’t have adequate information, but there were some who wanted me to bite the dust, so to speak.
Q. What do you think about liberation theology, as espoused by certain Latin American and by certain black theologians?
A. I can fully support their aspirations and social concerns. But I have some grave reservations about how they use the struggle for liberation as a point of reference for determining theological truth. I’m not a theologian, but I’ve read that they use the tradition of struggle as coequal to the Scriptures. That concerns me.
Q. Has your conversion influenced your political views?
A. Yes. But I don’t want to put Christianity into the political arena as some want to do. I prefer to think in the traditional terms of separation of church and state.
Q. Do you agree with evangelicals who combine religious conservatism with political radicalism or socialism?
A. That depends on how far they push their socialism. I part ways with them when it gets involved with Marxist-Leninist ideology. There is a contradiction between the teachings of Jesus Christ and Marxist-Leninist ideology. Socialism is in part based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. I find no conflict between the two until you get to revolutionary ideology. I’ve decided that we need a completely rational approach to change. The last thing we need is a class war. I oppose Marxist-Leninism for two reasons: the methodology of the class war, and such ideological goals as the dictatorship of the proletariat, which is dictatorship under the name of democratic centralism.
Q. Do you think the social problems in this country are tied to race rather than class? Or is it something else?
A. We’ve got to get away from these narrow identifications and start with certain fundamentals. Black Americans are American citizens. They aren’t going back to Africa and they aren’t going to settle into separate states. When my life began to focus on Jesus, a lot of other things began to fall into place, including my whole idea of national identity. I see a fence-straddling mentality among many blacks. They say, “We might opt for colonization in Africa or for separate states, and we might become integrated into American society.” This ambivalence paralyzes us and keeps our goals out of focus. My approach now is to go into the system. We must acknowledge and embrace American institutions as our institutions and move to improve them—to enlarge and enhance their effectiveness.
Q. What role then do you give to non-electoral forms of political protest and change? Should the activities of black Americans be limited to working within electoral procedures?
A. We are schooled in agitation, demonstration, and protest. In fact, we’ve been involved in these things so long that they’ve become second nature. Some even think it is our only modus operandi. Black Christians may utilize any or all of these at a particular time. But the major way to redress grievances is through the political arena. I’m not ruling out protest, but it’s more important to work together. We have a lot of people, and numbers count in politics.
Q. Since becoming a Christian have you participated in the charismatic movement?
A. I’m still getting to know what’s going on in the Christian family. I’ve read lots of books and Bible lessons on the positive side of the charismatic experience, and I’ve read an almost equal number of books on its dangers. I’m beginning to understand how all this relates to the gifts of the Spirit, but I’m not ready to make a statement on the movement. I have many charismatic friends. And I have many anti-charismatic friends. I’m still naïve enough to believe that Jesus is for everybody. It is us and not Jesus who make these distinctions.
Q. What are some problems you’ve had with Christians?
A. There are some Christians who need to be more concerned with encouraging new Christians, instead of putting banana peels under their feet. Some people don’t want to accept me into the family of the church. A white preacher, for instance, said I should go to jail even if I am innocent in order to set a good example. That threw me for a loop. A lot of people are going around with their own home-baked theologies.
Q. What can be done to reach young blacks with the Gospel?
A. We must talk a language they can understand, relevant and contemporary and yet full of the truth of Christianity. We have to strike a balance. For example, I started using the “Four Spiritual Laws” as compiled by Campus Crusade for Christ, but I soon realized they could not communicate to black people. So I’ve been trying to adapt them.
Q. What about blacks who have been attracted to other forms of religion such as Islam?
A. I’ve been very intrigued by their open-mindedness. Some blacks used to be members of the Black Muslims, but when Malcolm X and the Muslims split, they went with Malcolm or to other groups such as the Hanafis. After the Black Panthers fell apart, some who used to be Panthers went into the Muslim groups. These people are seeking the truth. They want stability. We have an opportunity to pull people out of those dead-end organizations. Too many Christians don’t think that’s possible. I do.
Paul D. Steeves is assistant professor of history and director of Russian studies at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He has the Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and specializes in modern Russian history.
