Posted on 03/16/2008 10:59:32 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
Saturday, March 15, 2008
A Word Of Respect For Jeremiah Wright
There is much being made this week about the preaching of The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the now retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. Do I agree with every word he has preached? No. But I've never met a pastor who hasn't made mistakes or gone overboard (myself included). As Diana Bulter Bass wrote yesterday:
Anyone who attends church on a regular basis knows how frequently congregants disagree with their ministers. To sit in a pew is not necessarily assent to a message preached on a particular day. Being a church member is not some sort of mindless cult, where individuals believe every word preached. Rather, being a church member means being part of a community of faith—a gathered people, always diverse and sometimes at odds, who constitute Christ's body in the world.
But the attack on Rev. Wright reveals something beyond ignorance of basic dynamics of Christian community. It demonstrates the level of misunderstanding that still divides white and black Christians in the United States. But I deeply admire Trinity and their ministries and believe that Dr. Wright's sermons have often been in the best prophetic tradition. His words may not be popular in the political world but his ministry has brought honor to God.
Religion News Service ran a good story last night about the controversy:
WASHINGTON -- The outgoing pastor of Sen. Barack Obama's black megachurch in Chicago has come under fire for sermons that some have called racist, offensive, even dangerous.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has called the federal government the "U.S. of K.K.K. A." Just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Wright said "America's chickens are coming home to roost," according to a review of his sermons by ABC News.
Observers of the black church say Wright's sermons may seem incendiary or uncomfortably provocative, but they reflect a proud history of what Walter Earl Fluker of Morehouse College in Atlanta calls "prophetic preaching, which is the trademark of the black church tradition, of which Jeremiah Wright is perhaps one of the most illustrious exemplars."
Peter Paris, professor emeritus of Christian social ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, attended seminary with Wright in the 1960s and said Wright fits in the prophetic tradition of both the black church and the Bible.
"Prophets are basically reformers and not revolutionaries," said Paris, an Obama supporter. "There's a line beyond which one is no longer prophetic but one is revolutionary. He's not there, but the language may appear from time to time to be there."
On Friday (March 14) afternoon, Obama's office released a statement in which he said, "I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy."
"While Rev. Wright's statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in."
Wright will soon retire from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ, where Obama has been a member for 20 years. The 8,000-member church bills itself as "unashamedly black, unapologetically Christian."
Even those who disagree with Wright's comments -- politically or otherwise -- maintain his right to preach the truth as he sees it in the pulpit.
"For many African-Americans, everything that Jeremiah Wright said would be considered true," said Bishop Harry Jackson, the conservative black leader of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and a pastor in Lanham, Md.
"It is the spirit in which he said it, the attitude even of bitterness, that comes through in that particular piece, that's the thing that taints the whole thing."
And some, including white evangelical activist Jim Wallis, say Wright's comments, however incendiary, reflect reality in black America.
"That the country is mostly run by rich white people, that's a pretty broadly based opinion among most people in the black community, including black churches," said Wallis, the founder of Washington-based Sojourners/Call to Renewal.
But those who know Wright, and who have observed the black church, say he fits squarely in the truth-telling tradition of prophetic preachers who speak truth to power and say things others might not.
The Rev. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, professor of African-American studies at Colby College in Maine, is a friend of Wright's and an alternate delegate for Obama. She wasn't surprised to see Wright combat the "demon of racism."
"If you're really a Bible-believing Christian, you've got to take seriously the issues of poverty, the issues of racism, the issues of oppression," said Gilkes, who also is an assistant pastor of a Baptist church in Cambridge, Mass.
Wright has noted that Sen. Hillary Clinton, unlike some blacks, doesn't have trouble hailing a cab.
Gilkes said she could relate to Wright's taxicab illustration because she's seen cabs pass her by at Boston's Logan International Airport.
"He's telling the truth," said Gilkes. "The woman has never had to try to catch a cab in New York City and have people go by you. ...
Hillary Clinton has never had that experience, OK? And most middle-class black people in America have."
The Rev. Marvin McMickle, professor of homiletics at Ashland University in Ohio, said it is inappropriate to assume that Wright's words would also be Obama's simply because the presidential candidate sits in a pew of his church.
"I think the notion that because your pastor says something it must necessarily either be shared by each member, or it reflects the unspoken views of the members, or he is in some sense a surrogate for Obama, is completely false," said McMickle, whose book, "Where Have all the Prophets Gone?" was endorsed by Wright.
McMickle, a pledged delegate for Obama, said the Chicago pastor is like the biblical prophet Amos, who critiqued the government of his time.
"The prophet is never welcomed," said McMickle, who pastors a Baptist church in Cleveland. "The words of the prophet are always met with rejection, scorn, criticism and sometimes only time will tell whether the prophet has spoken truly." Keep the people of Trinity UCC in your prayers as they go through this difficult time. The attacks against their church have been unfair at best and often racist.
Posted by Rev. Chuck Currie at 10:27 AM 3 comments Links to this post Labels: Trinity United Church of Christ
God Damn America??
This is idiotic article on many, many levels. The pathetic thing is that darn fool does not even get it.
“Barack Obama either agreed with what was preached from the Trinity pulpit, or he tuned it out and stayed around pretending to for political reasons. To say he stayed for 20 years but doesn't agree with Wright's preaching is incredible denial. It'd be like a man buying White Sox season tickets for 20 years, attending the games, and saying he's not a fan.”
Obama’s supporters want us to ignore this story… just push it under the rug. While they’ll align Republicans with any obscure pastor who does or says something controversial, they’re trying to convince us that Obama’s 20-year long close relationship with Wright, including his effective endorsement of him, his church and rhetoric with a $22,500 donation in 2006 is irrelevant.
“When Obama decided against wearing an American flag pin, we may all have been a bit too quick to accept his rationale, too quick to find that issue unimportant. Now, that American flag pin has gotten a lot bigger for a lot of us, especially in light of what may have been and may still be Obama’s deeper, and, perhaps, secret, less than patriotic beliefs about America.”
“Wright says that blacks can’t be expected to sing God Bless America because of racism. Obama doesn’t salute the flag during the National Anthem. That sure strikes me as an amazing coincidence since Obama swears he never heard Wright say anything against America.”
And they stay?
The left loves to rant about the separation of church and state in every area of our lives, but what they mean is separation of god from our daily lives and the insertion of politics into church. They want to replace God with political rhetoric and the Black Liberation churches have been doing this for years.
Thanks.
The first 30 seconds is all that I needed to hear.
In the clips I saw, Rev. Wright was playing to the crowd, who all stood up and cheered wildly when he made the "chickens coming home to roost" remark after 9-11.
Obama knew what was going on in his chosen congregation, but he silently maintained his church affiliation in order to maintain his social standing in the community that elected him in the first place and prove his christianity. He was smart enough to know that he should keep his distance (rarely attending church), but not bold enough to challenge Reverend Wright's terrorist-friendly teachings.
Obama is as smart as a whip and as brave as a whimpering dog.
True true.. its getting HARD out there for the race PimP..
Wright was PimPing like Jesse, Al or Farrakand..
unReverend Wright sure has an interesting interpretation of Scripture, but then again there are quite a few flaky interpretations of Scripture I have seen...even here on FR. In any event, this is about nObama and who he associates with and I hope this drags him down the toilet where he belongs...and I hope it takes the former First Co-Dependent with him.
There in lies the problems we experience with race in this country.
Some would argue that Mr. Wrights version of the social gospel is merely the enviable outcome of MLK's influence.
I prefer that preachers preach Christ.
"God Damn America" brings honor to God? I guess one would have to be an American-despising leftist to understand.
How about if you sit in that pew and nod in assent to the hateful words of your preacher Rev. Currie? Sorry, but you can't be as close to a pastor as Obama has been to Wright for 20 years, and not know what is in the man's heart or soul. Keep spinning Reverend, just don't get hurt when you fall off the pulpit.
Not with tax-exempt status, he doesn't.
When someone doesn't speak the truth, he should have the grace to listen and stand corrected. This one has neither. He's so full of hate and lies he can't see straight.
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