Replies

This appears on the parish home page...Tornado posted it on the Rush thread earlier (site must be getting slammed today):

Wright and Obama:...
Saturday, 10 May 2008
WRIGHT AND OBAMA: TWO DIFFERENT INGREDIENTS TO A NEW AMERICA “...Senator Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright, love America, are passionate about its future, and desire at their very core the best for this country and for each and every one...The truth is we need both!...”

This has been a sad week for me. I have watched two friends who I respect, admire, and have a deep love for, torn apart by pundits and editorialists, talking heads, and political strategists! It has been sad because both men that I know, Senator Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright, love America, are passionate about its future, and desire at their very core the best for this country and for each and every one of its citizens. I must also say that I find it quite hypocritical that conservative preachers and commentators who have identified themselves as the protectors and respecters of life are consistently silent on the issues of gun violence, poverty, no health care, poor education, and the effects of racism and classism that are continually killing life in our inner cities. Yet when other voices identify them, they’re called angry and unpatriotic.

There has been a strong desire and demand to make people take a side, draw a line in the sand and make a choice between Wright and Obama. I personally believe this is evil and unfair. First of all, I don’t understand why Senator Obama and Reverend Wright are suddenly being held accountable and responsible for whatever the other says. This is not being done in either of the campaigns of Senator Clinton or Senator McCain. So the question must be asked, what’s the hidden strategy as to why this is being done to Senator Obama and Reverend Wright? Secondly, why are they seemingly being forced to not only be held accountable for each other, but to speak for and sound like each other? They are different persons, different personalities, and have different purposes. Finally, I understand, appreciate, and believe we need both!

Senator Obama has spent the past two years and years earlier in his political life presenting America a vision of hope. Hope as to who we can be, how we can be inclusive and different, how we can do politics differently, and how we can build a new and better America. This vision of hope has set a fire of enthusiasm, excitement, and involvement across this country.

Reverend Wright, as a gifted preacher in the prophetic tradition, has spent his ministry identifying the sins, problems, and stumbling blocks of racism, sexism, classism, poverty, inequality, and the down right lies that must be acknowledged and eradicated if we are to build a new and better America. He has given hope to masses of people who have come to feel invisible in America.

The truth is we need both!

We need a voice of hope that points us to a vision and we need a prophetic voice that makes us uncomfortable and forces us to acknowledge our sins. Senator Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright are, I believe, seeking the same thing, what the scriptures may call “a new heaven and a new earth.” Why are we trying to force them to drive down the same street in order to get there, rather than being more preoccupied with arriving to the place of new beginnings, and grateful to all the different voices that take us there? The true audacity of hope comes when it seems everything looks hopeless. Both Senator Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright are calling us to hope – but from their different vantage points.

I challenge us all not to get caught up in the trick to choose one or the other. Rather, let us be committed to the new day and the new beginning for America. And let us be appreciative and thankful for all the different and necessary voices who call us to get there! The truth is we need Senator Barack Obama and we need Reverend Jeremiah Wright and, if we are serious about wanting a new America, we cannot afford to throw either one of them under the bus!

Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, Pastor

the Faith Community of Saint Sabina

This letter also appears in the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday, May 4, 2008.