Reactions to Obama & Pastor Wright

The Wikipedia entry for Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. descibes him as a:

former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), an African-American megachurch in Chicago.  Wright was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Jeremiah Wright, Sr, was a Baptist  minister. In 1959, Wright enteredVirginia Union University, a historically black seminary, but became disenchanted and left in 1961. Wright joined the United States Marine Corps, before transferring to the United States Navy where he worked as a cardiopulmonary technician.  Wright then enrolled at Howard University, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a Master’s degree in English in 1969. In 1975, Wright earned an additional Master’s degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He received a Doctor of Ministry Degree from United Theological Seminary in 1990 (where he studied under Samuel DeWitt Proctor). Wright also has seven honorary doctorate degrees. He has lectured at many seminaries and universities in the nation.

You can now add to that profile that Wright has been the focus of an intense political campaign discussion over the last week or so.

Barack Obama addressed some of this uproar in a blog post  On My Faith and My Church:

The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He's drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.

Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it's on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.

Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he's been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.

This got a TON of "feedback" on the Faith blog for our local paper:  ABC's clips of Obama's pastor get Texans talking.  Let me start by sharing my reaction, then cycle through what some other folks are saying.  These are the two excerpts from Wright's preaching that seem the most explosive:

"The government gives them [African Americans] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme." [2003]

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye .... We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." [September 16, 2001]

America is at a precarious moment, as the raging waters of the civic stream and the religious stream mash up against each other.  Over the last two decades, most of the conversation of faith in the public sphere has revolved around religion as a right-wing Christian force.   In the United States, it is truly astounding to look at the attention lavished on Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson.  This overwhelmed any other narrative about faith & politics, suggesting that to be righteous was to cling to a rather narrow set of social and political views. The public voice of religion, as reflected in the supposedly liberal mass media, was deeply inflected with the accents of a largely white, southern, conservative evangelicalism.

This tightly weaved tapestry is coming undone, like a flag whipping the wind. My sense of this controversy is that it embodying a central question:

what are the boundaries of God talk in American politics ?
who can say things that many sense ?
who gets to decide ?

My sense is that our country is still struggling with racism and patriarchy.  It is acceptable for southern white male pastors to preach on about prosperity, for southern white male politicians to use God to justify throwing immigrants out or even starting pre-emptive wars.  It is even acceptable for white female politicians to cross boundaries. In a presidential debate in the summer of 2007 in front of a black audience, Hillary Clinton addressed angrily the AIDS problem saying:

"Let me put this in perspective...if HIV AIDS was the leading cause of death of white women..there would be an outrage, outcry in this country!!".

Now... If a black preacher, or even Obama, said that with that much anger and enthusiasm...why is it "militant", "racist", "ungrateful", "un-american" "anti-white", "over-hyped black grievance" which are the words I hear being used on the morning talk shows, radio, newspapers and blogs.  In his statement, Obama sets a very high bar for what is acceptable in the raging waters:

• denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies.
• words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue

What an incredible idea, one that is part of the message that has so animated people's hope.  I suspect that high bar will cloths line the discourse over the next few weeks.  This is explosive stuff - so explosive, I fear it will put the Obama campaign at even greater risk.  I dread what the Clinton or Rove attack machines will do with this.

But here's my reaction - this is what is going on with so many people who are on the edges of faith & politics.  They are outraged.  They do not fit into the safe boundaries that rule culture.  They are passionate about justice and peace for all, not just American as some sort of new Israel (or Zion).   They are tired of being told to quiet their rage, they are sick of waiting for a "better time" to tell  their story, they are ready for the beloved community to be recognized for the cacophony that it is. 

Today there is this this new Rasmussen poll in which Fifty-Six Percent Say Wright Makes Them "Less Likely" To Vote For Obama.  For me, that captures the conundrum of the raging waters of faith & politics.  People want to be comforted, they want affirmations (not truth-telling), they want shiny happy people like them.  What Obama and Wright are raising up here may in fact be more than American voters can handle right now.  The more important question, I think, is whether what they are raising up is more than American church goers can handle.

 

Now for some other POVs:

• Paul Burka, Senior Exec Editor of Texas Monthly, thinks Obama just triple bogeyed the presidency in his post  Remembrance of Things Pastor
• The congregation Pastor Wright served and that Obama is a member of with his family responded Church Accuses Media of 'Crucifixion'
• David Kuo says Obama has done all he needs to do about the Rev. Wright situation
• Frank Schaeffer says Obama's Minister Committed "Treason" but When my Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero
• And my fav pundits weigh as well

Comments

[Tom]

Send this video to others: Shame On Joe Scarborough, MSM & Obama the way they reacted to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermon about 9/11 Part 1
The American people don't deserve to be manipulated and lied to