A lot of Christians are hurt and confused by Dr. Wright’s sermons, especially those that support Barack Obama. I don’t know where I stand yet completely. I affirm and reject his statements simultaneously.
Diana Butler Bass with her position:
As MSNBC, CNN, and FOX endlessly play the tape of Rev. Wright’s “radical” sermons today, I do not hear the words of a “dangerous” preacher (at least any more dangerous than any preacher who takes the Gospel seriously!) No, I hear the long tradition that Jeremiah Wright has inherited from his ancestors. I hear prophetic critique. I hear Frederick Douglass. And, mostly, I hear the Gospel slant—I hear it from an angle that is not natural to me. It is good to hear that slant.
Putting Rev. Wright’s Preaching in Perspective (God’s Politics)
Merging Lanes 
Tell all your fellow white folks to stop getting their knickers in a knot, and reflect and pray on their own complicity and racist behavior that would lead them to impugn Obama and every black person just because of what one person said. That, and learn to listen rather than react out of irrational fear. If Obama said any of these things, which he is too politic to do, then there’s something to talk about. However, unless we are going to go through all the sermons of all the white folks who married, christened, advised, prayed or whatever with the other candidates, this is not worth one more ink on a piece of paper.
By: longbench on March 17, 2008
at 5:25 pm
“The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color”
I’m interested to know which prophet would make this claim. I’m pretty sure even Frederick Douglass, if he were alive right now and was explained the basic science behind AIDS, would laugh at that one.
Now, anyone who would impugn ‘every black person’ because of these comments is self-evidently racist. I’m not even sure that we should indict Obama-I kind of think he attended this church for largely political reasons, since apparently this church is key to Chicago politics, and I don’t really mind if he picks his church for that reason.
Obama probably decided that he could tolerate/ignore this side of Wright, because of the other things Wright brought to the table, a calculation that you and I make a million times a day with different people and environments. It may have been a mistake to tolerate this much bigotry in a pastor (check out some of his other quotes on the internet today if you really think Wright is like Fred Douglass), but it’s not a fatal flaw in a President, I don’t think.
For more analysis of Wright, and his theology, see here.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JC18Aa01.html
By: jamie on March 17, 2008
at 7:22 pm
I’m not sure that Spengler is the most unbiased source of information about these matters.
httphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spengler_%28Columnist%29
By: Jason on March 17, 2008
at 8:54 pm
I messed up that link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spengler_%28Columnist%29
By: Jason on March 17, 2008
at 8:55 pm
I have to agree with someone else in the blogosphere that said we have to take into perspective how many white preachers have said radically hateful things on the pulpit.
Many of these “white” people who are condemning Senator Obama and his pastor to be burned at the stake are unaware of the cultural context.
But as much as I’d be unwilling to say I put all of my eggs in Dr. Wright’s basket regarding some of the strange things he’s said, it’s in my nature to believe that the American government is responsible for some radically heinous crimes committed in the 20th-21st century.
Yes, I do believe that American foreign policy is, in some major way, responsible for 9/11. Ron Paul was right about blowback. We instigated this kind of action.
Let the stonings begin?
By: jadanzzy on March 18, 2008
at 8:43 am
Fun not possible
Not on this blogsite never
Laughter brings sunshine
By: Haiku on March 18, 2008
at 11:08 am
Three of the most inflammatory comments, for reference:
• “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. 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.”
• After September 11, 2001, he said: “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 into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
• “It just came to me within the past few weeks, y’all, why so many folks are hating on Barack Obama. He doesn’t fit the model. He ain’t white, he ain’t rich, and he ain’t privileged. Hillary fits the mold. Europeans fit the mold, Giuliani fits the mold. Rich white men fit the mold. Hillary never had a cab whiz past her and not pick her up because her skin was the wrong colour. Hillary never had to worry about being pulled over in her car as a black man driving in the wrong… I am sick of Negroes who just do not get it. Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home, Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons.”
By: anakainosis on March 18, 2008
at 12:57 pm
1. If Jeremiah Wright wasn’t a preacher at a traditionally black church, would this comment be SO out of order? God damn America… might be stepping a little bit too far, but I’d get behind any leader that looks at what this country is about sometimes and REFUSES to ask God’s blessing on it. I don’t think anyone was praying for God to bless the endeavors of Sodom and Gomorrah, or Babylon, or Rome.
Divisive, yes, and for politics’ sake, Obama has to run from this. But certainly not a baseless, prejudicial, unpatriotic comment from a Christian perspective, no?
2. This, to me, makes TOTAL sense. Why is it so hard to believe that our own impetuous behavior overseas hasn’t generated an anti-American sentiment? “Chickens coming home to roost” is just another way of saying, you REAP what you SOW, isn’t it?
3. In speaking to the BLACK congregation, can Hillary or Giuliani possibly argue with this? I mean, can anyone actually challenge this statement, factually? It’s certainly inflammatory, but
The public outrage with some of these comments just goes to show how completely out of touch the public is from the plight of the underprivileged, a demographic where Black Americans are VASTLY disproportionately represented.
I am utterly impressed with Diana Butler Bass’s response, linked above. She has put her finger on exactly my response to Rev. Wright’s comments. The racial divide is completely made evident by the reaction to the comments. Bass notes: “Many white people find the traditions of African-American preaching offensive, especially when it comes to politics.”
This is a matter of form over substance, or at the very least, a matter of ignorance. It grieves me, and I do absolutely believe that it grieves Senator Obama, that the common population of the United States is not yet ready for this.
By: anakainosis on March 18, 2008
at 1:10 pm
How strange that my feed reader is picking up your “Pt. II” post already, jadanzzy, but when I come to the site it doesn’t yet exist. Can Google Reader see into the future? (I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature had just been added.)
By: Jason on March 19, 2008
at 7:26 am
I wrote it late last night with a bit of anger regarding this whole thing. I had it posted live long enough for reader to pick it up. But I ended up hiding the post simply because I thought it was too emotionally charged.
However, I’ll most likely put it back up.
By: jadanzzy on March 19, 2008
at 8:10 am
LOL … haiku. that was amazing.
By: nieophyte on March 19, 2008
at 4:01 pm