Jeremiah Wright revisited

Bill Maher called him a "dick".  Chris Matthews announced that he wasn't interested in hearing anything more from Reverend Wright.

My brother wrote that Wright was a "borderline nutcase", and that, unlike Martin Luther King, would hardly "merit a footnote" in history.

Hillary Clinton has cynically used (and misused) the issue of Pastor Wright to her political advantage.   And even Barack Obama himself, although refusing to "disown" his longtime pastor, has condemned his remarks as unpatriotic.

After Jeremiah Wright's appearance on Bill Moyers' Journal Friday evening, they (and all his  critics) should beg his forgiveness.  I include myself for not acknowledging my ignorance of the man and his work when I denied comparing Wright to Martin Luther King.  I was wrong.  I now believe that a comparison between the two, in many respects, is warranted. 

Pastor Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, I've concluded, is smart, articulate, well-educated and profoundly insightful about the black experience in America, and the influence of that experience on American Christian theology:

"The shame of being a descendant of Africa, was a shame that had been pumped into the minds and hearts of Africans from the 1600s on, even aided and abetted by the benefit of those schools started by the missionaries, who simply carried their culture with them into the South and taught their cultures being synonymous with Christianity. So that to become a Christian, you had to let go of all vestiges of Africa and become European, become New Englanders and worship like New England, worship God properly and right. Well, that shame was a part of the shame that many Africans in the '60s and the '70s were feeling."

The University of Chicago Divinity School taught Wright about the hermeneutics of black theology:

"Hermeneutic is an interpretation, it's the window from which you're looking is your hermeneutic. ... Dr. James Cone put it this way. The God of the people who riding on the decks of the slave ship is not the God of the people who are riding underneath the decks as slaves in chains. If the God you're praying to, 'Bless our slavery' is not the God to whom these people are praying, saying, 'God, get us out of slavery.' And it's not like Notre Dame playing Michigan. You're saying flip a coin; hope God blesses the winning team, no. That the perception of God who allows slavery, who allows rape, who allows misogyny, who allows sodomy, who allows murder of a people, lynching, that's not the God of the people being lynched and sodomized and raped, and carried away into a foreign country."

That's the context, "the frame", of Wright's controversial sound bite snippets from past sermons.  The "No no no ... God Damn America!" is spoken in the context of the biblical prophetic tradition of "condemning" --Wright reminds us of the etymology of "damn"-- a government for it's sins.  The post 9/11 sermon saying "America's chickens have come home to roost" --quoting Malcolm X-- is uttered in the context of this government's terrorism against oppressed minorities at home --Native Americans, African-Americans, Japanese Americans-- and abroad --in Grenada, in Panama, in Iraq.

And  Bill Maher's "he's a dick" comment?  That was in response to Obama's defense of Wright --his refusal to "disown" him-- repaid with what Maher interpreted as ingratitude. Here's the offending remark:

"He's [Obama] a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. Those are two different worlds."

Two different worlds indeed.  I wouldn't expect Maher to understand the distinction.  He has little use for pastors or any adherent of what he calls an irrational belief in "the talking snake." 

Jeremiah Wright speaks Monday at the National Press Club.  I'm sure you can catch it on C-Span.  But read the entire Bill Moyers transcript for come context.

We're in dire need of context.

Comments

[becky]

Time has an interesting commentary on the patriotism of Blacks in America this week. And the author talks about Wright, how he gave up his deferment and joined the Marines during the Vietnam War.

[Craig]

Moyers' "interview" with Wright was disgraceful. First, he let Wright ramble on with his Bibilical nonsense rather than pressing him on his controversial statements. Moyers didn't ask Wright, for example, if he understood why damning America, as opposed perhaps to damning the policies of this government or past governments, might be jarring to most American ears. Moyers, moreover, didn't even ask Wright about his AIDS comment. Second, Moyers' bias as a fellow United Church of Christ member was obvious.

Finally, and most importantly, the interview should never have occurred. As Wright himself said, he is a Christian pastor, which defines him as delusional. (For those who take offense at this last sentence, ask yourself if you would have taken equal offense if I had substituted "Muslim imam" for "Christian pastor.") Politically, letting the man ramble on semi-incoherently will only fuel right-wing fury.

It is possible that this Wright imbroglio may be seen by future historians as some sort of important event in healing our racial wounds. In the heat of a presidential race, however, it is extremely difficult to have any rational discussion of our national shame.

[Steve R.]

Whether or not belief in a supernatural, magical savior is rational (I agree with Craig on this), the idea of "blowback" (chickens coming home to roost) is not a new one, nor is it the sole provenance of black Christians.

White leftists and scholars have written about it for years (see Chalmers Johnson).

Also not radical (or new) is Wright's view one country but many nations. I, too, say "God damn" the America that goes to war to protect transnational corporations and overthrows popularly elected leaders. God damn the America that built itself with slave labor, but still refuses to give African Americans their due.

At the same time, I revel in the America that gave us Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. God bless the America that is increasingly neither black nor white but brown. God bless the America that had northern Jews standing up and dying for southern blacks. God bless the America that embraced the tenets of New Deal social democracy. God bless the America that stands for service and enlightened internationalism.

The fact that whites pundits like Bill Maher don't get this shows how little progress we've made in race relations in this country.

America is great in spite of our literally murderous foreign policy and our shameful history of subjugation of an entire people.

Race isn't going to go away because we suddenly declare a "post-racial" age.

[Terry]

That, Craig, is a comment worthy of Bill Maher.

If you start with the assumption that Wright is "delusional" by definition, then you'll obviously conclude that the Moyers interview was disgraceful. One wonders then why you apparently hold the Reverend Martin Luther King, who also sprinkled his oratory with "Biblical nonsense", in such high regard.

Moyers is by far the best journalist --and interviewer-- on television. His guests have included every one from atheists, rationalists and libertarians to Muslims and thoughtful evangelicals. He treats them all fairly and with respect despite his progressive leanings and his rarely --if ever-- mentioned religious affiliation.

I advise you to turn off the Orioles games and start watching Bill Moyers Journal every Friday before you start throwing out ridiculous accusations of bias.

That said, Jeremiah Wright did not inject himself into the heated Presidential race. The fires of intolerance and ignorance were stoked by right wing political opportunists, aided and abetted by Hillary Clinton. I doubt very much that this or subsequent Wright interviews will add much heat to the controversy.

(Oh, and right on, Steve!)

[Craig]

I've just been reminded of something that helps explains Bill Moyers' sugar-coated interview with Jeremiah Wright. Moyers is an ordained Baptist minister.

Let's see, maybe we can start a new line of jokes. First lame stab: What do you get when a one preacher interviews another preacher?

Delusion profusion.