Commenting on Barack Obama’s remarkable speech on race, Charles Kaiser says,
If Obama is elected president, it will be because he has been the first candidate in many years to try to appeal to what is best in America: “What is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand—that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.” Unlike the approach of every Republican candidate for president, that is a perfect example of the way religion should be used in American politics.
In Obama’s words today, you could hear the mystic chords of memory—an echo of the words of another man from Illinois with humble origins who understood the proper role of religion in politics. The spirit Obama embodied today was the same one Abraham Lincoln evoked in the peroration of his greatest speech in 1865:
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Well put, Mr. Kaiser. However, in Lincoln’s second inaugural address, just before he got to the “with malice toward none” bit quoted above, he had something else to say. As the Civil War approached its close, here are the words–almost inconceivable today in their eloquent bluntness–with which the American president dared to combine religion and race:
The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
“God damn America,” indeed. It strikes me that old Abe was in some ways closer to Reverend Wright than to Obama–praiseworthy, thought-provoking, and indeed groundbreaking though Barack’s speech was.
To be fair, Lincoln made clear that he hoped God wouldn’t damn America, and the out-of-context snippets from Wright’s speeches we’re being bombarded with don’t make that clear (not that that proves anything one way or the other about Wright). Nonetheless, Lincoln said explicitly that if God did damn, or more precisely curse, America, in the cruelest possible way, that it would be just. More–that perhaps he was already doing so, in the form of the war that cost more American lives than any other. And that the North’s own centuries-long complicity in slavery and benefit from the wealth it extracted meant that the North, too, was liable to God’s justice. Had the North not had slavery, and then, after slowly abolishing it, kept the Southern slave system alive through its political acquiescence? Had Northern mills not woven Southern cotton? Does our economy not today rest in no small part on the backs of our own black and brown grunt laborers and on the cheap products of overseas sweatshops? Does it not further depend on the colossally murderous gunboat diplomacy to which Wright made such maligned mention, whereby countries around the world are kept open to American trade and business at the point of a knife?
I wonder what outcry must have greeted Lincoln, or would have had he confronted an American populace like the one of today. “He’s taking political correctness to a new extreme! Slavery isn’t my fault–I’m a Northerner and can’t even own slaves. Why should I be punished for it?”
He gives to both North and South this terrible war.
If God wills that it continue until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…
the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
These words are carved into the Lincoln Monument. They should be seared into the nation’s soul as a protection against the stupendous denial of collective responsibility into which we have fallen--and the vicious anger that greets any attempt to break through it.
www.newsince.com
Michael Lubin served on the first democratically elected governing board in the history of KPFA, the nation's oldest listener-sponsored radio station. There, he was a founding member of the pro-democracy listeners' movement People's Radio. Although a Ph.D. student in History of Culture at the University of Chicago, he perversely insists on living in California. He is known variously as Nuisance Man, Caveman, Lubejob, the Dialectrician, and "Hey, you bozo with the long hair!" He blogs, or something like that, at newsince.com. He also highbrows at dialectrics.com and fictions at thenoondaysun.com.
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A convenient truth Yes, the Black man is angry at the whitey and blames him for everything wrong with America. This includes all the crime the Black man is forced by whitey to commit. Obama in this case is “Black”. When whitey looks at him like his a crazed angry Black Obama is all of a sudden white from Kansas. I’m sure it was the same when he went to college. I bet Obama claimed to be Black to get preferential treatment there too. He got so used to the “Black” gravy train he now thinks it will push him to be president. Elect the poor angry black man that is also white when it is convenient. by
Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 497 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 2:43:32 PM
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no evidence for your view of Obama except your own biases This bit of fact-free racist vitriol is exactly what I was referring to when I concluded with, "the stupendous denial of collective responsibility into which we have fallen--and the vicious anger that greets any attempt to break through it." by
Michael Lubin (11 articles, 2 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 37 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 2:50:25 PM
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Sorry, I sorry did you even listen to Obamas speach? by
Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 497 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 2:54:14 PM
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yes, I listened to the whole thing Obama said nothing that suggested anything about "the crime the Black man is forced by whitey to commit." He didn't look the slightest bit "crazed angry" (though Wright perhaps sometimes does). I don't know what you think you're talking about. by
Michael Lubin (11 articles, 2 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 37 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 3:01:48 PM
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a sympathy vote I understand you have guilt from your past and to relieve it you must vote for Obama. I do not. by
Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 497 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 4:29:55 PM
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guilt from my past? Collective responsibility isn't guilt. White people in the U.S. today are certainly not guilty of slavery--how could we be?--but we have a responsibility for its continuing consequences. Actually, ALL Americans do. Also, although I did end up voting for Obama, he was not my first choice. I preferred Kucinich, then Edwards. So I hardly "had to" vote for Obama. People with your racial animuses invariably assume that anyone of your "kind" that doesn't share your prejudices must be overpowered by guilt or some similar mental derangement. To clarify: bigots are NOT my kind. by
Michael Lubin (11 articles, 2 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 37 comments)
on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:15:27 AM
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Oh, lookie! Another right wing windbag here to piss on your article because you spoke your truth clearly and honestly. Whatever, miss thing. When you get more articles that people would read here, then we'll care what you say, loser! Blessed be! by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 3:01:25 PM
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and now... ...what I wanted to say. Yes, many people are upset because of what Rev. Wright said. So what? Having listened to his words, I can't see where he is wrong. God damn America? Too late; we've already damned it better than God ever could. We have become so used to everything being policitally correct, no one has the balls anymore to call a spade a spade. That's part of what's wrong in this country. The Republican slime machine used political correctness to their advantage, and the Dems ate it up like it was fine chocolate. Rev Wright can call a spade a spade. So can you. So can I. We need more people in the world like us! Amen to your article! Blessed be! by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 3:09:02 PM
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Who me? I've also said "God Damn America" I'm just not running for President. If you think this smooth talker is going to solve the worlds problems by playing both sides you are mistaken. Again if you really feel the need to live under and angry black government move to Atlanta, GA. You will see how well putting an angry black government in charge brings everyone together. by
Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 497 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 4:20:06 PM
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I am a college graduate, a loyal patriot of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, a person whose convictions and pessimism drive my thought invoking others to think, and enjoy some politcal debate. I like truth even if it doesn't set you "free" in this US of A any longer. I am a liberal.
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Abe and Obama==same "experience" As the media attacks Obama's experience, it might interest people to know that Abe Lincoln and Barack Obama both served in Illinois State legislature--Abe for 8 yrs and Obama for 7 yrs. Obama served in the Senate for 3 yrs, and Abe served in the House for 2 yrs; therefore, their experience is the same. I thought that issue should be cleared up. I found this info in a graph in TIME magazine--March 10, 2008. I agreed with the preacher man for the most part. I'm a whitey, but I agreed. He says it straightforwardly. He seems like My type of speaker. No more shooting from the hip. Just say it like it is. I guess if in church you can't say god damn, then god must not have poor hearing. heh heh. by
shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 213 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 10:03:05 PM
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A sentient being trapped in the American political diorama. |
Don't miss this piece <snip> by
coyote (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 70 comments)
on Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 11:54:12 PM
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Truth Truth is always the hardest to swallow. I think America is having to face it's ugly side and stare truth in the face. The big question is how will it cope with it's truth. How this nation handles this can make it or break it. This is bigger than Obama and Rev. Wright, this has consumed every level of our society. by
Sharon Roach (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 43 comments)
on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:01:45 AM
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Truth Truth is always the hardest to swallow. I think America is having to face it's ugly side and stare truth in the face. The big question is how will it cope with it's truth. How this nation handles this can make it or break it. This is bigger than Obama and Rev. Wright, this has consumed every level of our society. by
Sharon Roach (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 43 comments)
on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:01:51 AM
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