Recently I heard and saw during a newscast, more of the video of Jeremiah Wright's (Obama's preacher) inflammatory sermon. Hearing more of it helped me to understand it. He was not condemning the people of America but was listing the ways our government has let us down and condemning it.
Then I read an article on the website which clarified it more. It was not racist, but helped me to remember much history I had forgotten, from the Black's memory. Some of the issues he broached were those of segregation, poor education, hundred of years of slavery, and oppression for the Africa Americans, forced into labor as non-persons. Native Americans, too, were relegated to reservations. It is easy for us white population to overlook and forget those forgotten years. I remember when I first moved to Virginia passing a park area displaying the sign, "White Area." I thought nothing of it until I saw on my return visit the rest of the sign, "Black Area." I was shocked when I witnessed Blacks sitting at the back of buses, with Whites up front.
Dr. Wright has dealt with school segregation, unequal education, discrimination in housing, employment and actions by police.
Further he has witnessed the suspension of habeas corpus, warrantless wiretapping and other constitutionasl violations by our present government.. There has also been the possibility of its introducing AIDS.
It is easy to condemn his sermon without disclosing more of the facts or understanding the plight of the colored person in America.
Then too, we have been introduced to the possibility that the government was involved in the 9/11 attacks. He says, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, keeping Nelson Mandala behind bars,. and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
White Americans have been lied to, miseducated aand desensitized about what has happened to the Black community. They have believed history as told by the oppressior asnd failed to understand reality. Rev. Wright is not anti-American. Rather, he is challenging America to be the best that it can be. His statements are founded in historical truths.
I don't know the man and I didn't hear the sermon, so I'm not in a place to judge (something everyone should keep in mind).
But there are certainly times when, although I love my country, I hate what the government does. I think every American should view the government's actions with a critical eye, ask themself, "Does this represent my values?" and if it doesn't, do something about it.
Benjamin Franklin said we have a Republic, if we can keep it. Keeping it means keeping an eye on it and taking action when necessary to ensure it doesn't turn into something else, which I think it has begun to. If that's what Obama's minister was talking about, I'm with him.
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SpiritBlooms (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 55 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 12:47:31 PM
a sermon during a religious service. Is he using the pulpit as a political forum? It's possible.
I'm a proponent of taking tax exemptions away from churches, except where they provide a charitable service to anyone regardless of church membership. I don't think religiousservices (sermons, rituals, and proselytizing) should be funded with tax exempt dollars.
But that's just me.
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SpiritBlooms (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 55 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 1:13:32 PM
True religious faith has enormous political implications. It is those who try to divorce it from political and socio-economic significance who are failing to be true to the faith.
This past week was Holy Week. What do those of us who are Christians commemorate during this time of the liturgical year? It starts with a march into Jerusalem, with crowds hailing Jesus as a king in the line of David, followed by Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers. A profoundly political event. And by the end of the week Jesus had been executed, basically as a threat to the political and religious authorities. Crucifixion was a political tool of the Empire, publicly subjecting those who were seen as a danger to the Empire to a humiliating and painful execution in order to discourage subjects from challenging their power.
If Christians aren't preaching loyalty to a different authority and calling to account the authorities of this world for their greed and oppression, they aren't preaching the Gospel. Rev. Jeremiah Wright understands that. Obama partially acknowledges it, but wants it toned down so it doesn't sound too harsh.
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Bill Samuel (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 228 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 7:43:26 PM
The “theology” that Wright teaches at his church is nothing like Christianity as most people understand it.The brand of theology which Wright has been teaching Obama and the others at his church is called “black liberation theology.”Wright admits this and it is stated on the church's website.Black theology is based upon the premise of the white oppressor against the black oppressed.This is why, for example, that Wright refers to Jesus as black, and his killers as white.This is the only way the story of Jesus fits within this brand of “theology.”Rev. Wright cites James Cone, another proponent of black liberation theology, as his theological inspiration. Here are just a couple of James Cone's quotes: (1) “To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people." (2) "While it is true that blacks do hate whites, black hatred is not racism."(3)"All white men are responsible for white oppression."(4)"Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man "the devil."(5)"If there is any contemporary meaning of the Antichrist, the white church seems to be a manifestation of it."(6)“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”*** These teachings are fundamentally racist and divisive.Obama has chosen to belong to this racist church for 20 years, and now because of exposure by the press, he tries to fool the American public once again.
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Hinnis (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:28:01 AM
As I listened to the tape of one of Rev. Wright's harangues
I was struck by how accurate a description of life he was portraying. You may criticise the Reverend for his bitterness, his anger or his anguish, you may note that he was possibly using his pulpit in an incorrect fashion. You may, I do not.
It is far to easy, in this nation where so many enjoy so much luxury, to forget, to overlook, to refuse to see the rightness of his words and the absolute necesity for him to speak to those ills that pervade our society. That the conditions against which he rails are a fact is a national shame. That so many of us do not wish to see that injustice and inequality are yet a common fact of life here in America is a national tragedy.
Anyone who has been at this forum for a time knows that I am not a supporter of Senator Obama's candidacy, but his refusal to throw Reverend Wright under the bus in order to placate white America certainly gained him more than a bit of my respect.
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 5:18:22 PM
Americans are used to swallowing everything in sound bites and don't take the time to look beneath the surface. I listened to the whole of Rev. Wright's sermon and Faux news and the MSM took SO MUCH out of context. I don't even listen or watch the MSM most of the time because they lie and misrepresent.
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macdon1 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 89 comments)
on Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 7:19:30 PM
Listen to all his sermons before you judge. I blame the rest of the world for my problems too. It is never my fault. So let me take the lords name in vain in church.
Obama's lifelong mentor has done just that and the lord is striking him down.
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Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 537 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 12:01:36 AM
Listen to all his sermons before you judge. I blame the rest of the world for my problems too. It is never my fault. So let me take the lords name in vain in church.
Obama's lifelong mentor has done just that and the lord is striking him down.
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Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 537 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 12:01:47 AM
Walk a mile in his shoes before you judge his words. Perhaps you might expand upon exactly what contents of that sermon you find false?
I would suggest that being made uncomfortable by truth is not a reason to try and silence that truth from being heard, or condeming the messenger who brings such truth to your attention.
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 6:59:35 AM
I echo the request to provide one example of where Rev. Wright went off course compared to any other preacher in the USA?
Do you endorse the right-wing nut preachers who endorse McCain? Are you one of those hypocritical Christians who say that 9/11 was God's retribution for the ACLU like McCain's endorser Robertson said?
It is easy to throw stones as Rev. Wright when you don't include a single fact to back it up and speak only emotionally about a vague feeling that he was "taking the Lord's name in vain."
Also, I'm amazed that you see the criticicizsm of Rev. Wright as "the Lord's retribution." Do you seriously believe that the Fox news propaganda is an instrument of God? If you do, then please state that clearly so everyone here will see your prejudices plainly.
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Gregory Wonderwheel (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:16:51 AM
This is why McCain is going to walk all over Obama
Even McCain has already pointed out that if some nut on the corner says he supports me well fine. That doesn’t mean I support the nut or his views.
Obama has a nut preacher that he calls his lifelong mentor. This goes way beyond “support”. He refers to him as close family (his uncle). His Black uncles racist views are no problem but throw grandma under the bus, she’s white.
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Gallaher (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 537 comments)
on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 12:54:01 AM
Your opinion of the Reverend is only that, yours. Though perhaps you might look around and see with whom you share such bigoted zealotry...Ironic that.
Again I ask, and you duck, the specifics of that sermon with which you find fault. It is, after all, an honest question in the face of your hyperbole.
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 9:30:32 PM
Like when he said HIV was created by whites as mass genocide for people of color? My problem lies not in what the pastor said, but it lies in the fact that Barack Obama chose to cling to this man even though his words were in direct contradication to Obama's message. Like Sen. Obama said, words do matter. While he may not have been able to disown his white grandmother, he certainly could have attended another church rather than have his innocent daughters being exposed to this divisive rhetoric. I would have voted for Barack, but now I question his judgment and his ulterior motives. Like most people I know, I may sit this one out. Of this I am certain-- I will not campaign for him, contribute to his campaign, and there will be no Obama sign in my yard.
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Merylr (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 19 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 7:33:27 AM
Merylr, If you are going to judge Obama by the people he prays with then do the same iwth Clinton and McCain.
Rev. Wright is the image of reasonableness compared to McCain's right-wing nut preachers.
And Clinton prays with the Fellowship (a.k.a. The Family) which is a cult of power politicians and business leaders whose sole purpose is to cement their control on the strings and levers of power in America.
Compared to them I'd rather pray with Rev. Wright any day.
In my view, anyone who would not vote for Obama because of what Rev. Wright said should have their voting card taken away, because they don't know how to exercise their vote responsibly and are simply being led by the nose of the main stream media propaganda.
Pay attention to who pays for that propaganda. The more Obama's campaign seems to have an independent base that would allow Obama to think for himself, the more the wealthy owners of America become nervous. Obama is in bed with a certain sebment of the owners of America but even they will turn against him if he appears too independent. That is why he has had to call Rev. Wright's word "unexcusable".
But there will be no excuse for you if you allow Rev. Wright's words against injustice to be twisted by the MSM which only wants to twist up your mind into voting for injustice.
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Gregory Wonderwheel (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:28:39 AM
If you want to see Rev. Wright's sermon in a "completely" new light then I ask you to go all the way and drop the false claim that he gave an "inflamatory" sermon. By calling the sermon "inflamatory" a perjoritive is used to discredit him.
Yes the sermon was "provocative" as all good sermons should be. But it was not inflamatory because it spoke the truth.
There was absolutely nothing in Rev. Wright's sermon that was not 100% consistent with the Old Tesament prophets such as Micah. I challenge everyone to read the Book of Micah and then point to a single sentence in Rev. Wright's sermon criticizing the injustices of America that is in any way different than Micha's criticism of the injustices of Israel. Anyone who attacks Rev. Wright's sermon is someone who attacks the Old Testament prophets for calling doun devine truth to worldly power.
From the first word to the last, Rev. Wright was calling for justice and love. Nothin more and nothing less. What was wrong with that? Because the MSM can't handle the truth, and instead used such words as "inflamatory" to mischaracterize Rev. Wright's words and sell falsehoood to the public, Obama was forced to disavow his pastor's true words.
The real question is: why is anger at injustice considered wrong in American political discourse? Is anger compatible with love? Didn't Jesus get angry at the money lenders in the temple? Didn't he express that anger in physical acts of "violence" against their operation? The right-wing Christians angry at Rev. Wright are not angry at injustice, they are angry that he pointed out the injustice. Which anger is compatible with either a Christian or humanist love? In my view to be angry at injustice is legitimate, but to be angry at the person who points out injustice is not.
The lapsed Christians or the lip-service Christians who condemn Rev. Wright's true sermon of anger at injustice are just showing themselves to be the sleep-walking hypocrites that they are.
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Gregory Wonderwheel (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:06:25 AM
OBAMA’S NEW PASTOR COMPARES REV. WRIGHT TO JESUS -- CHICAGO — The new pastor of Barack Obama’s church delivered a defiant defense of its retiring reverend Sunday, comparing media coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to a modern-day lynching that resembles Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans.In a sunrise Easter sermon, Rev. Otis Moss III implied that his mentor, who has delivered sermons in which he likened the U.S. to the Ku Klux Klan and declared it damned for its “state-sponsored terrorism,” is facing the same challenges Jesus did.”No one should start a ministry with lynching, no one should end their ministry with lynching,” Moss said.“The lynching was national news. The RNN, the Roman News Network, was reporting it and NPR, National Publican Radio had it on the radio. The Jerusalem Post and the Palestine Times all wanted exclusives, they searched out the young ministers, showed up unannounced at their houses, tried to talk with their families, called up their friends, wanted to get a quote on how do you feel about the lynching?” he continued.
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Hinnis (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:23:26 AM
I'm glad Moss isn't backing down. From the snippets taken out of context you have here I agree with him. Though I personally would compare Wright more to the Old Testament prophets who were ignored and vilified in their day, a comparison to Jesus is not unusual.
There are of couse many hypocritical Christians who wring their hands whenever anyone is compared to Jesus, but they are false Christians who don't believe that Jesus is a real life role model, and only believe that Jesus was a super model, a supernatural God model.
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Gregory Wonderwheel (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 99 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:34:49 AM
The theology that Wright has been teaching Obama and others is called black liberation theology, which is based upon the struggle between the white oppressor vs. the black oppressed.This is why Wright refers to Jesus as black, and his killers as white, so that the story of Jesus fits within this brand of theology.Wright cites James Cone, another black liberation theologist, as his inspiration. Here are just a couple of his quotes: 1.To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people. 2.While it is true that blacks do hate whites, black hatred is not racism. 3.All white men are responsible for white oppression. 4.Theologically, Malcolm X was not far wrong when he called the white man the devil. 5.Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.** The teachings of Obama's "mentor and spiritual adviser" are racist and divisive.
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Hinnis (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 16 comments)
on Monday, March 24, 2008 at 10:51:00 AM
and your logic stems from a lifetime of doors opening simply because of that one rather inconsequential fact. Just as the Reverend Wright's words stem from a few hundred years of slavery and oppression, of unequal opportunity, of apts being suddenly rented when a black family appears to look at it. I think you speak from a lack of understanding of what those words are meant to convey to the black community, he speaks, after all to other than you. He speaks to folks who do not share your priviledge, even if you fail to understand that you do possess it because you lack a certain melanin content in your skin.
What Wright does is imbue a spirit within his flock that this will no longer endure, and about damn time too!
"When injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty." Nelson Mandela
"This is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it."
James Baldwin Letter to my nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation
"You are not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you cannot face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." Malcom X
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 9:44:35 PM
Man, you must be really scared of something to be coming up with this stuff. You think Wright is the first Black person to say Jesus was Black? You think this church is alone in saying America as a power system was only getting back a small taste of what it historically dished out to others when the WTC was destroyed? Sorry to break the bad news, but these little secrets are already out. Black folks have been talking about this stuff a long, long time.
Especially in church. Oh, and we vote.
And white people can quit calling Trinity a divisive church. I was there once. Sat right behind both Rev. Jesse Jackson AND Minister Louis Farrakhan. (Scaaaaarry, huh?)
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Mars Caulton (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 82 comments)
on Saturday, March 29, 2008 at 2:24:17 AM
