A Deeper Look at Rev. Jeremiah Wright
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Barack, Race, ReligionBarack Obama has condemned the controversial words of his pastor Jeremiah Wright and I think we should move on from that specific story. However, since Obama has made his character and judgment as much a qualification for the presidency as his experience, I think a deeper look at Rev. Wright and his former church is appropriate. The few snippets of sermons broadcast ad nauseam this week hardly tell the whole story.
There are a lot of good articles on Obama, his faith and his church. I suggest reading this Christian Science Monitor piece, this Chicago Tribune story and this piece from the New York Times. What we get is a picture of a church that very much fits into the liberal form of Christianity, one that is focused predominately on ending oppression both by challenging oppressive powers and by helping victims raise themselves up.
In addition to typical liberalism, Rev. Wright also preaches black liberation theology which views the stories of the Bible as metaphors for the struggles of African Americans. The theology believes:
African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage—social, political, economic, and religious. This liberation involves empowerment and “also demands the right of self-definition, self-affirmation, and self-determination.
As a young community organizer, Obama found inspiration in Rev. Wright’s message of using social work and political activism to liberate poor African Americans from their current state of despair. The message was so powerful that it propelled Obama onto a religious path and led to his eventual conversion from agnostic to Christian. The Wright sermon that Obama sites as a real turning point was titled “The Audacity to Hope.â€
You can read the sermon in full here. A rough summary: the world is full of pain and despair but we must keep hoping in the face of it all. The sermon moved Obama to tears and if we’re going to use Rev. Wright’s words to frame our perceptions of Obama, those are the words we should first choose.
Rev. Wright is an undeniably fiery speaker who, in the long tradition of American preachers, proudly and often indiscriminately uses hyperbole to communicate his point. He is unabashed about mixing his faith with his politics and he is unafraid of being provocative to the point of being offensive. His view of the world is a dark one but it is balanced by a shining belief that people can win the fight against oppression. I can understand how a man like Obama can discount the controversial rhetoric and focus on the deeper message. I can also understand why others would condemn him for doing so.
Ultimately, I think Rev. Wright reveals what we already know about Obama: he’s a big, ole liberal with a streak of individualism. He sees the world in terms of oppressors and their victims, like most liberals, but has that Christian layer which sees the individual as ultimately in control. He’s also been steeped in the rhetoric of black liberation and the corresponding animosity towards whites – somehow he’s moved passed that and embraced a more unifying vision (or, as some will believe, he’s duplicitous and has a hidden black power agenda).
Ultimately, Obama’s conversion doesn’t seem to have changed his politics so much as it gave pre-existing politics a spiritual element. If you disagree with liberal ideology you’re likely to find Obama’s theology to be similarly unlikable. They come from different places but arrive at the same goals of social justice and communal prosperity. Rev. Wright delivers that message in a flamboyant style that has resulted in plenty of condemnable statements. But, if we’re going to judge Obama for his religion, it is better to take his faith on its whole rather than basing our perceptions on his pastor’s occasionally offensive diatribes.
Those of us who are not supporting Obama would do better just to focus on the man’s politics and avoid the temptation to get tangled in a religious debate.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 and is filed under Barack, Race, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Nice piece – So I guess we’re all finally in agreement that Obama isn’t a Moslem?
March 15th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
ASC
I just realized that you had “The Audacity of Hope” sermon embedded in your post – thank you. It was a great read , and it solidified the feeling I had that it would be a far different sermon than the two or three we have seen Rev Wright delivering lately by the media heads. I would like to see that sermon on tape, it was powerful – must have been a hell of a thing:)
March 15th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
The pink elephant that wanders the room, however, is that because the Obama campaign, rightfully, will not lower itself to the garbage flinging attacks by both the Clinton campaign and the conservative Republicans some Obama supporters may feel they need to fill in the gap with attacks of their own where the official campaign does not choose to do so. It is a temptation many of us have had and we applaud Senator Obama for raising us all out of that mire.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
SO the “mentor,” friend,” “spiritual adivser,” and chosen campaign adviser to Obama thinks that the US government engineered HIV fo kill blacks and that we deserved to be attacked by Islamofascists on 9/11 and that we should all shout God d**m America ? Wonderful. How soon can we get them both in either prison or the nut house ?
March 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Muslims Against Sharia call on Senators McCain and Obama to cut all ties with their racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic supporters.
McCain: http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccains-spiritual-guide-destroy-islam.html
Obama: http://muslimsagainstsharia.blogspot.com/2008/03/racist-congregation-cheering-racist.html
March 15th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hillary Clinton is a monster and she will stop at nothing to get nominated by the Democratic Party and to be elected President of the United States. Barack Obama’s campaign aide should not have been “forced” to resign for saying it. My individuals I talk with would never vote for Hillary.
Am I mistaken is stating that Barack is caucasian and black? He is bi-racial. His church home should not be an issue in this election process and his race is not important. Barack Obama has a message that is uplifting–leave it at that.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
This is really a great, straightforward piece that you have written…I am glad to have found it and read it. Thanks for clearing up a lot of misconceptions and remind us to focus on what is really important.
March 16th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
This is a race based election and for blacks to say that they not voting for him because he is black is a lie. Why are 90% of blacks voting for him? I tell you something fishy is going on here!
The rest of you who are not black and are backing him should stop and look. Yes look! The Emperor has no clothes! Obama has a hidden black agenda. How much more evidence do you need. I don’t need to look at the Rev whole life story. What I saw on TV was enough.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Anyone who believes 100% what their Preacher says “politically” can cate the first stone at Obama.
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-palm-sunday-jeremiahing-of-obama-is.html#links
March 16th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Very nice piece. More here: http://acropolisreview.com/2008/03/barack-obama-condemns-reverend-jeremiah.html
March 17th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Sorry but no way does this Church get away with it. Read the Bible
This church is an America hating, Jew hating, racist church. Jeremiah Wright is what he is and only a spiritually sick person would go to this
church.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Anyone who would sit under a minister – black or white – who would make these types of negative comments – albeit along with other positive comments – has to be angry, vendictive, and full of hate, and wanting restitution. Restitution from whom? All the whites in America? Many of their ancestors never owned a slave – but worked like slaves themselves on small patches of land or in a sweat shop to make a living. We don’t need this kind of message – we need to live in the present. Obama should have stood up and moved his wife and children to a more loving place before trying to represent all the good blacks and whites in USA.
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:08 am
Obama the Uniter??? Just look at the man’s past, look at his wife. Need I say more
March 24th, 2008 at 3:24 am
I think Mr. Obama has some brilliant speech writers working for his campaign. His speech on the 18th, was passionate, powerful, and moving, yet managed to skirt around the outside of why for so many years has he remained part of a congregation that tolerates and embraces racism. Why a loving father would take his two daughters to church like this is beyond me. Why would his wife tolerate that? It seems to me that those things show not only a tolerance for the words of Rev. Wright, but also support of his beliefs and ideals. Mr. Obama’s speech in and of itself was a wonderful message of hope for this country. One that I would love to believe in. I just can’t quite do it. I think it was a very clever smokescreen to cover up the underlying reason behind it in the first place. If you don’t agree with the messages coming from your pulpit in the past however many years, even if its not every Sunday, why do you continue to go and listen? Is it because of some sense of misguided loyalty to the person you believe has helped to save your soul? Do you believe that this person is suddenly going to change and start preaching love and tolerance of others? Or is it because you secretly agree with them, but know that if you let anyone else know it going to be really detrimental your image? I think the latter is the most probable. I had really high hopes that a good candidate was going to emerge for the country in this campaign. I think we’re screwed. Hillary has great ideas for some things but a questionable character, and I just can’t see her as president. McCain will get us involved in more military action that we need to stay away from. Obama, well…… smoke and mirrors, great speeches and yet…. to many unanswerable questions about his true beliefs. Where is the new Madison, Monroe, Jefferson, Franklin………..
March 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
You don’t even know his church or the work of his minister, yet you’re willing to rely upon a couple of out of context snippets, to condemn the man, his family, and his preacher.
That’s real Christian of you, isn’t it?!!
March 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
You have done an excellent job in analyzing the Obama/ Rev. Wright issue. Reading some of the comments posted, I am saddened by the ignorance and the disillusion that some white people have about race in America. African Americans are the only ethnicity that are not allowed to carry the wounds of past generational racial injustices. We know the history, but we try to make excuses for the past by saying, move on already. Wounds this deep, spanning over 450 years, just can’t go away because you feel things are better now. Are things really all that much better are far is racism is concerned. Do you have the same challenges that African Americans have faced? Have you ever walked a day in their shoes. There are so many examples that I can share with you that stem from institutional racism in America. Have a little compassion and admit that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:37 am
No, I have never walked a day in an African American shoes. But then I never walked in the shoes of my now deceased crippled father, or my mother who spent a lifetime cleaning out toilets in downtown buildings, never complaining or whining. I live in the present. I do not relive the depression days and blame the government 75 years later for those memories. “Wounds spanning 450 years”??? Get over the past! The government has done as much as is humanely possible through legislation! The “hate” and “bitterness” you carry in your hearts and souls are there because of the decades of indoctrination by the likes of the Rev Wright’s of this world….
I’ll never forget the last presidential election….Jackson traveling the country with the message: “Elect Bush, more black churches will burn”….”He’ll send you back to Africa”. Is that any different than Wright’s lie “government gave Aids to Blacks”….”America is responsible for 9/11?
Yes, there is a “race” problem in America and always will be. No one can change hearts and minds. It can only be solved from the bottom up….mother, father and family and a loving, caring example of responsibility of love and faith set for the young. It will never come if more of what has occurred in the last four decades keeps happening…unwed children, no fathers…everyone depending on the government to solve their problems and refusing to accept responsibility.
Democrats have been in power for 40+ years controlling the legislature and the purse strings….where has it gotten the African Community? They have made dependent “victims” of all of you for the sake of votes and promise more of the same? Look at every big city from Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Cincinnati, etc….all controlled for years 100% by Democrat machines….do you like what you see from their lack of caring and much corruption? This is not racism!
Politicians, sports stars, and successful entertainer leave the cities and their own behind….YOU AND YOU ALONE must find the “compassion” to deal with the problem….the words of phony prophets or black politicians weaned on Chicago corruption using simplistic words like “change”, “hope” are not the answer or the hateful words about the greatest country on earth, America. Frankly, I lost all respect for Obama when he conned the American voter, by turning the Wright “hate America” speech into playing the RACE card….typical political move!
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm
None of these Atheists seem to have
ever studied the Ancient Hebrew
Bible, known as the Tanakh, and the
Old Testament,or they would know Rev. Wright is merely repeating the O.T.
Prophets. Jesus admonished his
critics, saying, “Your ForeFathers
murdered the prophets; now you
hypocrits pretend to honor them (and
implying “now you are criticizing
and seeking to murder me, who came
to prophetize to you.)” Hillary’s
Pastor, Rev. Mathews is correct to support Rev. Wrigjht. Show Rev. Wright speech transcripts, IF you criticize; not enough here or elsewhere, to form logical opinions. Read Prophet Amos’s talks to Israel’s Northern Ten Tribes Kingdom, lost in 726 BC. Amos tells Kingdom’s Very Rich, they WILL be damned by God, destroyed, IF they do not Repent. stop stealing Tithes, Social Security of the day, spending it on themselves, Repay. Today’s US Very Rich have stole Social Security Funds since the Kennedy era, spent S.S. on own things; Very Rich’s Congress gave Social Security I.O.U. notes; never required Very Rich to Tithe; LowIncome US Workers pay S.S. 7.2% + emp. match. 7.2%; Very Rich pay only on first 80 thou, Very Rich must Repent, stop stealing, repay or God Will Damn. World hates US for mindless Vietnam, Iraq Wars; Now For World Grain Shortage; FARC had 60lbs Uranium; 6 makes Hiroshima type Bomb; For Mass Starvation, World will Retaliate with 20 Kiloton Nuke Bombs; US Lands HELD In Trust from God; US Can go way of Indians, Buffalo. Church should expel Clinton, Tool of Very Rich.