Hearing what Pastor Jeremiah Wright said in his speech to the National Press Club Monday was both liberating and alarming. Liberating because, after weeks of the endlessly repeated sound bites from his controversial sermons, which have been used as justification to smear Senator Barack Obama, Pastor Wright got to speak up for himself. He spoke plainly about racism, his own political point of view. What is so good about him speaking is that the United States is one of the few places on earth that it could happen. Also with Pastor Wright seeming to literally go off the deep end surely no one in their right mind could think that these two have anything in common at this point.
It was alarming to me because Pastor Wright, knowing full well that anything that he says at this point is attributed to Senator Obama. And many people cannot seem to separate people you know from you. I am glad that Senator Barack Obama received the Audacity of Hope message and cast out your audacity of grand standing. His name is out there -- is he seeking a book contract? It appears to me that Pastor Wright cares little for the welfare of one of his flock. In the middle of a race this tight race Senator Obama does not need any more negative fodder for the already swarming sharks in the media to feed. There is no one Black church. There are many Black churches as there are many White churches. If you are a Christian church, preach Christ. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
In the past few days Pastor Wright blew away any hope Senator Obama’s campaign may have had that he would stay in the background and let the storm of controversy he kicked up with his politically incorrect sermons pass. Instead, Pastor Wright came out swinging, mocking the media for knowing nothing about the Black church, for taking sound bites from his sermons out of context, and, basically, for being lazy and ignorant. He called the news generated by his controversial remarks "the most recent attack on the Black church." And while he takes the media characterizations of him personally he implied that his decision to speak up now was a defense of his people -- the Black church.
The audience of his friends and supporters, including Cornel West and Jim Wallis, ate up his strikes back against what has surely been a racist and unfair campaign against him. Pastor Wright's 9/11 sermon, though it looks, in sound bite form, supremely insensitive, was actually a profoundly moving statement on the tragedy and on the desperate, destructive logic of revenge. The "chickens coming home to roost" line was a quote from a U.S. ambassador, by the way, not Pastor Wright's own words. He is a scholar, and he brings layers of meaning and understanding to the themes he addresses. But that is quickly lost in a news report.
Unlike Senator Obama, who is relentlessly positive, Pastor Wright's points in his speech tended to characterize the U.S. government as an agent of evil more than a beacon of hope. "While our government cuts Food Stamps and spends billions fighting an unjust war in Iraq," he said, his own church has been working hard to serve the poor. On slavery, South African apartheid, and other issues throughout history, he pointed out the leadership of his church, contrasted with the unenlightened thinking of the U.S. government. "While those who call me unpatriotic have used their position of privilege to avoid military service . . . sending others to die for a lie."
Furthermore, Wright pointed out, "the Christianity of the slaveholder is NOT the Christianity of the slave." So much for national or religious unity. Wright doesn't hesitate to puncture the national myth of America's essential goodness. None of this is terribly shocking to those of us who are quite familiar with the U.S. government's misdeeds over time. But it's a heck of a message to send mainstream American voters. Needless to say, this is not the Obama campaign jingle. What will this mean for the rest of the nation?
Wright fielded questions on all his controversial statements. Including patriotism: "I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How many years did Cheney serve?"
We'll see what the press, whom he clearly enjoyed teasing, makes of it. And what the voters have to say. Not to mention Senator Obama. Senator Obama’s campaign raises hopes that the U. S. could get past its racially torrid history. Pastor Wright is here to remind us what a huge feat it will be to make that dream a reality.
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