Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Perspective on Rev. Wright

Jeremiah Wright preaches in the prophetic tradition - a tradition that isn't all that popular anymore and is widely understood. Over at AlterNet, there's a great piece that puts Wright and all who dare to pursue prophetic preaching (like Martin Luther King Jr., for example) into proper context. Too bad this piece can't be more widely read:

Now along comes the Wright "controversy" and Barack was forced to confront the issue of race. In doing so, he spoke to us like adults.

Unfortunately, some adults just don't want to have grown up conversation. They want to talk about Wright's "controversial" (prophetic) preaching.

Funny how nobody wants to talk about McCain's relationship with the controversial white preacher John Hagee.

I guess it's asking too much of "Christian" America to notice the huge difference between a preacher steeped in the biblical prophetic tradition and "Christians" like Timothy McVeigh or Eric Rudolph. You don't see members of Wright's church going out and putting "hatred and anti-Americanism" into practice by becoming domestic terrorists. Nope. Members of Wright's church just go out and do things like run for president and energize an entire generation of new voters.

You know the world's crazy when hope is confused with hate.


Amen ...

1 comment:

The Misfit said...

I've known of Rev. Wright and Trinity UCC for over 11 years now and I can't imagine anyone degrading the immense, substantial work this man of God has done because of a few sermon snippets.

Have you ever noticed how the media (and we, the people) reduce a person to one comment or 2 and suddenly they are inhuman, stripped of their very dignity & worth? It's the new crucifixion.

We would do well to use this time to learn about racism, the black church and black worship. Guess what? It ain't the same as white folks. For one thing, church was for a couple hundred years the ONLY place it was safe for a black person to get angry. So really, in contect, Rev. Wright is within his tradition. We have no right to peer in with cameras & judge him.

God bless you for this post!