Wright’s Full Sermons

Now most people have come to realize that FOX News is propaganda organ masquerading as a “fair and balanced’ news outlet, however, the bile it has expended in attacking Wright has reached a low that would have made Joseph Goebbels proud (given that Sean Hannity has neo-nazi friends is not too surprising given his lead on the hate campaign). More alarmingly, their menacing racializing of Obama through Wright has leached into the wider press that has only too happily taken up the baton, upending the meaning of racism by calling anyone who decries white supremacy a racist.

Anyways, footage of Reverend Wright’s full sermons, and not the carefully spliced clip of his most fiery words, has been posted to YouTube. Please do see for yourself Wright’s inspiring and compassionate message and how his diagnosis on what ails the country comes much closer to hitting the mark than most.

For the Love of a Greater Humanity

Writing in Counterpunch, Sherwood Ross places Wright’s words in the context of a very American tradition of dissent, especially in regards to the damnable sin of imperialism:

And may we have the temerity to inquire what Reverend Wright is so angry about? The answer in part is that he is ticked off at America’s imperialist foreign policy, its violations of international law, its role as a disturber of the peace. Indeed, Wright is part of a long and honorable tradition of Americans who told their government off when their government was, in fact, dead wrong, as it has been on many occasions. Such men and women loved their country enough to expect better of it. Psychologist William James, the Harvard philosopher, for example, used the same epithet as Wright in 1898 when he declared: “God damn the U.S. for its vile conduct in the Philippine Isles.”

Was James wrong? In his “A People’s History of the United States” (HarperPerennial), Howard Zinn quotes Mark Twain saying this about the U.S. takeover of the Philippines: “We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them; destroyed their fields; burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors.” Indeed, the Manila correspondent for the Philadelphia Ledger wrote home, “our men have been relentless, have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captivesand suspected people from lads of ten up Our soldiers have pumped salt water in them (captives) to make them talk” Were those damnable acts or not? How many people reading these words think it’s okay to invade a foreign country and kill women and children?

So what is patriotism anyway? Does a real American patriot condone illegal wars and their horrors or isn’t the essence of patriotism, rather, to condemn them, as unworthy of the American Dream, as Reverend Wright has done?

Of National Lies and Racial Amnesia

The inimitable Tim Wise, one of the most respected anti-racist visionaries in America, brings his wisdom to bear on the Wright-Obama saga, and what he finds isn’t so pretty. As he so eloquently puts it:

…here we are, in 2008, fuming at the words of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago–occasionally Barack Obama’s pastor, and the man whom Obama credits with having brought him to Christianity–for merely reminding us of those evils about which we have remained so quiet, so dismissive, so unconcerned. It is not the crime that bothers us, but the remembrance of it, the unwillingness to let it go–these last words being the first ones uttered by most whites it seems whenever anyone, least of all an “angry black man” like Jeremiah Wright, foists upon us the bill of particulars for several centuries of white supremacy.

But our collective indignation, no matter how loudly we announce it, cannot drown out the truth. And as much as white America may not be able to hear it (and as much as politics may require Obama to condemn it) let us be clear, Jeremiah Wright fundamentally told the truth.

He continues later seeing the fundamental truth of the matter:

So that’s the truth of the matter: Wright made one comment that is highly arguable (the government being behind AIDS), but which has also been voiced by white America’s favorite black man, another that was horribly misinterpreted and stripped of all context, and then another that was demonstrably accurate. And for this, he is pilloried and made into a virtual enemy of the state; for this, Barack Obama may lose the support of just enough white folks to cost him the Democratic nomination, and/or the Presidency; all of it, because Jeremiah Wright, unlike most preachers opted for truth. If he had been one of those “prosperity ministers” who says Jesus wants nothing so much as for you to be rich, like Joel Osteen, that would have been fine. Had he been a retread bigot like Falwell was, or Pat Robertson is, he might have been criticized, but he would have remained in good standing and surely not have damaged a Presidential candidate in this way. But unlike Osteen, and Falwell, and Robertson, Jeremiah Wright refused to feed his parishioners lies.

The entire article is an astute analysis of the hypocrisies and false indignation that is being heaped Wright’s way. The reaction indeed reveals far more about the festering wound of racism that pervades and has seen a resurgence since 9/11 with the victimization of yet another group of colored people in this world.

Media uses Wright controversy as a free pass to spout racism

The blogger scarecrow at Firedoglake takes the corporate media to task for using Wright as an excuse to attack black pastors and churches in general. Here’s an excerpt:

Let us be clear. Barack Obama does not have a “pastor problem.” There is a problem, but it’s being framed as “Obama’s Pastor Problem” only because he lives in a country whose irresponsible media pretends that America does not have a “racism problem” and a “religiously driven militarism problem” neither of which can be honestly discussed in a Presidential campaign because we have a “corrupt media problem.”

Der Spiegel Interviews Rev. Wright

About a year ago, Der Spiegel (March 13, 2007) interviewed Reverend Wright to gauge his opinion on Barack Obama’s vision of the role of faith in his politics. Far removed from primary season, the interview really illuminated Wright’s inclusive and expansive vision of social justice at the core of the Christian Gospel. It’s a vision America hasn’t seen in a long time, given the domination by the Religious Right of the very meaning of religiousity in America.

Smearing Obama via Wright

Justin Raimondo, a leading antiwar libertarian, and editor at antiwar.com provides an important perspective on the Wright-Obama brouhaha, beginning with the truism: “every antiwar candidate has to endure the same hate campaign.”

Raimondo goes on to say, as MLK did:

Racism is closely linked to imperialism, and it doesn’t take a genius to understand why. Since, by definition, a policy of conquest means conquering foreigners, and these peoples are often, albeit not always, of another race, it behooves the conqueror to rationalize his aggression in racial terms. “Take up the white man’s burden” – up until very recently, Kipling’s poetic phrase has been the leitmotif and battle cry of the global Anglo hegemon. It was, and is, a world order founded on racism, mercantilism, and militarism, the three pillars of hegemonist thought. Yet the Wall Street Journal has its own version of history and is certainly no critic of mercantilism, either historic or contemporary.

Raimondo is right in that this has been understood for centuries, but has been so thoroughly buried in the American psyche due to excessive belief in American messianism. This is the gist of Wright’s arguments, and Americans ignore at their peril.

Speaking truth to power

Lecia Shorter at HuffPo points out that Wright is speaking truth to power, rather than going along with the conventional wisdom — the same wisdom that has led the US to the brink of economic and moral ruin.

African American religious leaders have historically combined sociology, theology and politics. In some instances, it has been done to inspire change, and in other instances, to inspire awareness. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a prime example. Yet, he was considered an agent of change and is celebrated for his courage and involvement in the Civil Rights movement through non-violent means. Why now is Rev. Wright viewed differently and even vilified? Is it because Dr. King was more eloquent in his speech than Rev. Wright. No! The answer can only lie in the fact that Rev. Wright is the pastor of an African American presidential hopeful who has seemingly wooed white America by running a campaign that has made every effort to transcend racial divisiveness. In other words, if Senator Obama is removed from the equation, how interested is America in the veracity or inflammatory nature of the comments made by Rev. Wright?

UCC Defends Wright, Trinity

The head the UCC, Reverend John Thomas, released a statement defending Wright and Trinity United from the defamations of the corporate media. Realizing the political context to the attacks, he cogently noted that:

What’s really going on here? First, it may state the obvious to point out that these television and radio shows have very little interest in Trinity Church or Jeremiah Wright. Those who sifted through hours of sermons searching for a few lurid phrases and those who have aired them repeatedly have only one intention. It is to wound a presidential candidate. In the process a congregation that does exceptional ministry and a pastor who has given his life to shape those ministries is caricatured and demonized. You don’t have to be an Obama supporter to be alarmed at this. Will Clinton’s United Methodist Church be next? Or McCain’s Episcopal Church? Wouldn’t we have been just as alarmed had it been Huckabee’s Southern Baptist Church, or Romney’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?

The full text of the statement is available here.

Trinity Fires Back

Here’s the full text of Trinity United’s response to the growing media fueled controversy over Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It points out some hard truths about the nature of the attack on the Reverend and the church. Indeed, the level of vitriol is going a long way to proving Wright’s point a year ago about how endemic racism will prevent Obama from become president of the US. However, the attacks go further, as they reveal a real hatred and fear that dwells in the heart of the country and has been waiting only for this exact moment to come out.

AN ATTACK ON OUR SENIOR PASTOR AND THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH

Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008) — Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemorative anniversary of the murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.

“Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite,” said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.

During the 36-year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.

pastordan honors Wright

Also a UCC pastor, this DailyKos blogger had this to say in his touching post:

I am likewise proud of Jeremiah Wright (and yes, Barack Obama), even if I can’t always go where he does in his Afrocentrism. I have enjoyed the company of more than one black congregation, and know how vibrant their faith is, how deeply held it is and how deeply connected to the plight of their people. And make no mistake: they are still in plight. Perhaps the very richest African-Americans no longer know poor folks or the sting of continued discrimination. I’ve never met any who didn’t.