As a part of the on-going discussion with various persons on various blogs, I call attention to an article from today’s local paper, the Winston-Salem Journal concerning the reaction of local black pastors to the speech made by Rev. Wright.
) Know in this case, means, if I met them in the mall, they would recognize me. I’m familiar with Rev. Sir Walter Mack and never heard of the fourth man on the panel.**
“My concern is, how does mainstream America understand the African American church?” said the Rev. Sir Walter Mack, the pastor of Union Baptist Church. “The truth of the matter is this is the first time many of them have ever heard of liberation theology. They’re going to attach the message to the messenger.”. . . Liberation theology, Mack said, is about speaking to people who have been marginalized in society. It says that God has a special care and concern for people who are oppressed, and God gives them the strength to endure. . . .Ultimately, liberation theology brings healing to the oppressed as well as the oppressor, he said. . . . “We have to take people somewhere, and that’s to the message of restoration, love, hope, faith,” he said. “And leaving them with a sense of optimism that God’s way will prevail.”. . . Obama had to distance himself from his pastor, Mack said, in order to secure the presidency.
**
John Mendez, the pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church, said he concurs that Obama needed to distance himself from Wright. . . . “He’s running for president, not for mayor,” he said. “He’s got to be very inclusive.” . . . Wright represents the particular perspective of black Christians, Mendez said, while Obama needs to represent a far larger view. . . . Mendez said that for him, the main issue is that Republicans and others who are threatened by Obama have spent days going through tapes of Wright’s sermons in order to hurt Obama by association. . . . “The Achilles heel they were looking for was the black church and Jeremiah Wright,” he said. . . . The aim is to make Obama look like an unpatriotic, nationalist fanatic who would separate and scare white people, Mendez said. . . . “It’s playing the race card in the most subtle way,” he said, “to raise Jeremiah Wright up as the bogeyman that everyone can target and shoot at, hate, dislike–and the fallout is on Obama.”
**
The Rev. Roy Swann, the pastor of Goler Metropolitan AME Zion Church, said that as a child of the civil-rights era, he is cautiously optimistic about Obama’s candidacy. . . . “We realize what we came through,” he said. “That backlash could pop up again any time.”. . . He said he is not overly worried about the Wright controversy damaging black churches. . . . “We’ve always been a target. They bombed the churches in the ’60s,” he said. “A verbal attack is nothing new. The media makes it more of an issue than it is.”. . . The silver lining in the controversy, he said, is that liberation theology has gone mainstream, he said. From that standpoint, the media has done black people a favor. . . . Wright is addressing politics from a spiritual perspective, Swann said. He is saying that America reaps what it sows. America has allied itself to such dictators as Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein. . . . “It’s going to be a wake-up call to America,” he said, “to examine our own selves. How do we treat others? How do people around the world view us?”
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May 5, 2008 at 3:13 pm
renaissanceguy
Your post and the articles you allude to fail to address the actual things that Wright said. It is the exact content of his comments that has upset people–not the fact that he is black or that he leads a black church.
You and your sources also imply that all black churches promote Black Liberation theology. Far from it.
Please read what black pastor Henry R. Jackson wrote:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/HarryRJacksonJr/2008/05/05/the_way_that_seems_wright
May 5, 2008 at 3:23 pm
helenl
Hi Renaissance Guy,
Not all black pastors and churches with black people in them are historically black. Even Wright’s denomination isn’t historically black.
If you want to understand the context of Wright’s comments ask a preacher of a historically black church, such as the ones in this article. If you want a different opinion, ask someone else.
No one is trying to pretend all blacks think alike. Name anything, and someone believes it.
May 5, 2008 at 7:11 pm
renaissanceguy
Helen, I appreciate your reasonable response.
II don’t understand how “context” lessons the impact of what Wright said. If you can enlighten me, I’d be glad to hear it. I think you mean the cultural and historical context, which means very little to me. It would be like my hating modern-day Congregationalists because their Puritan ancestors persecuted my Quaker and Baptist relatives, one of whom had an ear cut off and two others were martyred in their old age.
If you mean the context of the sermons, that only helps a little. I don’t know how to contextualize “God d–n America” in any way that would make it good. I actually heard much of that particular sermon–not just the soundbite. I don’t know how to contextualize Wright’s contention that the USA’s white government infected people with AIDS or distributed drugs to them. I don’t know how to contextualize his calling the United States the US of KKK A. My ancestors fought for abolition–some of them literally fought during the Civil War. He’s lumping in the people who opposed slavery with those who practiced it, and that offends me.
I’m against racism. I’m against black on black racism that I saw in Africa and the white on white racism that goes on in Europe. I’m against white on black racism that I’ve seen during my years in the South. And I’m against the black on white racism that I hear in the words of Jeremiah Wright.
May 5, 2008 at 7:12 pm
renaissanceguy
I must be tired.
“I don’t understand how “context” lessens the impact. . .”
May 5, 2008 at 7:31 pm
helenl
RG, I don’t think racism means the same thing to you. The definition is very important. Racism is a specific kind of prejudice. It is an unfounded prejudice against a given race of people plus the power to keep that group as an underclass. Thus, in the US, as much as black people may hate white people, they are not racists because they do not, as a group, have the power to reverse the historic roles of black and white. Black against black may be hatred but not racism. Black against white may be hatred but has no power. People make less of racism by expanding the definition to mean things it really doesn’t.
When I said out of context, I meant both the context of his sermon and the larger context of the historically black church.
You say your ancestors fought for abolition. Great. But slavery was a result of racism. And racism didn’t die out with abolition. racism is with us today. Systemic racism. Racism is so ingrained in the white American psyche that we don’t know it’s there.
What you hear in Wright’s voice is frustration not hatred.
May 6, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Sherry Chandler
[...] you could make a $40 contribution to the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. Poetry editor Helen Losse provides a link to this article about how local black pastors in Winston-Salem view the Jeremiah [...]
May 6, 2008 at 9:43 pm
renaissanceguy
Helen, that definition is very convenient for you and for Jeremiah Wright. It automatically classifies all white Americans as racists and no black Americans as racists.
I read several definitions of racism from different sources. They included:
*the belief that one’s race is superior and other races are inferior
*unjust discrimination against other people because they belong to a different race
*practices designed to keep a particular race dominant over other races in a particular society
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I note that neither Wright nor you nor his other supporters have defended the actual words he said.
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I realize that Wright and most other African Americans are frustrated. I don’t blame them. But it doesn’t mean that they can claim absurd things or call for God’s damnation of our country. If they curse our country in one breath, they had better not demand benefits from her in the next. While Jeremiah Wright sits in his mansion for the rest of his earthly days, he can rail against America all he wants, but it won’t change the fact that he would not be in that mansion if things were as bad as he has claimed.
May 6, 2008 at 10:09 pm
helenl
RG, Wright didn’t “call for God’s damnation of our country.” He prophesied that God would damn America, if she doesn’t change her ways. Wright presented a warning not a sure thing. That’s what prophecy is.
May 11, 2008 at 9:39 pm
goodtimepolitics
>I note that neither Wright nor you nor his other supporters have defended the actual words he said.<
They can not defend the words that Wright has said, such as the US Goverment invented aids to kill off black people! To me that was a racist statement from Wright and also an anti-American comment!
May 11, 2008 at 9:52 pm
helenl
Hi, Goodtimepolitics,
I note you left no URL, a phony e-mail address, and a dog identicon. I’ll drop everything and answer you.