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E-mail to a friendThe leaders and members of Trinity United Church of Christ, including Barack Obama have provided a far more informed and articulate defense of the church and “divisive” former pastor Jeremiah Wright than I can. But as a white boy who’s crossed paths with the minister and the church before, I wanted to add a couple of things.
I knew nothing about Rev. Wright or Trinity until I attended McCormick Theological Seminary, a graduate school in Hyde Park, from 1997 to 2000. The student body was mostly white, but I’m pretty sure Trinity had more of us enrolled than any other congregation. Trinity was presented to me and everyone else as a welcome and open place whose pastor and members were dedicated to social justice, especially for the people in their own neighborhoods; and the 20 or so people I knew who went there—including several church leaders—were universally warm, respectful, and open-minded. When I attended services at Trinity I was welcomed no less, and while I’m kind of the skeptical type when it comes to sermonizing, I was impressed with Reverend Wright. He was thoughtful, critical, funny, and deeply spiritual; he railed against white supremacy, which struck me as appropriate; and he seemed to challenge everyone there to become better citizens.
After I graduated from seminary, I returned to journalism, and a few months later I wrote a story detailing the relationships of several large black congregations in Chicago with the Daley administration. The story attempted to show how the city had provided several of them—including Trinity—with thousands of dollars in funding for social programs, and to capture a debate within the black community about whether these churches lost their prophetic voices when they formed alliances with the mayor.
A couple of pastors reportedly denounced the story and me in church on Sunday morning. And when Reverend Wright visited my alma mater, he took the opportunity to attack my story for lumping Trinity in with a group of other congregations with less integrity. It was unfair, he felt: I had proceeded as if all black congregations were the same.
Naturally, I thought he was defensive and plain wrong, but I couldn’t really dispute his right to make an argument in public, since I had done so myself. And unlike a couple of other people I’d written about, he didn’t attack me personally (or get his alderman to write nasty letters to the editor about me).
Of more concern to me, my two closest Trinity friends saw the story the way Wright did, and they were upset enough that they vowed to do something about it: they invited me to dinner. More accurately, they invited me to “break bread” with them.
We did. It wasn’t always easy, but over our food, we talked about my story, Wright, racism, journalism, and a zillion other things, and in the end I agreed that I was right to challenge their church in print and they agreed I was full of shit. Fair enough.
The truth is that I don’t know Jeremiah Wright. I’ve never met him. I do wish that he and the church more directly took on local political figures who claim to be friends of the black community but don’t seem to have delivered.
But if I’m going to measure him and the church he built by the people who have come out of it—which is the point here, right?—then I’ll just say “Amen to that.”
The interesting part of this is that the broadcast media, as they can be expected to do, have focussed solely on a few, out of context, and incendiary, comments and ignore completely both the complete story and the validity of many of this retired reverend's perspectives.
That's always the quality of human nature that is pandered to and manipulated, that capacity of self deception, of denying those truths which one desires not to acknowledge, let alone face or admit to.
While the Truth will set you free, many don't really want to be free and, thus, are repelled by the truth.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive....
Especially to deceive ourselves.
Please, put them in context then. At a "universally warm, respectful, and open-minded" wouldn't one think he could avoid a broad condemnation based on race?
JBP
And in the era of white man hypocrisy.
This era has lasted a long time.
What did the Natives of this continent say?
'White Man Speak With Forked Tongue'.
It is amazing to watch how quick the opinion shapers are to marginalize our leadership candidates. As a result, our candidates can't run on their merit but on the merit of everyone they've ever known or associated with--if it is convenient to do so. It is all coded messaging designed to minimize the value of competency and maximize the principles of conformity-- this from a nation founded on the principles of individual freedom of thought and expression. It goes like this: Criticize-Rationalize-Marginalize-Homogenize -and Capitalize! Like I said--I love this country but we are weird people.
Webster dictionary, Racism; is hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
The people were all jumping around and praising the lord at the thought of hating the white people, and there were CHILDREN in the congregation that day during one of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s famous sermons. Not a very nice picture for a white man who attends a church of mixed races and that preaches love in the name of our Lord to everyone no matter their skin color.
Dr Martin Luther King said that “we need not drink from the cup of bitterness and hatred”.
Hate is a cancer, and hate divides and has no justification.
What has become disturbing to me is not only were the people in the crowd excited about hating white people, but also their CHILDREN were present. If the people praise hate at church then they most likely teach it at home. All this time I have stood for equality, while their children are being taught to hate my children. This threatens my family’s safety. It shatters our feelings of comfort in our surroundings. The teaching that went on in Senator Obama's church was the teachings of hate and division. Senator Obama had a choice along time ago to choose a different church, but choose to stay and subject his children to such teachings. Instead of routing out hate Senator Obama has made excuse for it and feeds it into the next generation, by allowing his children and other children to be subjected to such a display of hatred toward other people because of their skin color.
Babies are not born prejudiced, but children are taught it. We teach by example and perception, words do matter as they form preferences. As long as hate is passed down from fathers to sons, mothers to daughters we will have prejudice. Whether it be prejudice against the White, Black, Native American, Hispanic or Asian what ever the skin color.
I am a white 45 year old man with four children that I have taught to be Christians and love thy neighbor no matter their skin color for it simply is not an issue with us. It seems to be a very big issue with Obama’s church as they danced around praising the hate of white people in front of their CHILDREN.
Most men my age are proud to be Americans, and do not want to hear a pastor pushing hate like that, while we are attempting to raise our children in love and kindness. I kind of think it is or should be a form of child abuse. Actually I feel when someone summits to hate it weakens the entire race and existence of man kind. Hate in my home is considered swearing, and the feeling of hate is discouraged.
I WOULD walk out on my DAD if he started preaching hate, and he knows this.
I can not support Senator Obama after this. The risk is just too high. Our eyes must be awakened to what we are teaching our youth. The effects of these teachings on society can not be measured because of the people not knowing just how close to home it actually is, especially when a United States Senator and contender for the Presidency is a part of a ministry with these types of teachings. Hatred being taught in cities like Chicago, or even New York City could be a contributing factor in the high levels of gang activity. Someone may have already died from such teachings. After being taught all your life to hate a certain race can only lead to further violence. Something must be done about this; there must be ‘a better way’.
A signal has to be sent that this type of teaching's and division can not go on. You can not be the President of the United States and also be a part of such bashing of man kind no matter his/her skin color. Supporting Senator Obama after this would show support for such hate teachings and divisions (teaching hatred of a race to CHILDREN).
Senator Obama should be able to see that it was in poor judgment to belong to a church who preaches hatred within the human race, much more to stay a part of that church for 20 years. I feel for America, and all the work that we Americans have done and continue to do, to break down racial barriers. It is shocking to find out that here in America hate is being preached behind the doors and in the house of the Lord.
I feel that it is now time for Senator Obama to step down from public office. He still has the ability to do a lot of good things in the private sector if he chose’s. He was a part of this type of teaching, for far too long; to just simply state that he did not follow his churches ways. Actions and reactions speak in volumes much louder then speeches do.
I certainly wish I would have had this knowledge before the primaries came through my state on Super Tuesday. Thank you for your time and please feel free to e-mail me if you wish at jimmy_sanborn2000@yahoo.com
The right kind of change we need now and in this situation would be teaching our children that there is ‘a better way’. Thank You, Jimmy Sanborn
You can see this sermon and others like it at www.youtube.com Titled Jeremiah Wright-Hillary Clinton ain’t never been called.
Please check out the following blog if you want a better understanding about the warm, loving environment we "white" and "black" members experience.
http://truthabouttrinity.blogspot.com/2008/03/trin...
I, personally, agree with Rev. Wright's statements about our eurocentric (white-male-dominated) society without feeling any racial guilt, because I understand what he is saying, why he is saying it, and what I can do about it. My wife is African-American, so our 9 year-old son is a euro/afro/native american blend. Rev. Wright's statements sound harsh and condemning to "white" american ears because we are still unable to resolve the #1 issue confronting our country and the world this century. Race and class issues must be resolved if we want to have peace, economic stability and save the planet from destruction.
Richard Gibbs
Libertyville, IL