Pastor Wright, Obama, And The Media

For several days now, I have been appalled at the news coverage of the tempest in a teapot, the molehill turned into a mountain, that is the sermon of the Reverend Jerimiah Wright. That's the Rev. Wright who is recently retired, but was, for 20 years, pastor to Barack Obama at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. He preached a sermon recently which included words that some deemed offensive or, at the very least, inflammatory. I watched those parts of his sermon on video, and I did not find them offensive.

I do not agree with everything the Rev. Wright said, nor have I agreed with everything I have heard in sermons preached in the predominantly white churches that I attend, including one in a Roman Catholic Church recently, in which the congregation was called upon to applaud President Bush.

The best responses to the sermon and the coverage by the media that I have read are from bloggers.

From Rmj at Adventus, the Beatitudes from the Scholar's Version.

Congratulations, you poor!
God's domain belongs to you!

Congratulations, you hungry!
You will have a feast.

Congratulations, you who weep now!
You will laugh.

Damn you rich!
You already have your consolation!

Damn you who are well-fed now!
You will know hunger.

Damn you who laugh now!
You will learn to weep and grieve."

Rmj adds:

The congratulations are pretty risible, whether you translate makarios as "Congratulations" or "Blessed." And the ouai, rendered here as "Damn you!" is not really a nice reflection on the rich and powerful, no matter how you slice it.

Rmj has another good post here in which he includes this quote from a press release from Trinity UCC:

"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.

To which Rmj responds:

It is not only a cheap shot, it's pretty damned stupid to think that 15 seconds sums up a person's entire thought over 36 years. But, of course, this is politics, not a graduate seminar on theology or hermeneutics, so what else can we expect? And other than accept Jeremiah Wright as their spiritual leader and pastor for 36 years, what has Trinity UCC-Chicago done?

From Pastor Dan at Street Prophets:

Rev. Wright is I'm sure sharply aware that poverty and repression are daily realities for many of those seated in Trinity's sanctuary. The anger of his sermons is not his own invention, but grows from the unhappiness and frustration his parishioners feel. He must be responsible to those feelings even if he doesn't endorse them, even as he tries to move his community beyond them. It isn't his responsibility to comfort the privileged overhearers of his message, nor is it to speak "respectfully" of the outside world. His job is to articulate the good news for his congregation, which often means articulating a message of hope, liberation, and justice, even if that upsets the outside world.
....

In short, Wright eschews the feel-good comforts of religion and poses difficult questions about whether things in America are just and equitable.

This, of course, makes Sean and Tucker and Anderson and all the other fatuous f*cks who control our popular discourse pop a gasket. They are invested almost like no others in propping up the ways things are. It's how they make a living in the world of the corporate media.

About the media, I could not agree more with Pastor Dan, but the name that I would name would be Chris Wallace. He was sick-making.

Thanks to Fran at FranIAm for calling my attention to Pastor Dan's post and for letting me vent at her blog.

I read the transcript and watched a replay of Obama's speech today. I thought it was a fine speech. He distanced himself from certain of the Rev. Wright's words, but not from the pastor himself, which would have been quite unworthy. In the speech, Obama gave a brief and eloquent history of our country, including parts of the history that are often neglected. He's quite the speechmaker, and it's a true pleasure to watch him. Here's a link to the video from MoveOn.

Here's the text of Obama's speech from the New York Times.

A quote from the speech:

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Very good, Mr. Obama. Now if you can get elected and if your deeds match your words, we just might be on the way to better times.