From Bill Moyers' Journal:
....Many of you have asked for some rational explanation for Wright's transition from reasonable conversation to shocking anger at the National Press Club. A psychologist might pull back some of the layers and see this complicated man more clearly, but I'm not a psychologist. Many black preachers I've known — scholarly, smart, and gentle in person — uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I've known many white preachers like that, too.
But where I grew up in the south, before the civil rights movement, the pulpit was a safe place for black men to express anger for which they would have been punished anywhere else; a safe place for the fierce thunder of dignity denied, justice delayed. I think I would have been angry if my ancestors had been transported thousands of miles in the hellish hole of a slave ship, then sold at auction, humiliated, whipped, and lynched. Or if my great-great grandfather had been but three-fifths of a person in a constitution that proclaimed, "We the people." Or if my own parents had been subjected to the racial vitriol of Jim Crow, Strom Thurmond, Bull Connor, and Jesse Helms. Even so, the anger of black preachers I've known and heard about and reported on was, for them, very personal and cathartic.
....
But in this multimedia age the pulpit isn't only available on Sunday mornings. There's round the clock media — the beast whose hunger is never satisfied, especially for the fast food with emotional content. So the preacher starts with rational discussion and after much prodding throws more and more gasoline on the fire that will eventually consume everything it touches. He had help — people who for their own reasons set out to conflate the man in the pulpit who wasn't running for president with the man in the pew who was.
Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering Catholic-bashing Texas preacher who said the people of New Orleans got what they deserved for their sins. But no one suggests McCain shares Hagee's delusions, or thinks AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of a foreign head of state and asked God to remove Supreme Court justices, yet he remains a force in the Republican religious right. After 9/11 Jerry Falwell said the attack was God's judgment on America for having been driven out of our schools and the public square, but when McCain goes after the endorsement of the preacher he once condemned as an agent of intolerance, the press gives him a pass.
....
Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettle some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. We are often exposed to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this, this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner before our very eyes. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves. All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers".
I grew up in that same south in the same period as Moyers. He writes the truth. I've quoted nearly the entire transcript, but I beg you to read the rest or watch the video here. As I've said before, Bill Moyers is national treasure, and I don't know if we will see his likes again in the media, probably not in my lifetime.
For another voice of sanity in the midst of the madess, I refer you once again to Rmj at Adventus, who can't let this go any more than I can let it go.
I will second Mimi's remarks. I was a UCC pastor, and have some familiarity with Black (and other) Liberation Theology, and the traditions of the Black church. I have heard nothing in the Rev. Wright's quoted material that I could not support and affirm, at least at second-hand. If I were in his position, I hope I would do as well as he has done "...to preach good news to the captives".
ReplyDeleteAnd if the Man has trouble with that, tough. I'm frankly a little tired and peeved at MSM people who don't know their subject, and attempt to impose their categories on what they are too important to try to understand. Thank Godde for Brother Bill, who almost singlehandedly maintains the great traditions of journalism these days.
Grrrh!
Oh Really? I think Mr Jeremiah Wright has (thankfully) shown his human hand today with the announcement that he, with the financial help of his congregation, is purchasing a 10,400 square feet retirement house in an up-market white suburb, for the sum of a million dollars plus change.
ReplyDeleteGood news to the captives, surely?
Moyers connects with the sorrow that is surely present on both sides in the break between Obama and Wright. That it came to this is so very sad. If these two men had been white, we would not be having this conversation.
ReplyDeleteI would suppose that the media would find the words of Jesus and all of the prophets unsuitable to be quoted in a sermon.
RR, he worked for thirty years and built a large congregation. In his time, he did a lot of good building up his church and the many ministries which reach out to those who have little reason to hope, and he preached a message of hope and reconciliation to his people. Who am I to sit in judgment on him? I live a comfortable life. I have not given all I have to the poor, which the Gospel of Jesus calls us to do. How rich is too rich? Compared to millions of people, maybe billions, those of us who have a roof over our heads, three meals a day, a bed to sleep in, and a toilet that flushes are rich beyond their dreams. If he and the congregation want to do this, so be it. And what? He's not to live amongst white people?
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I thought the column that you referenced at your blog was pretty blatantly racist.
Peace to you, RR. We're not likely to agree on this.
I hadn't read Moyer' response to Wright's latest, so I appreciate you posting it. He is a national treasure.
ReplyDeleteJan, he is. Where and when will there be another like him?
ReplyDelete"Master, why was this expensive balm not sold and donated to the poor?"
ReplyDeleteSurely, RR, as an ordained person, you will know who it is that asks this question of Jesus.
A couple of decades back, the Christian Century published an article which made the point that the poor and oppressed have a different take on displays of wealth; "One of us made it: yeah!" I don't find the numbers at all out of line for a Pastor with Wright's record of congregational development and service to the community. May he live long and enjoy it. I've certainly known a number of less worthy candidates in several denominations who were comparatively rewarded.
I'll end here so as to keep it civil.
RR, and what about our Episcopal bishops who live in luxury? And what about the Anglican bishops who live in palaces? Not all of them do, but some do. Do they show their human hands, too. Are they good news to the captives? Call one, lets call them all, even our own.
ReplyDeleteAh, but Grandmere, I do not sit in judgment on him, or anyone - in fact I applaud his upwardly mobile strategy. No, what I take issue with is the continual preaching against "middle-class-ness" (sic) and the trappings of wealth. Such controlling social doctrine was a common theme in his sermon transcripts until very recently, and on more than one occasion he insisted that such opulence was "not the black way." (sic)
ReplyDeleteI wish him well - as I wish all successful corporate leaders well.
This is a great post and with such an interesting and thought provoking comment thread.
ReplyDeleteI think that the whole Wright business is so far out of control now and I appreciate that Bill Moyers and your posting of this, try to bring some much needed context to the entire matter.
Ultimately, as we are all human (how much does that suck sometimes?) we are all subject to our various influences, prejudices and so forth?
That said, I truly believe that God uses all things for good.
As a result, I think that while part of me experiences Wright as a bloviating blowhard (which some might call me) who has his own axe to grind (which some might say about me), so what? I think that the context that Moyers provides and that you have blogged about, is essential.
Very few things are just that one thing and it is this very polarized and dualistic thought that we are awash in as a nation does not serve us well.
We would all be wise to read the transcript and watch things like Moyers and lean into our own discomfort.
There is wisdom there. I am pretty sure of that, even if it is a place I am not always that happy to enter into.
Thank you so much Mimi, this is a brilliant post. You have asked us to think. God bless you for that.
Bloviating blowhard signing off now.
"If these two men had been white, we would not be having this conversation."
ReplyDeleteHow absolutely true. I grew up at about the same time and in the same area as Moyers (he is from Marshall, Texas - 30 miles west of Shreveport), and I recognize covert, inbred racism when I see it. It seems that everyone is putting a political spin on everything Rev Wright says, and as he pointed out, he is not a politician.
You're right Mimi - if they were both white we wouldn't be having this conversation at all. The media would be blissfully ignoring it - just as they are ignoring the McCain/Hagee link.
I'd say the proof is in the pudding.
How much, one wonders, might a semi-rural rectory in the Hamptons fetch on the open market?
ReplyDeleteFran, I believe that those of us from the South, who are not so very young and who have tried to rid ourselves of the racism in which we were immersed, may view this situation somewhat differently. Speaking for myself, the norm in my milieu was to be racist. It was certainly nothing unusual.
ReplyDeleteOnce I began to see it for the despicable prejudice that it was during my college years, I began to attempt to get out of its clutches, but it took a long time, and I'd say traces remain even today.
Moyers, Rmj, Jim, and I know what is was like, what we were surrounded by, and, in my case what I participated in. One black family lived in our lower middle-class neighborhood. They were light-skinned like Obama, and the father was a mail carrier. They were probably better off financially than many other families in the neighborhood, but we had nothing to do with them. They had one boy, who went to a different school from the rest of us. I remember he'd come outside in his starched dressed-for-the-afternoon clothes and stand outside his house alone. What was that little boy thinking?
As Jim says, the racism was inbred, and I still find myself having knee-jerk racist reactions, which I must guard against, so, for me anyway, I'm aware that the effects of growing up in that environment will never be totally out of my system.
RR, I would guess that most church structures are run pretty much like corporations today. In the Episcopal Church, we even have workshops using a modified business model to grow churches. I can't say that I have any admiration for the trend.
All the hoopla and furor is a mystery to me, but I see now that to survive politically, Obama probably had to distance himself from Wright. However, it does not increase my admiration for him. As Wright says, he is a pastor, and Obama is a politician, as much as he may not want to be thought of in that way.
No, what I take issue with is the continual preaching against "middle-class-ness" (sic) and the trappings of wealth. Such controlling social doctrine was a common theme in his sermon transcripts until very recently, and on more than one occasion he insisted that such opulence was "not the black way." (sic)
ReplyDeleteFirst question: why does this bother you so much? Rev. Wright is not to speak of "the black way"? Why not?
As for the trappings of wealth, that's been a problem for the church since the book of Acts. I have yet to know of a church that organizes itself as the "first church" did. But even Paul rubbed elbows with "sellers of purple cloth," a color available, by law and expense, only to royalty. Which meant those who sold it were not peasants.
Don't tell me you don't "sit in judgment," when you then cite what you say are Rev. Wright's words, and do it so disparagingly. Soon as you get that beam out of your eye, you can remove the sliver from Rev. Wright's.
And then we can talk about removing the teachings about the rich man, the camel, and the eye of the needle, from the Gospels.
Sorry, Mimi. You handle this better than I do. And you are right: the racism is my childhood is hardly over. I even remember "Frank's Place," a TV show set in New Orleans, broadcast in the '80's. Even then they could talk about the "paper bag" test (if you were darker than the paper bag, the club would deny you entry). We like to imagine this stuff is past, that we are superior to our ancestors.
Sadly, we are our ancestors.
Oh, have you seen Frank Rich on this?
ReplyDeleteThank you for highlighting Bill Moyers' piece. I concur that he is a national treasure. For many years, he has spoken with compassion, intelligence, and insight about just about any topic he examines.
ReplyDeleteI would have otherwise missed this because, frankly, I have been too heartsick about this whole Rev. Wright business to read or listen further. This should not have happened to either man. It is a national disgrace, from the standpoint of both race relations and freedom of religion.
As someone who grew up in the North, I can relate as well to this kind of racism. In the greater Chicago area, we lived with many African-Americans in nearly as segregated a setting as people did in the South -- we just did not have the signs that expressly forbid blacks from using white facilities or directing them to the back of the bus. My home city, which at the time had a number of large factories, had attracted both blacks and whites from the South for many years (at least as far back as the 1920's when my grandfather was manager of the large Johns-Manville plant). I attended white-only elementary and junior high schools (although two of the three jr. highs were integrated), and even in high school, although we all went to the same building, the numbers of blacks who were in honors and "regular" classes (there were two levels below that) with whites were few. The couple of blacks who were in the honors classes tended to be light-skinned and socially shunned by the other blacks. Meanwhile, whites in town were fearful of blacks and their rhetoric. None of the mainline churches to my knowledge had mixed race congregations.
Both in our home city and in the Chicago media, through which we viewed the world, black preachers were familiar but to be viewed with suspicion, some seen as part of the Chicago Daley political machine, others suspect because of the growing tensions brought about by the Civil Rights movement and the marches down South. I remember when violence broke out in our school the fall after Martin Luther King was assassinated, the police were brought in to protect us white kids, even though we knew that it was the white girls who provoked the fights in the bathrooms with the black girls which started it all, and our parents refused to believe us that we were in no real danger from "gangs" of black students in general. The police remained for more than 2 years.
In some ways, it is hard to believe that all the suspicion and fear remain forty years later. Yet, indeed it does. Never mind how many African Americans have worked hard in the private sector and served our armed forces with distinction. Many whites still see them, especially any of them who voice criticism of any kind, as The Enemy, no matter how much we claim to have gotten past it all once the laws of segregation were struck down. While there are not as many visible (to whites) black militants as there were in the 1960's, people responding to Wright are acting like they were right back in those days when no one of a different race could be trusted. Whites can say any darned crazy thing they want, but blacks are dangerous no matter what.
What hope is there of any kind of peace, understanding, and cooperation, let alone real change, with the media acting so monstrously? Moyers does an excellent job of describing of how things are spiraling out of control.
I realize this is a bit of a tangent, but I'd like to recommend "Don't Confuse Me with the Facts" and "No, we did not write about Hillary's Minister" (the latter about a pastor from the town of Clinton, NY, not about The Clintons) about insanity in the media and blogworld.
Rev. Wright taps into the deeply populist current of African American Christianity, and the white folk who expect "them" to stay in their place bleat. So be it.
ReplyDeleteIf, "middle class" really means "whit middle class" the very idea should indeed be part of sermons.
If "middle class" means as it increasingly seems to me to mean, blacks who have made it ignoring the folks behind them.
If "middle class" is to be a set of imposed attitudes, then to Sheol with it!
RR, bleat on! No one much is listening, and you can hope the recording angel isn't either. Call it what you will, racism is sin, classism is sin.
Or so says this old 60's liberal.
FWIW
jimB
Wow! What a chorus! I should move all the comments up to the post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your thoughs. They enlightened ME.
Now I'm going to read Frank Rich and Klady's links. Am I gonna hafta beat the horse some more?
It's not so much a thinking process with me, as that I feel the rightness of Wright's preaching and speeches in my bones. As one commenter at Adventus said, what we need is a "Wright is Right" bumper sticker. I'll buy the first one.
Thanks for posting this, Mimi, as I am not within reach of Brother Bill's Friday night sermons. Can't even listen to clips, as the sound on my laptop isn't working. Looking forward to getting back stateside and tuning in again.
ReplyDelete