Giving Rev. Wright his deserved context

What if our preachers' sermons were picked apart and broadcast on the news in 10 second sound-bites? What if our conversations on the phones, over dinner, in private were made into sound-bites without context? Would anyone take the time to try and understand us? No. I've been to Black churches and have heard the style of rhetoric, the heavy handed liberation theology, the waxing prophetic. That's a part of the history and worldview that exists.

Martin Luther King Jr. himself, said in his speech at Riverside Church that "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today [is] my own government." And no one raises objection to "America's Saint" now, much less questions his patriotism, though I'm sure it was cut out and abused as a sound-bite in his time. To be clear, I'm not justifying everything Dr. Wright said in his sermons. Some things need to be objected to. However, in many African American churches in America the prophetic tradition of preaching is alive and well and this needs to be understood by the listener. Dr. Wright's oratory seeks to speak truth to power when justice isn't upheld by those in power. Seen in the proper light, most Christians could actually stand to embrace much of his sermon. After all Christians owe allegiance to God before country. Furthermore, his church puts words into action and has an amazing track record for serving its community (one that many white churches long abandoned).

I think Sen. Obama did the right, but harder thing by embracing the complexity and not sacrificing the man on his way to the top. He rightly recognized the limitations and unjustified aspects that hold communities like Wright's back but also stood up for the legacy that has promoted justice and continues to do so. I think you'll be able to see that in the full sermon context below. Also after the sermon notes, I included two links from NPR. One is a discussion on the controversy from African American professors of theology (well worth the listen), and the second a straight talk discussion "barbershop style."

March 21, 2008

The full story behind Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s 9/11 sermon

Posted: 10:09 AM ET

As this whole sordid episode regarding the sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has played out over the last week, I wanted to understand what he ACTUALLY said in this speech. I’ve been saying all week on CNN that context is important, and I just wanted to know what the heck is going on.

I have now actually listened to the sermon Rev. Wright gave after September 11 titled, “The Day of Jerusalem’s Fall.” It was delivered on Sept. 16, 2001.

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.

He was quoting Peck as saying that America’s foreign policy has put the nation in peril:

“We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

“We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.

“We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.

“We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.

“We bombed Qaddafi’s home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children’s head against the rock.

“We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they’d never get back home.

“We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.

“Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.

“Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y’all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that.”

He went on to describe seeing the photos of the aftermath of 9/11 because he was in Newark, N.J., when the planes struck. After turning on the TV and seeing the second plane slam into one of the twin towers, he spoke passionately about what if you never got a chance to say hello to your family again.

“What is the state of your family?” he asked.

And then he told his congregation that he loved them and asked the church to tell each other they loved themselves.

His sermon thesis:

1. This is a time for self-examination of ourselves and our families.

2. This is a time for social transformation (then he went on to say they won’t put me on PBS or national cable for what I’m about to say. Talk about prophetic!)

“We have got to change the way we have been doing things as a society,” he said.

Wright then said we can’t stop messing over people and thinking they can’t touch us. He said we may need to declare war on racism, injustice, and greed, instead of war on other countries.

“Maybe we need to declare war on AIDS. In five minutes the Congress found $40 billion to rebuild New York and the families that died in sudden death, do you think we can find the money to make medicine available for people who are dying a slow death? Maybe we need to declare war on the nation’s healthcare system that leaves the nation’s poor with no health coverage? Maybe we need to declare war on the mishandled educational system and provide quality education for everybody, every citizen, based on their ability to learn, not their ability to pay. This is a time for social transformation.”

3. This is time to tell God thank you for all that he has provided and that he gave him and others another chance to do His will.

By the way, nowhere in this sermon did he said “God damn America.” I’m not sure which sermon that came from.

This doesn’t explain anything away, nor does it absolve Wright of using the N-word, but what it does do is add an accurate perspective to this conversation.

The point that I have always made as a journalist is that our job is to seek the truth, and not the partial truth.

I am also listening to the other sermons delivered by Rev. Wright that have been the subject of controversy.

And let me be clear: Where I believe he was wrong and not justified in what he said based upon the facts, I will say so. But where the facts support his argument, that will also be said.

So stay tuned.

- Roland S. Martin, CNN Contributor
www.rolandsmartin.com

If you want to hear the full sermon yourself, click HERE

-------------------from npr.org--------------------

Religious Scholars Discuss Liberation Theology

Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright is part of a religious tradition known as Black Liberation Theology. Two religious scholars discuss its foundation and contemporary meaning.

Guys in the Shop Discuss Obama, Kilpatrick

Barbershop regulars Jimi Izrael, Ruben Navarrette and Arsalan Iftikhar are joined this week by professor Lester Spence. The guys weigh in on Sen. Barack Obama's historic speech on race.