Titanic Post

In Defense of Rev. Jeremiah Wright & the Best of Prophetic Tradition in the Black Church

See also letter from Kansas City AME Bishop

Social Action Commission
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Los Angeles, CA

Several months ago, early in the Democratic race for the nomination to run for president, conservative radio pundits began attacking Senator Barak Obama by playing sound bites of sermons by his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. These right wing extremist shrilly declared that Rev. Wright’s prophetic preaching style speaking truth to power and calling white racism by name was in fact “reverse racism”. At a time when Senator Obama’s run seemed in the words of former President Bill Clinton a “fairy tail,” few news media outside of the right wing so-called conservative extremist media gave significant attention to these sound bites. Then a little over a week ago, less than six weeks before the last major primary in Pennsylvania, and as Senator Obama’s campaign has developed a commanding and seemingly insurmountable lead in both popular votes and delegates against Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton, major news media have refocused on Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ and Senator Obama’s membership at Trinity.

By looping and continuously replaying 20 second sound bites from two powerful sermons by Rev. Wright at his prophetic best, media pundits from all the major media have fallen over themselves in shrill imitation of the right wing extremists to shape a distorted story of Rev. Wright, Trinity and the Black Church in general.

Senator Obama on March 18, 2008 made a brilliant defense of himself and his membership at Trinity as well as his personal relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright while at the same time disavowing and denouncing the “words” of Rev. Wright looped in the seconds long sound bites. The Senator also made a valiant presentation of the destructive nature of racial oppression and the resultant anger and resentment left in its wake. It is clear that with the Lord’s help Senator Obama will do well in the coming weeks. He needs no one to defend him. However, beyond the attacks on Senator Obama is a greater concern. The attack of the media, so-called conservative, and liberal or “moderate” has been not only on Senator Obama but much more significantly on the Black Church, Black people and the culture and spiritual traditions that have preserved us through over 375 years of racial oppression. Even after Senator Obama’s defense of himself and his Church, arrogant news pundits and talking heads continue to castigate him for not denouncing Rev. Wright in absolute tones and totally distancing himself from his Pastor and his church community.

White (as well as confused Black) commentators are expressing shock and dismay because for a few brief seconds they have stolen a look into the “Brush Arbor” of the Black Church. They express dismay that a Pastor would condemn the United States for supporting Racist Apartheid in South Africa and keeping Nelson Mandela in prison. They express shock that a Black Pastor would question whether we should sing “God Bless America” as we remember the bombings of people of color with weapons of mass destruction or the lynching of Black men for years without taking a stand as a government. They can not understand that a Black Pastor would question the moral authority of the US government in a world in which capital is allowed to be privileged over the poor and genocide is allowed to be perpetrated by dictators who support American policies. Like the so-called liberal ministers who chastised Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he sat in a Birmingham Jail, these news pundits charge Rev. Wright and by extension the Black church with “mixing politics with religion” and misleading”ignorant Black people” into being disobedient to “their government”. And like those “liberal” white preachers who attacked Dr. King several have even quoted Hebrews 13 as evidence that Rev. Wright, Trinity and the Black Church is “unscriptural”.

It is the responsibility of all those who understand that God does not sit outside of human history to stand up in defense of not only Reverend Jeremiah Wright but also in defense of the best prophetic traditions of the Black Church in America. The pundits are pressing to have Senator Obama and all Black people to sell our history, our culture and our faith for the silver of acceptance into the American “mainstream”. A mainstream in which ~e will only be accepted if we do not remind our selves and the rest of America “how we got over” and “from whence we came”.

To ask Black preachers and lay people to remain silent in the face of a continuing racist reality is no different than Pharoses demanding that Moses and Aaron be quiet in the face of Egyptian cruelty. It is no different than the Hebrew elite demanding that Isaiah remain silent about the treatment of widows and orphans and no different than Jesus remaining silent at the exploitation ofthe Jewish poor in the temple by the money changers.

The Black preacher and Black Christians in the Prophetic tradition of Black liberation theology from David Walker and Bishop Henry McNeil Turner to Rev. Jeremiah Wright walk in a proud tradition. We sit surrounded by great men and women who have refused to bend down to “State Religion”. The pundits, the so-called conservatives who demand that we separate ourselves from our prophetic tradition are doing nothing less than calling on us to deny our God as we have met God. This period is a time of testing not only for America but for us. Many of us have decided that we will not bow down to the God of American “State” religion. We have the lessons of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We have the lessons of John on the Isle of Pat mos. We proudly embrace Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity Church as walking well within the best tradition of Black Prophetic preaching and the highest ideals of the Brush Arbor and the Faith that has brought us this far. We’ve come too far to turn around now.