America has always been divided by race. I must admit thast the Presidential Election of 2008 really underscores this reality more that anything that has happened during my lifetime. It has personally caused me to re-evaluate my view of race and how Christianity should be expressed. When Barak Obama began running for President the press started picking apart his life. I hesitate to say that they were being racist or evil because whoever runs for President of the United States gets picked apart and scrutinized like a bug under a microscope. They look for something to sensationalize and to gain ratings by being the first to present it. The first major thing reported on was that Obama had been a member of a Church of Christ for the last 20 years under Reverend Jeremiah Wright. The problem to white journalist was that the church was predominantly African-American (the denomination is not) and that a message black empowerment was encouraged. Check out this clip from Wright on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes".
This interview got my attention for many reasons. The question why does every time someone talks about empowering black people, its taken to mean that the goal is to de-power white people instead of equipping black people equally sharing power and resources? And why when a black person consistently and accurately represents the attrocities and evils the United States has done, that person is racist and unpatriotic? As Hannity was interviewing Wright he was personally offended and acted as if Wright was being Racist. Upon looking at some things that Wright has said, I cannot agree with everything but I agree with what is on this clip that he said. One part of it escaped me at the time I first saw this, but I had to come back to it later. In this clip write said that you had to read James Cone's work to understand his church's theology and what he teaches. I ignored the comment because I thought Wright taught what I believe is taught in all mainstream, historical christian churches. I'll comment on this point further later on.
Fast forward a few weeks when the following clip was played on Fox News edited together with what was really said by Jeremiah Wright:
As you can remember the press had a field day ith the beginning of the above clip. They treated if not actually said that Jeremiah Wright was a racist, ignorant, uneducated, unpatriotic, backwater cult leader. Asking questions like if Wright said things like this all the time? If so, did Obama know he taught this or believe this? Does Obama agree? They said that he must have agreed because he had been there for twenty years. Do all black churches teach and believe this way? In a around-about-way this attack on Obama had many casualties including the black church.
I am sure that you agree that Wright did not say anything that was untrue or damning (pun intended). Any one who knows anything about American history knows that there is much to be angry about. I don't think profanity of any kind should be used over a pulpit in a ministerial role. Better words could have been used. Also I don't think a Sunday morning sermon is the best time and place to discuss these issues. The goal of a sermon is to equip a congregation to be better followers of Christ and call those who are not in Christ to Christ by proclaiming the Gospel. The second part of this post will explore what all of this has to do with black church and James Cone.
I want to end this part discussing exactly Jeremiah Wright in all of this. Because I disagree with him on major theological issues if he really does parallel James Cone's ideas, I cannot endorse him or his ministry. For a while he was the face of the Black church and America did not like what it saw. The media has tried to lynch him and I have problems with that. So what if I don't particular enjoy his style of preaching it doesn't take away from the good things he has done and the true things that he said. Which causes me a great difficulty when I consider how far Obama has distanced himself from Wright. I mean he left him out to dry. Does Obama disavow Wright and everything he says...even the things that are true? Below is a clip of Obama talking about Wright from a few months ago.
