Reverend Jeremiah Wright Controversy
The Hypocrisy Of The Jeremiah Wright Controversy
The Attack On The Black Church Is An Attack On the Black Community
The church has historically been the city of refuge for the Black community, a place where Black people can come to terms with social, political, and spiritual realities.
In fact the Black church was born out of the failures of the white church to embody the scriptures that teach that the second greatest commandment is that after God, you must love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:31 teaches that there are none greater than these two commandments. However, from the outset the white church supported, encouraged and profited from the enslavement of Blacks, then refused to allow Blacks equal membership status in white churches, and even distorted scripture to induce Blacks into colluding in their own exploitation and subordination.
The attacks on Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the effort to use him as a weapon against Barack Obama sound more like an attempt to whitewash American history, and marginalize even further the legitimate concerns, as well as the very valid political aspirations of Black Americans. It is in fact an attack on the Black church, and the larger Black community. This new controversy also exposes some fundamental differences in the way Blacks and many whites understand the calling of Christ.
There is a difference between the right wing Christ who supports and legitimizes Empire and the biblical Jesus who was rejected and crucified by one. This right wing Christ is a product of the American status quo, a God who is pro war, even though the Biblical Christ is known as the Prince of Peace. A God who is for the death penalty , even though the Bible is clear, “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord”.
Prophetic preachers from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to the Apostle Paul of the New Testament and the prophet Amos of the Old Testament, all remind us that God’s love is sometimes tempered with God’s wrath. Amos 3:2 explained that love, when he delivered God’s word to a nation that God highly favored, “You only have I known of all families of the earth, therefore I will punish you for your great iniquities.”
Dr. Wright does not simply reflect the distant views of his generation, nor can he be dismissed as expressing one of the many divergent views still floating about in the Black community. Nor is he to be defended because many whites freely express racist and irrational views. This is not a freedom of speech issue. Reverend Wright unequivocally speaks the truth. When a minister of the gospel condemns injustice, racism, oppression and wickedness wherever it exists, he is fulfilling his authentic Christian mission. We are instructed by the Christ of the bible, who aligned himself with the oppressed and the marginalized. Matt:25:40 “What you do unto the least of mine you do also unto me”.
To dismiss Rev. Jeremiah Wright as outrageous or racially inflammatory is to ignore American reality, and to require that in condemning injustice Blacks must find a terminology that the perpetrators and beneficiaries of the injustice will be comfortable with. And now comes this renewed effort to force Black politicians to demonstrate an indifference to Blacks, and to make those politicians adopt the historical, deep seated white aversion to all things black.
To denounce Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is reminiscent of the priest Amazian of the Old Testament who urged the Prophet Amos to flee out of Israel into the land of Judeah, and preach and prophesy there. Then ran to the King, and told him that Amos was unsupportive of him as well as unpatriotic in that “His words were too much for the land to bear”.
In addressing the unresolved contradictions and hypocrisy still all too prevalent in American society, the Black church is in fact keeping alive the biblical mandate issued by Paul when he said, “I would that when utterances may be given to me that I open my mouth boldly.”
Let us remind you, as did Dr. King some four decades ago, that the church is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state and never its tool. Dr. King warned that if the church did not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
Perhaps, It is not that the Black church is so bold, but that the white church is so silent!
It was 1876 when Blacks legally separated from the white church, formed the AME church, and of necessity began to develop a ministry steeped in true biblical tradition and began addressing what was and remains a structural economic and political inequality between the races, a separate reality for Black Americans.
We do not seek to simply hold America accountable, but to make it clear that the prevailing conditions cannot be left unchanged. It is difficult to have reconciliation without repairing the damage, difficult to have racial tolerance without racial justice. It is impossible to move forward while acting as though the clearly defined needs of the Black community do not exist.
Contact: CFJustice.org
The National Coalition For Justice.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Thursday, December 30th 2010 at 8:41PM
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