Unity Day at Barack Obama’s Church of Origin: What the MSM will never tell you

 

As someone who has attended Trinity UCC on 95th Street in Chicago six or seven times over the last decade, I wish to state what is obvious to anyone who knows the facts: Barack Obama is a worthy son of a worthy congregation. The purpose of this post is not to advance Obama’s presidential campaign, nor to hinder it. Its purpose is to open a window onto the spiritual roots of Barack Obama and his family by way of a diary of a visit to Trinity on Sunday, August 10, 2008.

 

Thanks to media opinion makers, decontextualized video clips of Jeremiah Wright’s preaching, and widespread ignorance of the ethos and theology of the black church, a majority of Americans are convinced that Trinity UCC’s founding pastor must be the devil or the devil’s uncle, and members of his church, the devil’s minions. Not so.

Point your finger and three others point right back. White people can’t make no sense out of black preaching for two reasons:

(1)           They are no longer familiar with the Bible and its occasionally outrageous rhetoric. Or, if they know their Bible, they read it in a translation that tames its rhetoric down. Nowadays people often lack the necessary background to black preaching, which is the Bible itself.

(2)           The God white people worship is a harmless warm fuzzy, not the prickly God of the Bible whose love and anger are coterminous, a God who “loves Jacob and hates Esau,” and even so, but only when all is said and done, arranges for their reconciliation.

Two more forewarnings:

(1)   Do not judge a congregation by its pastor.

(2)   Do not judge a member of a congregation by its pastor. This is true especially in the case of a long-serving pastor like Jeremiah Wright, Jr. and his family, who have toiled at Trinity for 36 years. The work of his hands and of his family is bigger than he is, collectively smarter than he is, and collectively more nuanced than he is. The credit for this, humanly speaking, goes to Jeremiah Wright and his open-ended style of ministry. Theologically speaking, the credit belongs elsewhere: man proposes but God disposes. That truth is the saving grace of anyone’s ministry and of Wright’s as well.

To be continued.

Comments

[Iyov]

white people . . .

black people . . .

Fascinating. I don't think I've ever seen anyone be a troll on his own blog before.

[JohnFH]

Iyov,

I'm just getting warmed up! If the pointed and deliberately unnuanced generalizations I make here get your goat, I shudder to think how you might react to generalizations of the same kind made by others outside out of your own religious tradition.

Perhaps, however, it is not the slashing style that irks you, but the substance. If so, you might as well say it.

[Iyov]

Well, as you well know, remarks about people that lack nuance are almost always incorrect. After all, we can listen to Al Sharpton on WVON or Rush Limbaugh on WLS if we want sloppy thinking.

[JohnFH]

Regardless of ideological slant, I prefer Jon Stewart or Al Franken (in the bad old days) when it comes to making unnuanced generalizations. It helps to be funny at the same time, which I admit is not my strong suit.

[Rev. Gerald R. Zollar]

I just came across this interesting and informative post.
Liberation Theology is a blank to White America just as is Black Liberation, after all what do we have to be liberated from,most whites and many blacks would ask.
Slavery I would respond.
But Slavery is over would come the reply, and I would just smile.
Those who do not realize that slavery for the captive African in America has never ended ( and I pray it will) they can not or will not see it.
J. Wright, reverend one each, does see it and preaches about it.
His sermons are 'right and tight'.
Well thought out and well delivered. The misuse of what was said in that much misquoted sermon shows how the white media ignores and instigates.
Reverend Wright preaches no different than any concerned black preacher who is not fomenting people to racism but only to a realization of who and where they are and a call to action to change.
We as a people know all white people are not bad. The policies of the white ruling government aer bad for black people. Education policies, work place policies, the law all aimed at keep the mass of Black America in slavery and succeeding. One or two are allowed to rise, and President-Elect Obama is a ray of hope that one day we may all ascend to the mountain top.

[JohnFH]

Thanks, Gerald,

For your commitment to the gospel. I resonate with your trust in God rather than man, black, white, or whatever.

We will all be praying for Obama, that through him God will bless this nation and lead it further in the direction of a place of equal opportunity for all.