What Obama Couldn't Say About Rev. Wright's Comments

"The black church has always had prophetic preachers," according to Professor Cheryl Sanders Howard University Divinity School, Washington, D.C. "Prophetic voice goes all the way back to the days of slavery, when people were protesting being in bondage. And so protest is just kind of a part of how we do ministry."

Dr. Robert Franklin president, Morehouse College, makes the following point that Rev. Wright uses the language of speaking truth to power, of condemning the misuse of power, of oppressing the poor and powerless -- that is rooted in biblical models -- Ezekiel, Isaiah, Amos -- that's biblical language and there's a long history of American prophetic discourse that follows in that line. Generally it is rooted in a love for the nation, a hope that it will be redeemed, that it will repent. That's what Dr. King did -- that was the genius of Dr. King -- confrontation and an openness to negotiation.

You can view a report from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly that puts the comments of Rev. Wright into much better perspective than the slap and dash segments compiled on the cable news programs.

There is also more on the Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Blog One Nation.

Was Rev. Wright Right?

In today's age of sound bite journalism and gotcha politics, it really doesn't matter much if one is actually right or wrong -- the paramount issue becomes is it entertaining, provocative and able to be distilled down to a single thought. Ergo "God Damn America" becomes the phrase that pays for the talking heads and news editors. Meanwhile the veracity, context, substance and even actual relevance of the statement all take a back seat.

Anyone with a smidgen of background instantly recognized what Rev. Wright was talking about and was able to put it into proper context. Unfortunately, many Americans don't have the historical and cultural background to properly frame the issue. So shame on the journalists and media outlets that either refused to put the comments into the proper perspective or were too ignorant to be able to frame the issue.

Lets be clear, in winning both Iowa and South Carolina, Obama earned "honorary" status in two worlds that sometimes collide. (Honorary status has its historical roots in the apartheid system of South Africa) Obama has tried to transcend the issue of race and is not running as a candidate of any race. He is trying to navigate the tricky waters of racial stigmatization. However, the paradigm of race is still too powerful to ignore and he has been granted "honorary" status in both the African-American and White communities. A privilege bestowed upon very few politicians.

Shelby Steele argues "For whites, here (the Obama candidacy) is the opportunity to document their deliverance from the shames of their forebears. And for blacks, here is the chance to document the end of inferiority."

Early on in this campaign we saw an effort to remove his honorary status from the African-American community. "Is Obama Black Enough?" Now there is strident effort to remove his honorary status in the White community.

For all the discussion of Rev. Wright and comments he has made in the past, this is really about exposing honorary white Obama as secretly being an angry black man. As Cedric the Entertainer said in the Kings of Comedy referring to Bill Clinton as the first Black President, "Come on, ya'll. Now, you know we got Clinton -- that's close. He's got negro tendencies." Well some on the right are in essence saying "...See, Obama has negro tendencies" Those are grounds for the removal of honorary status.

But back to the question of was Rev. Wright right -- while the word choice may have been hard to hear, they were chosen to drive home a point. His statements were not given as a political candidate seeking votes. He was speaking as a preacher of the gospel -- not worried about whether it was politically popular. I invite you listen to his remarks in context as posted by Trinity UMC. Direct link to the "Chickens come home to roost" remarks in context.

Also NPR ran a segment on Black Liberation Theology you might find interesting.