The Nation: The Liberation of Reverend Wright

[bicentennial_baby]

The notes posted on the glass doors of Trinity United Church of Christ reflect the state of siege at Barack Obama's home church: "Media must sign in at the front desk." "No cameras or recording devices allowed inside." The press has been relentless in its pursuit of church members ever since snippets of sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, appeared on the Internet more than a month ago. Like Louis Farrakhan before him, Wright has become a litmus test for Obama with white voters. His sermons--in which he says that America is run by "rich white people" and talks about "America's chickens coming home to roost" on September 11--have been described as "racist" and "unpatriotic." As scrutiny intensified on the 8,000-member congregation, its motto, "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian," was characterized as black separatist. For many at Trinity, which I often attend, the final insult came when some journalists called the homes of sick and elderly members, whose names are published in a weekly list of "shut-ins."

Trinity's members are certainly not naïve enough to think they could escape media scrutiny. But underlying the coverage of this story, which is punctuated with words like "inflammatory" and "controversial," is a sense that something is fundamentally wrong, perhaps even pathological, about Wright and the teachings at Trinity. These accounts, however, misrepresent the black church, whose rhetorical traditions meld biblical allegory with contemporary political and racial concerns, and whose sanctuaries provide a rare space where a collective black racial consciousness can be expressed uncensored by others.

"I think that a lot of the media, particularly the mainstream media, have no experience of the everyday life of the black church...and especially what the church service on Sunday means for the black community in general," says Dwight Hopkins, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a member of Trinity. Hopkins describes the black church as a "sacred and cultural phenomenon,'' a "way station" that functions as an antidote to the six days of the week where race matters. In the black church, race isn't a source of contention; it's a source of community.

Part of the cultural phenomenon Hopkins speaks of is a prophetic style of preaching. As Peter Gomes of Harvard University's Divinity School recently said in a Washington Post blog, "It may surprise many in white America, for whom Martin Luther King Jr. is the only black preacher of whom they have ever heard, to learn that there are a lot of Jeremiah Wrights out there who week after week give expression to that classic definition of prophetic preaching that is to 'comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.'"

much more here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080505/smith

Really great article on the Wright controversy, TUCC, and Black Liberation Theology. Enjoy. :)

[undeterred]

1. As a white female who visited Trinity UCC

once on Christmas Day and a few other times in the nineties- I can tell you it was a different, and in some ways better worship experience than I've had at other churches. I was a student of religion for many years in Hyde Park and this was my denomination- and visiting churches is not unusual. At the time I knew nothing of Obama or Jeremiah Wright. Edit: I presume I must have heard him preach, but I didn't go there to see him or because of his fame. I went with friends.

I knew that the black churches were much more tuned in to the specific problems and concerns of the black community, and that was absolutely true. In some ways I didn't relate to what was being said, but I never heard anything that was against white people, nor did I feel unwelcome. But I probably wouldn't become a member there unless I lived in that community, and I was a few neighborhoods away.

After spending years in white Catholic or Protestant churches this one was a lot more expressive and joyful. There was more humor, laughing, and clapping then you get from a bunch of white people, but isn't that to be expected? I came out feeling like I'd been to someone else's family reunion. Did I just miss the Sundays of the big, bad evil sermons of Pastor Wright? I think I was probably there on typical Sundays, and it wasn't that different from other churches that are focused on social justice, just directed to the particular needs of the black community.

[noel711]

2. I do not blame Trinity one bit for their caution...

I'd do the same thing...They have taken the brunt of the ignorant
media.

Whenever anyone mentions Trinity/Wright to me, I ask them:
"When was the last time you worshipped in an African American congregation?"

If they can't answer that question, they have nothing to say to me.

Too many people adore Dr. Martin Luther King, and yet condemn
Rev. Wright. Get a grip: they flow from the same stream.

[me b zola]

3. Reminds me a bit of a guy named Jesus:

"...comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." :thumbsup:

I haven't finished the article yet, I'm off to do that now. Thanks for the link. K&R

[AtomicKitten]

4. The truth of this is much more powerful than the fear-mongering.

The era of disdain for diversity and intellectualism is over.