Excerpts from Rev. Wright Interview With Bill Moyers -- To Be Aired Tomorrow

[kpete]

Greg Mitchell: I've been sent by Bill Moyers' people excerpts from his interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which will air tomorrow night on PBS. This is the first major Wright interview since the Obama "controversy" broke last month.

.............................

Excerpts from Rev. Wright Interview With Bill Moyers -- To Be Aired Tomorrow
Posted April 24, 2008 | 12:24 PM (EST)

*

REVEREND WRIGHT:
The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the
communication perfectly.

When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and
put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public,
that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are
communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some
sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times
called me, a "wackadoodle."

It's to paint me as something: "Something's wrong with me. There's
nothing wrong with this country...for its policies. We're perfect. Our
hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them." That's not a failure
to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound
bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to
communicate.

BILL MOYERS:
What do you think they wanted to communicate?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am
un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at
Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his
church, hint, hint, hint? That's what they wanted to communicate.

They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison
ministry. They know nothing about our food ministry. They know nothing
about our senior citizens home. They know nothing about all we try to
do as a church and have tried to do, and still continue to do as a
church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to
be together. And that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those
worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning
but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.

BILL MOYERS:
What did you think when you began to see those very brief sound bites
circulating as they did?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I
felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious
reasons.
*

Excerpt 2

BILL MOYERS:
Did you ever imagine that you would come to personify the black anger
that so many whites fear?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. I did not. I've been preaching since I was ordained 41 years ago.
I pointed out to some of the persons in Chicago who are in all of this,
new to them that the stance I took in standing against apartheid along
with our denomination back in the '70s, and putting a "Free South
Africa" sign in front of the church put me at odds with the government.
Our denomination's defense of the Wilmington Ten and Ben Chavis put me
at odds with the establishment. So, being at odds with policies is
nothing new to me.

The blowup and the blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years
ago and now becoming a media event, not the full sermon, but the
snippets from the sermon and sound bite having made me the target of
hatred, yes, that is something very new and something very, very
unsettling.

Excerpt 3

BILL MOYERS:
Here is a man who came to see you 20 years ago. Wanted to know about
the neighborhood. Barack Obama was a skeptic when it came to religion.
He sought you out because he knew you knew about the community. You led
him to the faith.

You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You
were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet,
he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about
you. How did those words...how did it go down with you when you heard
Barack Obama say those things?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
It went down very simply. He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to
two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a
politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two
different worlds.

I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in
Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as
a politician.

Excerpt 4

BILL MOYERS:
In the 20 years that you've been his pastor, have you ever heard him
repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?

REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. No. No. Absolutely not.

I don't talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he
goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I
continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things
of God.
*

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/excerpts-from-rev-wright_b_98433.html

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. It's too bad that Wright is getting air time only on a show that is little watched.

What the media have done to him is immoral.

But I'm glad that he's at least, finally, being talked to by someone who fucking knows what he's talking about.

[NJmaverick]

2. I agree, but time wounds all heels and in time the true picture

of Wright will emerge, hopefully by November

[ClayZ]

3. I hope links to that interview,

will be sent around as much as the smears were!


Redemption!

I listened to several of his sermons and found him to be Right On!


K and R


PS thier choir is great and so are the kids drill team!


http://www.youtube.com/user/TRINITYCHGO

K and R

[hfojvt]

4. Why is he doing an interview with Moyers?

He should be doing it with Oprah. Not only would he have a much larger audience, but he could compare himself to Oprah. Just as they take something I said to paint me as an angry black man or a crazy black man they could do the same thing to Oprah. For example, here she is with Tom Cruise while he dances on her couch and she laughs and cheers him on. Here she is promoting a book that turns out to have been lies. So are you a crazy black woman Oprah, or is it unfair to take your worst moments or take something out of context and play it over and over and over as a way to attack your friends?

[KharmaTrain]

5. I Think This Was A Warm-Up

I agree that Reverend Wright needs to get out and be seen and heard. He's been in Chicago all these years and rarely got as much attention as he's gotten in recent times. He should face his accusers and let's see whose message is damning and whose isn't. Methinks the Obama campaign is testing the waters here...if this interview goes well (and on friendly turf), then I could see him on with Oprah and then other appearances.

Also, I can see holding Reverend Wright back until after the nomination is settled. Letting him out there too much at this point only feeds the trolls on two sides.

[aquart]

6. So you see him as a big part of the campaign. And the presidency?

[KharmaTrain]

8. Big Part? Whatcha Smokin'??? Let The Man Say His Peace

So far we've heard from everyone BUT the man whose mouth these words came from. I, for one, would like to hear him explain himself...and I suspect other Americans do as well.

This has nothing to do with an Obama campaign other than to bring a fuller perspective to what others have attempted to make into an issue. Reverend Wright's name isn't on the ballot and part of me would love for him to tangle thse corporate media spinners in their own hypocricies. Maybe he'll get some people to think...and that's not a bad thing.

[NNN0LHI]

7. When Rev. Wright is the story and the war and economy are not we are losing

Anyone who can't see that is in some serious denial.

Don