Ponderings

Note: What follows are my ponderings regarding the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s comments at the National Press Club this week. Important additional links might be his conversation with Bill Moyers and a letter from the Rev. Dr. John Thomas, President of the United Church of Christ. On May 18th, I hope you will join us in “sacred conversation about race“. Now, back to pondering…

I am a sheep.

I’d like to think that I make my own decisions, educated ones at that. But today I realized how easily I am led.

All day I’ve been muttering about the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright’s comments at the National Press Club. I’ve been watching Barack Obama’s numbers haemorrhage as he spent the day distancing himself from his once beloved pastor. I’ve been pondering ways to cherish the pride that I felt after Wright’s appearance on Bill Moyers in the midst of my disdain for what aired two days later.

That Fox news denounced the speech isn’t newsworthy. That Rabbi Lerner (Tikkun) and Huffington Post blasted him caught my attention. In fact, my news sources are just about as liberal as they come, and all had squarely denounced the speech and even Jeremiah Wright himself. And I too began to denounce the very man that two days earlier I heralded as a word of hope for my denomination (the United Church of Christ) and my faith tradition (Christian).

After a day of pouting, I approached the computer tentatively and typed “jeremiah wright” into the Google search bar. A blur of reports and predictions stared back. “jeremiah wright national press club” yielded another field of chaos. “jeremiah wright national press club transcript” hit pay dirt and began to read.

Who knew that preceding the incendiary sound bites was a reasoned and incredibly articulate address? The address is an exceptional primer in the history, importance, and tenor of the American black church experience. While he doesn’t mince a lot of words as he calls for the repentance necessary for reconciliation, he is undeniably brilliant and theologically on solid ground.

Having yet to read the words that had sounded so inflammatory, I moved beyond the prepared address into the question and answer period. Knowing my own skill at foot-in-mouth, I braced for the worst. Indeed I found the question, “In your sermon, you said the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. So I ask you: Do you honestly believe your statement and those words?”

In classic Jesus style, Wright answered the question with a question. “Have you read Horowitz’s book ‘Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola’? Whoever wrote that question, have you read ‘Medical Apartheid’? You’ve read it?” After suggesting the importance of reading alternative views, he reminds the audience that governments have historically committed heinous crimes and concludes with, “I believe we are capable.” Any thinking person who has dared to take even a cursory look at history must conclude the same. We are capable.

Having faced the transcript, I went back to the You Tube clips and heard them with entirely different ears. Which is, of course, the point that the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright has been making all along. Whenever he was asked about a sermon quip, he asked if the questioner had listened to the sermon; inevitably they had not. Our judgements rendered upon sound bites are at best erroneous and at worst will lead us down the path of slaughter.

We are sheep. But there is good news, there are holes in the fence, some of them large enough to dance through if only we would. One of the largest openings is education. May we find the courage to walk through it.