DISQUS

Anderkoo · 1 year ago

I'm curious about not just the black-white gap here, but whether there's a divide among religious Americans in general. Standing by your church -- whatever its racial makeup, whatever its politics -- has got to mean a lot to a lot of Republicans in this country, too.


Then again, Bush doesn't really go to church yet still gets a pass on his "Christianity."

Anonymous · 1 year ago

It's true you don't choose your grandparents, but you do choose - and choose to stay with - your husband, even if he's a serial abuser.

Kathleen/Oakland CA · 1 year ago

I am a 59 year old white woman who was loved and nurtured by a Black church community for all of her adult life. I raised my biracial children in the tight knit embrace of the Black church, and it is the church that helped make them the lovely young women they are today through the sense of family and community that is inherent in the Black church. This is not to say that white churches don't have a sense of community (I grew up in one), but there is a qualitative difference in the integration into the lives of families and of the larger community. I finally exhaled when I heard Sen. Obama say that he could not disown Rev. Wright... to say anything else would have shown a profound disconnection from the community that has loved and supported him. For reasons of practicality (I moved) and reasons of evolving theology, I no longer regularly attend church. However, my pastor will always be my pastor, and when I do go home, I am welcomed as family. Thank you for your post.I wish it would find wider readership, as I'm afraid that in this venue, you are preaching to the choir... I have despaired in the dominant culture's ability to have an understanding of the nature of the Black church. BTW, although I believe it's out of print, an excellent insight is Dr. Archie Smith Jr.'s book "The Black Church as Extended Family and Therapeutic Community."

Anonymous · 1 year ago

The spinning and the looping of the excepts of Rev. Wright's sermons started by FOX News and picked up by other news outlets that touched raw nerves and put the distortion into play. It was the presentation of the story and not the story itself. Rev. Wright has become collateral damage in Obama’s bid for the presidency. For the moment, he is probably the most famous black minister in America, but his character has been maligned. He should fight this, but to fight it in the courts would take years. The climate in the country makes it difficult to win such cases. News outlets are seeking out spokes persons from the black community to impugn Rev. Wright. The spinning of Rev. Wright’s sermons have placed the loyalty of Obama and the entire black race attack. I don’ know what would satisfy the critics of Rev. Wright– maybe if he were stoned and the Trinity disbanded. But that would be putting the onus on the wrong people. Those who have created the wrong should take steps to correct it.

Craig Hickman · 1 year ago

I WONDER how Hillary Clinton would feel if Michelle Obama said something like, "Well, you know, given all that we know and what we've seen of him, I wouldn't have stayed married to that man. He never would have been my husband. After all you choose your spouse."


Just saying.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

What Hillary obviously does not understand is that, yes, for many people, including many many black people, church is family.


And if you are searching, and someone like Rev Wright comes along and offers you hope in the name of Jesus, well, yes, that person becomes like family to you.



In fact, according to Christian theology, all believers are indeed family.



Then there's the fact that Obama came to know Rev Wright before any of his more controversial statements. I have many close friends who I got to know as people first, and then later on I discover some rather eccentric points of view on various things. I do not disown them.



So just toss this statement in with all of the other vicious ones uttered by the Clintons this election season, and let it motivate you even more to support Obama.

TruthSeeker · 1 year ago

Obama's experience was different though...he grew up in different cultures and had benefit of a different experience that did not include the black church. I think his "multicultural" experience is of tremendous value and what makes him succeed where Jesse Jackson and Sharpton could not.


Today, he continued to defend Trinity. It is - I believe - a new, more subtle iteration of the "prove you're black enough" message. It compels him to stand by his "black church". It is the blackening of Barack, where black means belonging to a "black church" and saying things that soothe the black community to prove his belonging to it. It is following the template of previous black candidates.



It is not the Clinton's now who wish to turn Barack into a Jesse, it is the African American community. Like Jesse and Sharpton, it may cost him the Presidency; but, fear not - the black church will be there with open arms to lick his wounds like all the others who lost. It will deliver a special sermon, decrying racist America and talk about how Hillary did him in. Then, everything can go back comfortably to the way it's always been and all is right with the world...again.

Craig Hickman · 1 year ago

Today, he continued to defend Trinity. It is - I believe - a new, more subtle iteration of the "prove you're black enough" message. It compels him to stand by his "black church". It is the blackening of Barack, where black means belonging to a "black church" and saying things that soothe the black community to prove his belonging to it. It is following the template of previous black candidates.


I see what you're saying and I completely disagree. Obama has never tried to prove he's Black enough for anybody. Why start now? Remember how confident he and Michelle were that Black people would come around if they just got to know him?



That's happening to all sorts of people.



Obama is defending his faith community. He will continue to defend his faith community, especially since it has been attacked so viciously. Ironic that those who accuse him of picking his church for political expediency now want him to disown it as proof of their initial skepticism.



But Obama is making them eat crow by standing by his faith community. By standing by the man who brought him to his faith. By doing so, people are seeing the integrity in the man. And people from all different faiths and races and ethnic groups and genders and classes are standing up and taking notice of the man.



Check this out.



Quiet as it's kept, not everything is seen through the lens of race. Too bad Hillary Rodham Nixon is so blind. But then all sociopaths are.



Obama's appeal is far reaching. Don't let the MSM fool you.



His race speech was also a faith speech and Americans are getting the nuance of it all.



Bravo.

Plantsman · 1 year ago

"What Hillary obviously does not understand is that, yes, for many people, including many many black people, church is family".


Well, I don't know about that. After all she's long been a member of a right-wing Christian Dominionist cult called "The Family".



Through all this stuff, I've always said that I'd still vote for her if she won the nomination. Well, today that changed, and it didn't have anything to do with race. After findind out about the "reapproachment" between the Clintons and Richard Mellon Scaife, I just can't bring myself to vote for her. Anyone who would sell HERSELF out to the point where she kisses the asses of people who accused her and her husband of being drug smugglers, and accused her specifically of being involved in a murder has no shame, pride, or self-respect. They are made of pure ambition, and would sell out anybody else in the blink of an eye.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

Could somebody tell me how the Black Church is actively trying to break down the walls that class division has built up in the Black community since integration.


TLW

Jonzee · 1 year ago

Perhaps, Senator Clinton should not "throw stones in glass houses" since she not only sat next to Dr. Wright during a prayer breakfast in which he and 11 other men and women of faith were invited during the Monica Lewinsky and impeachment scandal of her husband.


Enough already. I'm more than done. And, as much as some folks have said to me I should support in the general if she is the nominee...



No such a thang Ms. Celie

rikyrah · 1 year ago

Anonymous,


By reminding folks that we are all God's children. And, in the eyes of the Lord, we are all equal. And, in the case of those truly following a social activist tradition -you are your brother's keeper, and you have a responsibility to him and not to be caught up in your own little world.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

I am sorry Rikyrah but in my opinion the I am my Brother's keeper mentallity is lost. Especially among the Black middle class. Just one of the unfortunate side effects of integration, no cohesivness in the Black communities anymore.


TLW

scooter · 1 year ago

a lot of white folks wouldn't like the UCC whatever the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said or didn't say.


It's kind of funny to me that one of the few white conservatives to speak up for Wright was.... Mike Huckabee.



I strongly disagree with Huck on *many* topics. Does that mean I have to denounce and reject him?



I saw another conservative (some blog somewhere) make the point that for all of the charges laid on Wright for being this, that, and the other thing, Wright hasn't rejected Obama for offering what seems to be a clear alternative to the MSM meme on Wright.



I won't claim to have any insight on Wright or the Black Church in America.



I extrapolate as best I can on the principal that we are saved by God's grace alone.

Anonymous · 1 year ago

Dear Sir:


As an African-American female I am enthused by the possibility of selecting a female or an African-American as our DNC nominee. But we need to be realistic, we have shot ourselves in the foot. DNC and progressives are fooling themselves if they think independents, working class whites and Hispanics are going to vote for Sen. Obama or Clinton in any appreciable numbers to offset Sen. McCain's election. We need a third candidate. Bring back Al or John or John or somebody.



Sen Obama had the best chance...but now I am not certain that he can be elected.



Hilliary's lies and deceit plus her willingness to exploit white versus Blacks and Hispanics versus Blacks for her own endeavors have virtually guarantee that Black folks will NOT vote for her during a general election. As for you optimistic Clintonistas and liberals that believe the sterotype that we (Blacks) are so loving and forgiving that we will forget what she did during the campaign, let me repeat myself, Blacks aren't voting for Hilliary... not now or ever.

Carville should be mindful of using the term "Judas," many Blacks could apply that term to the behavior of Clintons toward the Blacks.



With regard to Senator Obama: the Rev. Wright debacle is not going away. Democrats maybe awestruck with the "speech" but not middle/working class America.



The more I hear about Rev. Wright sermons, dissect some of his views and even visit Obama's church website, the more I have come to the realization that we democrats are heading for a catastrophe. To put it mildly, Rev Wright views are distorted. I am as self-aware of racism and the covert nature of racial prejudice as the most afrocentric "brotha or sista" and I find Rev. Wright's comments outrageous, insensitive, unchristian-like. Living in the Baltimore-DC-Metro area, I have heard many of these comments that Rev. Wright have said in some black churches, at certain Afrocentric conferences conferences and yes even at the rallies of the Nation of Islam. I got to these meetings just to find out how different people think but I don't support these instituions (including gangsta rap) long term because I recognize these comments and beliefs ultimately damage the Black community (which is already in some areas on life support) and does not move us forward.



Some of the comments about HIV are particularly ignorant, offensive and dangerous. Those who have tried to justify them saying that he referring to the Tuskegee Incident do not help. If he had mentioned Tuskegee Incident rather than HIV, his speech would still have been equally wrong and ignorant.



I hold a Ph.D in the medical sciences and I train African-American students who are studying for health related careers (future MDs, Pharm.D. and RNs ). These comments and these myths perpetuated by Rev. Wright are some of the reasons why we (as Blacks) do not seek medical attention until it is too late.



An educated person such as Sen. Obama as well as the educated and responsible members of the church should have pulled him (Rev. Wright) to the side and said "shut up". It is obvious he has been saying outrageous things for years.



Sen. Obama failure to distance himself from this person and his inability to realize that as a politician of the people you can not associate with these comments or a person who makes these comments for even a millisecond. If so, then don't ask Don Imus or Trent Lott or Jimmy the Greek to fall on the sword when they say something that is clearly offensive to Blacks. Don't chastise white politicians for attending events sponsored by organizations which we perceive just and unjustly to be racist.



One of my girlfriends told me that you don't listen to what a man says you watch what he does to determine if he truly likes you.



Sen. Obama can speak about Rev. Wright words not being his words, but his actions suggest that he did not take sufficient interests in his church to understand the ramifications of his pastor's "inflammatory" speeches or he is tone deaf to how such words will resonate and hurt people. You can't truly lead until you understand your followers' pain look at President George W. Bush as an example of what where ignorance and insensitivity will get you.



Let us face it, all some of us (blacks and whites and hispanics) have is to believe in the concept that the United States is good. Tearing it down in that fashionas Rev Wright repeatedly has done or "blaming THE MAN for every problem that has befallen Black America" is very hurtful as as offensive as the racial code words used by Bill and Hilliary, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, many right wing evangelicals and the Republican National Committee propaganda machine. There comes a time in the Black community that we must realize that we are very much (not in totality) responsible for the decline in our communities.



As an African-American person, I KNOW I "ain't" trying to go back to Africa. Regardless of the foibles of the USA and believe me I can write a diatribe about all the racial slights I have experienced. America is the BEST place for Black people. We CAN succeed in this country. In fact, there are very few places where Rev. Wright or Sen. Obama could have succeeded to the magnitude that they have.



Had Sen. Obama had acknowlegded this in his speech distanced himself from this issue, he would have been the next President. If he continues to say I disagree without offering a full repudiation, along with Rev. Wright issuing a full apology, I think we will be watching a multitude of white americans, Hispanics and Indepedents vote against their economic interests, their security and the American constitution and elect Senator McCain who vows to continue Bush's policy. Let us remind ourselves it is not just the DNC that is at risks it is our very rights as American citizens. George W. Bush has undermined our beloved Consitution, our Judicial system and the Bill of Rights more than any of president before him and better than any Communist could have ever dreamed of under the guise that he is protecting American security.



Tired of the Game