THE ABSURD TIMES
THE ABSURD TIMES
Illustration: Hillary can not win the nomination unless something awful hapens. Now what could that be?
(This was done over a week ago, btw.).
JESUS CHRIST!
I doubt whether it has escaped anyone's attention that Barak Obama's Pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, has been giving speeches lately.
If we look closely at his speeches, he is basically correct on social and political issues, so what is the fuss?
Actually, it seems as if his speeches reflect a cross between the observations of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. The one in Detroit actually made some points that were well understood over 40 years ago in the fields of pedagogy and linguistics. (Not Chomsky's linguistics which is explanatory, not just descriptive.)
The problem is that nobody can be elected in this country and be truthful about these things. Whether Obama agrees with the points made by Reverand Wright or not is irrelevant right now. What is relevant is that Wright knows full well that his speaking publicly, which he has every right to do, is counterproductive to Obama's campaign. Furthermore, he had to know that he would gain this much attention just because one of his church had gained so much acclaim and attention. It was a convenient time to gain publicity for his upcoming book and, as such, he seems much more like a parasite to me than a "liberation theologian". About the only person he liberated with his speeches was John McCain and perhaps Hillary Clinton.
Is it cynical to say that no one can be accurate and still get elected? I only know that it is true -- what is cynical is for others to decide.
And lest this be taken as politically incorrect, I can only add that Bernard Shaw delayed his masterpiece HEARTBREAK HOUSE until WWI was over. His point in the play was that capitalism and imperialism brought it about, and he was right. And he wasn't running for political office, either.
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Here is a transcript of the National Press Club even that finally forced Obama to disassociate himself from Reverend Wright:
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April 28, 2008
Transcript
Reverend Wright at the National Press Club
Following is the transcript of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.'s remarks
to the National Press Club, as provided by CQ Transcriptions.
REVEREND WRIGHT: Over the next few days, prominent scholars of the
African-American religious tradition from several different disciplines
-- theologians, church historians, ethicists, professors of the Hebrew
bible, homiletics, hermeneutics, and historians of religions -- those
scholars will join in with sociologists, political analysts, local
church pastors, and denominational officials to examine the
African-American religious experience and its historical, theological
and political context.
The workshops, the panel discussions, and the symposium will go into
much more intricate detail about this unknown phenomenon of the black
church...
(LAUGHTER)
... than I have time to go into in the few moments that we have to share
together. And I would invite you to spend the next two days getting to
know just a little bit about a religious tradition that is as old as
and, in some instances, older than this country.
And this is a country which houses this religious tradition that we all
love and a country that some of us have served. It is a tradition that
is, in some ways, like Ralph Ellison's the "Invisible Man."
It has been right here in our midst and on our shoulders since the
1600s, but it was, has been, and, in far too many instances, still is
invisible to the dominant culture, in terms of its rich history, its
incredible legacy, and its multiple meanings.
The black religious experience is a tradition that, at one point in
American history, was actually called the "invisible institution," as it
was forced underground by the Black Codes.
The Black Codes prohibited the gathering of more than two black people
without a white person being present to monitor the conversation, the
content, and the mood of any discourse between persons of African
descent in this country.
Africans did not stop worshipping because of the Black Codes. Africans
did not stop gathering for inspiration and information and for
encouragement and for hope in the midst of discouraging and seemingly
hopeless circumstances. They just gathered out of the eyesight and the
earshot of those who defined them as less than human.
They became, in other words, invisible in and invisible to the eyes of
the dominant culture. They gathered to worship in brush arbors,
sometimes called hush arbors, where the slaveholders, slave patrols, and
Uncle Toms couldn't hear nobody pray.
From the 1700s in North America, with the founding of the first legally
recognized independent black congregations, through the end of the Civil
War, and the passing of the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution
of the United States of America, the black religious experience was
informed by, enriched by, expanded by, challenged by, shaped by, and
influenced by the influx of Africans from the other two Americas and the
Africans brought in to this country from the Caribbean, plus the
Africans who were called "fresh blacks" by the slave-traders, those
Africans who had not been through the seasoning process of the middle
passage in the Caribbean colonies, those Africans on the sea coast
islands off of Georgia and South Carolina, the Gullah -- we say in
English "Gullah," those of us in the black community say "Geechee" --
those people brought into the black religious experience a flavor that
other seasoned Africans could not bring.
It is those various streams of the black religious experience which will
be addressed in summary form over the next two days, streams which
require full courses at the university and graduate- school level, and
cannot be fully addressed in a two-day symposium, and streams which
tragically remain invisible in a dominant culture which knows nothing
about those whom Langston Hughes calls "the darker brother and sister."
It is all of those streams that make up this multilayered and rich
tapestry of the black religious experience. And I stand before you to
open up this two-day symposium with the hope that this most recent
attack on the black church is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright; it is an
attack on the black church.
(APPLAUSE)
As the vice president told you, that applause comes from not the working
press.
(LAUGHTER)
The most recent attack on the black church, it is our hope that this
just might mean that the reality of the African-American church will no
longer be invisible.
Maybe now, as an honest dialogue about race in this country begins, a
dialogue called for by Senator Obama and a dialogue to begin in the
United Church of Christ among 5,700 congregations in just a few weeks,
maybe now, as that dialogue begins, the religious tradition that has
kept hope alive for people struggling to survive in countless hopeless
situation, maybe that religious tradition will be understood,
celebrated, and even embraced by a nation that seems not to have noticed
why 11 o'clock on Sunday morning has been called the most segregated
hour in America.
We have known since 1787 that it is the most segregated hour. Maybe now
we can begin to understand why it is the most segregated hour.
And maybe now we can begin to take steps to move the black religious
tradition from the status of invisible to the status of invaluable, not
just for some black people in this country, but for all the people in
this country.
Maybe this dialogue on race, an honest dialogue that does not engage in
denial or superficial platitudes, maybe this dialogue on race can move
the people of faith in this country from various stages of alienation
and marginalization to the exciting possibility of reconciliation.
That is my hope, as I open up this two-day symposium. And I open it as a
pastor and a professor who comes from a long tradition of what I call
the prophetic theology of the black church.
Now, in the 1960s, the term "liberation theology" began to gain currency
with the writings and the teachings of preachers, pastors, priests, and
professors from Latin America. Their theology was done from the underside.
Their viewpoint was not from the top down or from a set of teachings
which undergirded imperialism. Their viewpoints, rather, were from the
bottom up, the thoughts and understandings of God, the faith, religion
and the Bible from those whose lives were ground, under, mangled and
destroyed by the ruling classes or the oppressors.
Liberation theology started in and started from a different place. It
started from the vantage point of the oppressed.
In the late 1960s, when Dr. James Cone's powerful books burst onto the
scene, the term "black liberation theology" began to be used. I do not
in any way disagree with Dr. Cone, nor do I in any way diminish the
inimitable and incomparable contributions that he has made and that he
continues to make to the field of theology. Jim, incidentally, is a
personal friend of mine.
I call our faith tradition, however, the prophetic tradition of the
black church, because I take its origins back past Jim Cone, past the
sermons and songs of Africans in bondage in the transatlantic slave
trade. I take it back past the problem of Western ideology and notions
of white supremacy.
I take and trace the theology of the black church back to the prophets
in the Hebrew Bible and to its last prophet, in my tradition, the one we
call Jesus of Nazareth.
The prophetic tradition of the black church has its roots in Isaiah, the
61st chapter, where God says the prophet is to preach the gospel to the
poor and to set at liberty those who are held captive. Liberating the
captives also liberates who are holding them captive.
It frees the captives and it frees the captors. It frees the oppressed
and it frees the oppressors.
The prophetic theology of the black church, during the days of chattel
slavery, was a theology of liberation. It was preached to set free those
who were held in bondage spiritually, psychologically, and sometimes
physically. And it was practiced to set the slaveholders free from the
notion that they could define other human beings or confine a soul set
free by the power of the gospel.
The prophetic theology of the black church during the days of
segregation, Jim Crow, lynching, and the separate-but-equal fantasy was
a theology of liberation.
It was preached to set African-Americans free from the notion of
second-class citizenship, which was the law of the land. And it was
practiced to set free misguided and miseducated Americans from the
notion that they were actually superior to other Americans based on the
color of their skin. The prophetic theology of the black church in our
day is preached to set African-Americans and all other Americans free
from the misconceived notion that different means deficient.
Being different does not mean one is deficient. It simply means one is
different, like snowflakes, like the diversity that God loves. Black
music is different from European and European music. It is not
deficient; it is just different.
Black worship is different from European and European-American worship.
It is not deficient; it is just different.
Black preaching is different from European and European-American
preaching. It is not deficient; it is just different. It is not
bombastic; it is not controversial; it's different.
(APPLAUSE)
Those of you who can't see on C-SPAN, we had one or two working press
clap along with the non-working press.
(LAUGHTER)
Black learning styles are different from European and European- American
learning styles. They are not deficient; they are just different.
This principle of "different does not mean deficient" is at the heart of
the prophetic theology of the black church. It is a theology of liberation.
The prophetic theology of the black church is not only a theology of
liberation; it is also a theology of transformation, which is also
rooted in Isaiah 61, the text from which Jesus preached in his inaugural
message, as recorded by Luke.
When you read the entire passage from either Isaiah 61 or Luke 4 and do
not try to understand the passage or the content of the passage in the
context of a sound bite, what you see is God's desire for a radical
change in a social order that has gone sour.
God's desire is for positive, meaningful and permanent change. God does
not want one people seeing themselves as superior to other people. God
does not want the powerless masses, the poor, the widows, the
marginalized, and those underserved by the powerful few to stay locked
into sick systems which treat some in the society as being more equal
than others in that same society.
God's desire is for positive change, transformation, real change, not
cosmetic change, transformation, radical change or a change that makes a
permanent difference, transformation. God's desire is for
transformation, changed lives, changed minds, changed laws, changed
social orders, and changed hearts in a changed world.
This principle of transformation is at the heart of the prophetic
theology of the black church. These two foci of liberation and
transformation have been at the very core of the black religious
experience from the days of David Walker, Harriet Tubman, Richard Allen,
Jarena Lee, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, and Sojourner Truth, through the
days of Adam Clayton Powell, Ida B. Wells, Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa
Parks, Malcolm X, Barbara Jordan, Cornell West, and Fanny Lou Hamer.
These two foci of liberation and transformation have been at the very
core of the United Church of Christ since its predecessor denomination,
the Congregational Church of New England, came to the moral defense and
paid for the legal defense of the Mende people aboard the slave ship
Amistad, since the days when the United Church of Christ fought against
slavery, played an active role in the underground railroad, and set up
over 500 schools for the Africans who were freed from slavery in 1865.
And these two foci remain at the core of the teachings of the United
Church of Christ, as it has fought against apartheid in South Africa and
racism in the United States of America ever since the union which formed
the United Church of Christ in 1957.
These two foci of liberation and transformation have also been at the
very core and the congregation of Trinity United Church of Christ since
it was founded in 1961. And these foci have been the bedrock of our
preaching and practice for the past 36 years.
Our congregation, as you heard in the introduction, took a stand against
apartheid when the government of our country was supporting the racist
regime of the African government in South Africa.
(APPLAUSE)
Our congregation stood in solidarity with the peasants in El Salvador
and Nicaragua, while our government, through Ollie North and the
Iran-Contra scandal, was supporting the Contras, who were killing the
peasants and the Miskito Indians in those two countries.
Our congregation sent 35 men and women through accredited seminaries to
earn their master of divinity degrees, with an additional 40 currently
being enrolled in seminary, while building two senior citizen housing
complexes and running two child care programs for the poor, the
unemployed, the low-income parents on the south side of Chicago for the
past 30 years.
Our congregation feeds over 5,000 homeless and needy families every
year, while our government cuts food stamps and spends billions fighting
in an unjust war in Iraq.
(APPLAUSE)
Our congregation has sent dozens of boys and girls to fight in the
Vietnam War, the first Gulf War, and the present two wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq. My goddaughter's unit just arrived in Iraq this week, while
those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of privilege to
avoid military service, while sending...
(APPLAUSE) ... while sending over 4,000 American boys and girls of every
race to die over a lie.
(APPLAUSE)
Our congregation has had an HIV-AIDS ministry for over two decades. Our
congregation has awarded over $1 million to graduating high school
seniors going into college and an additional $500,000 to the United
Negro College Fund, and the six HBCUs related to the United Church of
Christ, while advocating for health care for the uninsured, workers'
rights for those forbidden to form unions, and fighting the unjust
sentencing system which has sent black men and women to prison for
longer terms for possession of crack cocaine than white men and women
have to serve for the possession of powder cocaine.
Our congregation has had a prison ministry for 30 years, a drug and
alcohol recovery ministry for 20 years, a full service program for
senior citizens, and 22 different ministries for the youth of our
church, from pre-school through high school, all proceeding from the
starting point of liberation and transformation, a prophetic theology
which presumes God's desire for changed minds, changed laws, changed
social orders, changed lives, changed hearts in a changed world.
The prophetic theology of the black church is a theology of liberation;
it is a theology of transformation; and it is ultimately a theology of
reconciliation.
The Apostle Paul said, "Be ye reconciled one to another, even as God was
in Christ reconciling the world to God's self."
God does not desire for us, as children of God, to be at war with each
other, to see each other as superior or inferior, to hate each other,
abuse each other, misuse each other, define each other, or put each
other down.
God wants us reconciled, one to another. And that third principle in the
prophetic theology of the black church is also and has always been at
the heart of the black church experience in North America.
When Richard Allen and Absalom Jones were dragged out of St. George's
Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, during the same year, 1787,
when the Constitution was framed in Philadelphia, for daring to kneel at
the altar next to white worshippers, they founded the Free African
Society and they welcomed white members into their congregation to show
that reconciliation was the goal, not retaliation.
Absalom Jones became the rector of the St. Thomas Anglican Church in
1781, and St. Thomas welcomed white Anglicans in the spirit of
reconciliation.
Richard Allen became the founding pastor of the Bethel African Methodist
Episcopal Church, and the motto of the AME Church has always been, "God
our father, man our brother, and Christ our redeemer." The word "man"
included men and women of all races back in 1787 and 1792, in the spirit
of reconciliation.
The black church's role in the fight for equality and justice, from the
1700s up until 2008, has always had as its core the nonnegotiable
doctrine of reconciliation, children of God repenting for past sins
against each other.
Jim Wallis says America's sin of racism has never even been confessed,
much less repented for. Repenting for past sins against each other and
being reconciled to one other -- Jim Wallis is white, by the way...
(LAUGHTER)
... being reconciled to one another, because of the love of God, who
made all of us in God's image.
Reconciliation, the years have taught me, is where the hardest work is
found for those of us in the Christian faith, however, because it means
some critical thinking and some re-examination of faulty assumptions
when using the paradigm of Dr. William Augustus Jones.
Dr. Jones, in his book, God in the ghetto, argues quite accurately that
one's theology, how I see God, determines one's anthropology, how I see
humans, and one's anthropology then determines one's sociology, how I
order my society.
Now, the implications from the outside are obvious. If I see God as
male, if I see God as white male, if I see God as superior, as God over
us and not Immanuel, which means "God with us," if I see God as mean,
vengeful, authoritarian, sexist, or misogynist, then I see humans
through that lens.
My theological lens shapes my anthropological lens. And as a result,
white males are superior; all others are inferior.
And I order my society where I can worship God on Sunday morning wearing
a black clergy robe and kill others on Sunday evening wearing a white
Klan robe. I can have laws which favor whites over blacks in America or
South Africa. I can construct a theology of apartheid in the Africana
church (ph) and a theology of white supremacy in the North American or
Germanic church.
The implications from the outset are obvious, but then the complicated
work is left to be done, as you dig deeper into the constructs, which
tradition, habit, and hermeneutics put on your plate.
To say "I am a Christian" is not enough. Why? Because the Christianity
of the slaveholder is not the Christianity of the slave. The God to whom
the slaveholders pray as they ride on the decks of the slave ship is not
the God to whom the enslaved are praying as they ride beneath the decks
on that slave ship.
How we are seeing God, our theology, is not the same. And what we both
mean when we say "I am a Christian" is not the same thing. The prophetic
theology of the black church has always seen and still sees all of God's
children as sisters and brothers, equals who need reconciliation, who
need to be reconciled as equals in order for us to walk together into
the future which God has prepared for us.
Reconciliation does not mean that blacks become whites or whites become
blacks and Hispanics become Asian or that Asians become Europeans.
Reconciliation means we embrace our individual rich histories, all of
them. We retain who we are as persons of different cultures, while
acknowledging that those of other cultures are not superior or inferior
to us. They are just different from us.
We root out any teaching of superiority, inferiority, hatred, or prejudice.
And we recognize for the first time in modern history in the West that
the other who stands before us with a different color of skin, a
different texture of hair, different music, different preaching styles,
and different dance moves, that other is one of God's children just as
we are, no better, no worse, prone to error and in need of forgiveness,
just as we are.
Only then will liberation, transformation, and reconciliation become
realities and cease being ever elusive ideals.
Thank you for having me in your midst this morning.
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: We do want to get in our questions. Thank you. Thank you,
everybody.
I do want to repeat again, for those of you watching us on C- SPAN, that
we do have a number of guests here today. And so the applause and the
comments that you hear from the audience are not necessarily those of
the working press, who are mostly in the balconies.
You have said that the media have taken you out of context. Can you
explain what you meant in a sermon shortly after 9/11 when you said the
United States had brought the terrorist attacks on itself? Quote,
"America's chickens are coming home to roost."
REVEREND WRIGHT: Have you heard the whole sermon? Have you heard the
whole sermon?
MODERATOR: I heard most of it.
REVEREND WRIGHT: No, no, the whole sermon, yes or no? No, you haven't
heard the whole sermon? That nullifies that question.
Well, let me try to respond in a non-bombastic way. If you heard the
whole sermon, first of all, you heard that I was quoting the ambassador
from Iraq. That's number one.
But, number two, to quote the Bible, "Be not deceived. God is not
mocked. For whatsoever you sow, that you also shall reap." Jesus said,
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back
on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic,
divisive principles.
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: Some critics have said that your sermons are unpatriotic. How
do you feel about America and about being an American?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I feel that those citizens who say that have never
heard my sermons, nor do they know me. They are unfair accusations taken
from sound bites and that which is looped over and over again on certain
channels.
I served six years in the military. Does that make me patriotic? How
many years did Cheney serve?
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: Please, I ask you to keep your comments and your applause to
a minimum so that we can work in as many questions as possible.
Senator Obama has -- shh, please. We're trying to ask as many questions
as possible today, so if you can keep your applause to a minimum.
Senator Obama has tried to explain away some of your most contentious
comments and has distanced himself from you. It's clear that many people
in his campaign consider you a detriment. In that context, why are you
speaking out now?
REVEREND WRIGHT: On November the 5th and on January 21st, I'll still be
a pastor. As I said, this is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright. It has
nothing to do with Senator Obama. It is an attack on the black church
launched by people who know nothing about the African-American religious
tradition.
And why am I speaking out now? In our community, we have something
called playing the dozens. If you think I'm going to let you talk about
my mama and her religious tradition, and my daddy and his religious
tradition, and my grandma, you've got another thing coming.
MODERATOR: What is your relationship with Louis Farrakhan? Do you agree
with and respect his views, including his most racially divisive views?
REVEREND WRIGHT: As I said on the Bill Moyers' show, one of our news
channels keeps playing a news clip from 20 years ago when Louis said 20
years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion.
And he was talking about the same thing United Nations resolutions say,
the same thing now that President Carter is being vilified for, and
Bishop Tutu is being vilified for. And everybody wants to paint me as if
I'm anti-Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago.
I believe that people of all faiths have to work together in this
country if we're going to build a future for our children, whether those
people are -- just as Michelle and Barack don't agree on everything,
Raymond (ph) and I don't agree on everything, Louis and I don't agree on
everything, most of you all don't agree -- you get two people in the
same room, you've got three opinions.
So what I think about him, as I've said on Bill Moyers and it got edited
out, how many other African-Americans or European-Americans do you know
that can get one million people together on the mall? He is one of the
most important voices in the 20th and 21st century. That's what I think
about him.
I've said, as I said on Bill Moyers, when Louis Farrakhan speaks, it's
like E.F. Hutton speaks, all black America listens. Whether they agree
with him or not, they listen.
Now, I am not going to put down Louis Farrakhan anymore than Mandela
would put down Fidel Castro. Do you remember that Ted Koppel show, where
Ted wanted Mandela to put down Castro because Castro was our enemy? And
he said, "You don't tell me who my enemies are. You don't tell me who my
friends are."
Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains. He did not
put me in slavery. And he didn't make me this color.
MODERATOR: What is your motivation for characterizing Senator Obama's
response to you as, quote, "what a politician had to say"? What do you
mean by that?
REVEREND WRIGHT: What I mean is what several of my white friends and
several of my white, Jewish friends have written me and said to me.
They've said, "You're a Christian. You understand forgiveness. We both
know that, if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get
elected."
Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability,
based on sound bites, based on polls, Huffington, whoever's doing the
polls. Preachers say what they say because they're pastors. They have a
different person to whom they're accountable.
As I said, whether he gets elected or not, I'm still going to have to be
answerable to God November 5th and January 21st. That's what I mean. I
do what pastors do. He does what politicians do.
I am not running for office. I am hoping to be vice president.
(LAUGHTER)
MODERATOR: In light of your widely quoted comment damning America, do
you think you owe the American people an apology? If not, do you think
that America is still damned in the eyes of God? REVEREND WRIGHT: The
governmental leaders, those -- as I said to Barack Obama, my member -- I
am a pastor, he's a member. I'm not a spiritual mentor, guru. I'm his
pastor.
And I said to Barack Obama, last year, "If you get elected, November the
5th, I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government
whose policies grind under people." All right? It's about policy, not
the American people.
And if you saw the Bill Moyers show, I was talking about -- although it
got edited out -- you know, that's biblical. God doesn't bless
everything. God condemns something -- and d-e-m-n, "demn," is where we
get the word "damn." God damns some practices.
And there is no excuse for the things that the government, not the
American people, have done. That doesn't make me not like America or
unpatriotic.
So in Jesus -- when Jesus says, "Not only you brood of vipers" -- now,
he's playing the dozens, because he's talking about their mamas. To say
"brood" means your mother is an asp, a-s-p. Should we put Jesus out of
the congregation?
When Jesus says, "You'll be brought down to Hell," that's not -- that's
bombastic, divisive speech. Maybe we ought to take Jesus out of this
Christian faith.
No. What I said about and what I think about and what -- again, until I
can't -- until racism and slavery are confessed and asked for
forgiveness -- have we asked the Japanese to forgive us? We have never
as a country, the policymakers -- in fact, Clinton almost got in trouble
because he almost apologized at Gorialan (ph). We have never apologized
as a country.
Britain has apologized to Africans, but this country's leaders have
refused to apologize. So until that apology comes, I'm not going to keep
stepping on your foot and asking you, "Does this hurt? Do you forgive me
for stepping on your foot?" if I'm still stepping on your foot.
Understand that? Capiche?
MODERATOR: Senator Obama has been in your congregation for 20 years, yet
you were not invited to his announcement of his presidential candidacy
in Illinois. And in the most recent presidential debate in Pennsylvania,
he said he had denounced you. Are you disappointed that Senator Obama
has chosen to walk away from you?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Whoever wrote that question doesn't read or watch the
news. He did not denounce me. He distanced himself from some of my
remarks, like most of you, never having heard the sermon. All right?
Now, what was the rest of your question? Because I got confused in --
the person who wrote it hadn't...
MODERATOR: Were you disappointed that he distanced himself?
REVEREND WRIGHT: He didn't distance himself. He had to distance himself,
because he's a politician, from what the media was saying I had said,
which was anti-American. He said I didn't offer any words of hope. How
would he know? He never heard the rest of the sermon. You never heard it.
I offered words of hope. I offered reconciliation. I offered restoration
in that sermon, but nobody heard the sermon. They just heard this little
sound bite of a sermon.
That was not the whole question. There was something else in the first
part of the question that I wanted to address.
Oh, I was not invited because that was a political event. Let me say
again: I'm his pastor. As a political event, who started it off? Senator
Dick Durbin. I started it off downstairs with him, his wife, and
children in prayer. That's what pastors do.
So I started it off in prayer. When he went out into the public, that
wasn't about prayer. That wasn't about pastor-member. Pastor- member
took place downstairs. What took place upstairs was political.
So that's how I feel about that. He did, as I've said, what politicians
do. This is a political event. He wasn't announcing, "I'm saved,
sanctified, and feel the holy ghost." He was announcing, "I'm running
for president of the United States."
MODERATOR: You just mentioned that Senator Obama hadn't heard many of
your sermons. Does that mean he's not much of a churchgoer? Or does he
doze off in the pews?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I just wanted to see -- that's your question. That's
your question. He goes to church about as much as you do. What did your
pastor preach on last week? You don't know? OK.
MODERATOR: 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?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Have you read Horowitz's book, "Emerging Viruses: AIDS
and Ebola," whoever wrote that question? Have you read "Medical
Apartheid"? You've read it?
(UNKNOWN): Do you honestly believe that (OFF-MIKE)
REVEREND WRIGHT: Oh, are you -- is that one of the reporters?
MODERATOR: No questions...
(CROSSTALK)
REVEREND WRIGHT: No questions from the floor. I read different things.
As I said to my members, if you haven't read things, then you can't --
based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to
Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing
anything.
In fact, in fact, in fact, one of the -- one of the responses to what
Saddam Hussein had in terms of biological warfare was a non- question,
because all we had to do was check the sales records. We sold him those
biological weapons that he was using against his own people.
So any time a government can put together biological warfare to kill
people, and then get angry when those people use what we sold them, yes,
I believe we are capable.
MODERATOR: You have likened Israeli policies to apartheid and its
treatment of Palestinians with Native Americans. Can you explain your
views on Israel?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Where did I liken them to that? Whoever wrote the
question, tell me where I likened them.
Jimmy Carter called it apartheid. Jeremiah Wright didn't liken anything
to anything. My position on Israel is that Israel has a right to exist,
that Israelis have a right to exist, as I said, reconciled one to another.
Have you read the Link? Do you read the Link, Americans for Middle
Eastern Understanding, where Palestinians and Israelis need to sit down
and talk to each other and work out a solution where their children can
grow in a world together, and not be talking about killing each other,
that that is not God's will?
My position is that the Israel and the people of Israel be the people of
God who are worrying about reconciliation and who are trying to do what
God wants for God's people, which is reconciliation.
MODERATOR: In your understanding of Christianity, does God love the
white racists in the same way he loves the oppressed black American?
REVEREND WRIGHT: John 3:16, Jesus said it much better than I could ever
say it, "for God so loved the world." World is white, black, Iraqi,
Darfurian, Sudanese, Zulu, Coschia (ph). God loves all of God's
children, because all of God's children are made in God's image.
MODERATOR: Can you elaborate on your comparison of the Roman soldiers
who killed Jesus to the U.S. Marine Corps? Do you still believe that is
an appropriate comparison and why?
REVEREND WRIGHT: One of the things that will be covered at the symposium
over the next two days is biblical history, which many of the working
press are unfamiliar with.
In biblical history, there's not one word written in the Bible between
Genesis and Revelations that was not written under one of six different
kinds of oppression, Egyptian oppression, Assyrian oppression, Persian
oppression, Greek oppression, Roman oppression, Babylonian oppression.
The Roman oppression is the period in which Jesus is born. And comparing
imperialism that was going on in Luke, imperialism was going on when
Caesar Augustus sent out a decree that the whole world should be taxed.
They weren't in charge of the world. It sounds like some other
governments I know.
That, yes, I can compare that. We have troops stationed all over the
world, just like Rome had troops stationed all over the world, because
we run the world. That notion of imperialism is not the message of the
gospel of the prince of peace, nor of God, who loves the world.
MODERATOR: Former President Bill Clinton has been widely criticized in
this campaign. Many African-Americans think he has said things aimed at
defining Senator Obama as the black candidate. What do you think of
President Clinton's comments, particularly those before the South
Carolina primary?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I don't think anything about them. I came here to talk
about prophetic theology of the black church. I'm not talking about
candidates or their positions or their feelings or what they have to say
to get elected.
MODERATOR: Well, OK, we'll give you a church question. Please explain
how the black church and the white church can reconcile.
REVEREND WRIGHT: Well, there are many white churches and white persons
who are members of churches and clergy and denominations who have
already taken great steps in terms of reconciliation.
In the underground railroad, it was the white church that played the
largest role in getting Africans out of slavery. In setting up almost
all 40 of the HBCUs, it was the white church that sent missionaries into
the south.
As I mentioned in my presentation, our denomination all by itself set up
over 500 of those schools. You know them today as Howard University,
Fisk, LeMoyne-Owen, Tougaloo, Dillard University, Howard University.
So they've done -- Morehouse, Morehouse. Don't forget Moorhouse, Spelman
-- that white Christians have been trying for a long time to reconcile,
that for other white Christians to understand that we must be reconciled
is to understand the injustice that was done to a people, as we raped
the continent, brought those people here, built our country, and then
defined them as less than human.
And more Christians, more of us working together, not just white
Christians, but whites and blacks of every faith, ecumenically working
together.
Father Flagger (ph), by the way, he might be one of the one...
(APPLAUSE)
... models out what it means to be reconciled as brothers and sisters in
Christ and brothers and sisters made in the image of God.
MODERATOR: You said there is a lack of understanding by people of other
backgrounds of the African-American church. What are some of those
misunderstandings? And how would you purport to fix them, particularly
when some of your comments are found to be offensive by white churches?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Carter Godwin Woodson, about 80 years ago, wrote a book
entitled "The Miseducation." I would try to fix it starting at the
educational level in the grammar schools, as Dr. Asa Hilliard did in his
infusion curriculum, starting at the grammar schools, to tell our
children this story and to tell our children the true story.
That's how I go about fixing it, because until you know the true story,
then you're reacting to my words and not to the truth.
MODERATOR: Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the father but through me." Do you believe this? And do you
think Islam is a way to salvation?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Jesus also said, "Other sheep have I who are not of
this fold."
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: Do you think people of other races would feel welcome at your
church?
REVEREND WRIGHT: Yes. We have members of other races in our church. We
have Hispanics. We have Caribbean. We have South Americans. We have whites.
The conference minister -- please understand the United Church of Christ
is a predominantly white demonstration. Again, some of you do not know
United Church of Christ, just found out about liberation theology, just
found out about United Church of Christ, the conference minister, Dr.
Jane Fisler Hoffman, a white woman, and her husband, not only are
members of the congregation, but on her last Sunday before taking the
assignment as the interim conference minister of California, Southern
California Conference of the United Church of Christ, a white woman
stood in our pulpit and said, "I am unashamedly African."
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: You first gained media attention, significant media attention
for your sermons several weeks ago. Why did you wait so long before
giving the public your side of the sound bite story?
REVEREND WRIGHT: As I said to Bill Moyers -- and he also edited this one
out -- because of my mother's advice to me. My mother's advice was being
seen all over the corporate media channels, and it's a paraphrase of the
Book of Proverbs, where it is better to be quiet and be thought a fool
than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
The media was making a fool out of itself, because it knew nothing about
our tradition. And so I decided to let them make a fool as long as they
wanted to and then take the advice of Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Lies, lies,
bless the lord. Don't you know the days are broad?"
Don't make me come across this room. I had to come across the room,
because they start -- understand, when you're talking about my mama,
once again, and talking about my faith tradition, once again, how long
do you let somebody talk about your faith tradition before you speak up
and say something in defense of -- this is not an attack on Jeremiah
Wright.
Once again, let me say it again. This is an attack on the black church.
And I cannot as a minister of the gospel allow the significant part of
our history -- most African-Americans and most European-Americans, most
Hispanic-Americans, half the names I called in my presentation they've
never heard of, because they don't know anything at all about our
tradition.
And to lift up those -- they would have died in vain had I just kept
quiet longer and longer and longer and longer. As I said, this is an
attack on the black church. It is not about Obama, McCain, Hillary,
Bill, Chelsea. This is about the black church.
This is about Barbara Jordan. This is about Fanny Lou Hamer. This is
about my grandmamma.
MODERATOR: Do you think it is God's will that Senator Obama be president?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I said I would offer myself for candidacy for vice
president. I have not offered myself for candidacy of God. I can't
presume to know what God would want.
In my tradition, however, what everybody has been saying to me as it
pertains to the candidacy is what God has for you is for you. If God
intends for Mr. Obama to the president, then no white racists, no
political pundit, no speech, nothing can get in the way, because God
will do what God wants to do.
MODERATOR: OK, we are almost out of time. But before asking the last
question, we have a couple of matters to take care of.
First of all, let me remind you of our future speakers. This afternoon,
we have Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture
Association, who is discussing trading up movies in the global
marketplace. On May 2nd, Bobby Jindal, the governor of the state of
Louisiana, will discuss bold reform that works. On May 7th, we have
Glenn Tilton, CEO, United Airlines, and board member of the American
transport association.
Second, I would like to present our guest with the official centennial
mug and -- it's brand new.
REVEREND WRIGHT: Thank you. Thank you.
MODERATOR: You're welcome. And we've got one more question for you.
(APPLAUSE)
We're going to end with a joke. Chris Rock joked, "Of course Reverend
Wright's an angry 75-year-old black man. All 75-year-old black men are
angry." Is that funny? Is that true? Is it unfortunate? What do you think?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I think it's just like the media. I'm not 75.
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
MODERATOR: I'd like to thank you all for coming today.
END
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