3/28/08 Columbia State (SC) (Pg. Unavail. Online)
2008 WLNR 5874567
Columbia State (SC)
Copyright 2008 The State
March 28, 2008
Section: a
JOSEPH A. DARBY, Guest columnist
There's been great media hue and cry about selected words of the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright, the recently retired pastor of Chicago's Trinity United
Church of Christ, where presidential candidate Barack Obama and
his family are members. Sen. Obama has condemned some of what his
former pastor has said and has offered perhaps the best perspective on
the urgency and necessity of America facing up to its legacy of
racial inequity since Martin Luther King Jr,'s "Letter from a
Birmingham Jail" in a recent landmark speech, but America is still
focused on a few ten-second sound bites from Rev. Wright's 30- or
40-minute sermons.
I believe that the current controversy actually presents a teachable
moment. Dr. Wright's critics should visit the Web site of his former
pastorate, www.tucc.org/home.htm. Those who do so will find that the
8,000- member church has more than 50 ministries. Some of them, such as
the Africa Ministry and the Isuthu Ministry, reflect the cultural roots
of the historically black church and its emphasis on awareness,
responsibility and self-sufficiency. Others, such as the Married Couples
Ministry and Girl Scouts, can be found in churches across lines of race
and class.
Those with the courage to actually think and learn with open minds
will find a familiarly Christian church that reflects the heritage of
the majority of its members and that flourished under Dr. Wright's
leadership.
Dr. Wright's critics also need to learn more about the historically
black church and its clergy. Since the days of slavery, the historically
black church has been a haven for those who have been dehumanized and
demeaned and a vehicle to rise both physically and spiritually in an
America that relegates black Americans to second-class citizenship and
that often cloaks bigotry in religion. Black clergy have always been
heralds of freedom and fairness, walking not in the passive footsteps of
a "neutered" Jesus, but in the bold and authentic footsteps of the Jesus
who spoke truth to the religious and political powers of his day and who
was falsely accused and executed for doing so.
Many institutions that were the foundation of black America have
crumbled, but the historically black church still has the capacity to be
an independent voice of conscience and progress. All good black pastors
sometimes say things that their members might hesitate to openly say in
an America where race still matters and where those who tell the truth
might not be physically lynched, but can still be economically or
politically lynched if they question the powers that be or upset the
status quo.
In view of the heritage and ongoing role of the historically black
church, I don't find Dr. Wright's words to be outrageous. In context, he
simply speaks the truth in a way that makes those who practice
comfortable cultural Christianity uncomfortable and that challenges
America to be what it claims to be: "One nation, under God with liberty
and justice for all."
I'm also not surprised that he's been bitterly criticized, because
those who can't set the agenda for the black church from beyond the
church and are ignorant of the full work of the church often fear the
black church and black clergy.
I hope that even though Dr. Wright has retired from a distinguished
and exemplary career as a pastor and theologian, he'll continue to give
needed cultural indigestion to an America that's too often long on
promises but short on equitable results.
I also hope he'll remember that
criticism from those who interweave their faith and their view of
patriotism and those with a narrow and sterile vision of properly
expressed faith is the price of speaking the truth. Dr. King, a
Southerner whose words and work changed the Southern way of life, was
branded a communist and an "outside agitator" in his day and was
vilified when he stood up not just for civil rights for black America,
but for the well-being of Americans of all colors and cultures. German
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed for pointing up the brutal
inconsistencies in what passed for religion in Nazi Germany.
I'd also urge political pundits and those who create spin for
candidates to play fair. If Sen. Hillary Clinton can only offer up kind
and careful criticism of the ranting of Geraldine Ferraro and if John
McCain did not reject the endorsement of the Rev. John Hagee, who is
consciously homophobic, possibly anti-Catholic and who called Hurricane
Katrina "the judgment of God against New Orleans," then Sen. Obama
should not be taken to task because his pastor, like many black pastors,
says things that challenge America to rise above its sins of prejudice
and greed.
The Rev. Darby is the senior pastor of Morris Brown AME Church in
Charleston.
