Blessings and Curses

Two annoying phrases in the media regarding the Obama-Wright controversy have been bouncing around my brain lately.  The first is "should Obama be judged by the company he keeps?" (via Salon) and the second is "Is Jeremiah Wright 'typical' of Black preachers?" (via NPR).

To the first, I say heartily, "absolutely!" by which formula Obama's association with Wright boosts him in my esteem.  To the second I say "what?"

It reminds me of a piece NPR did when I was living in D.C. called "The Other Side of the River" which was a multiple-installment report on the Anacostia neighborhood of D.C.  In typical white-liberal fashion, the report assumed the listener lived on "this" side of the river.  Much as within white supremacy, all "people" are white until marked otherwise, the river's "other" side was of course, the Black neighborhood.

NPR assumes its listeners are a bunch of white liberals who now have cause to worry about what Black People Are Saying in Church.  Just like there's not one "Black Family" which all us white transracial adopters need to emulate to do right by our children, there is more than one Black Church.  And anyway, Wright isn't even part of a traditionally Black denomination!  The UCC is mostly white.  His church, as he explains in the Moyers interview (I'm gonna keep hounding you until you've all watched it and reported back to me) was planted on the south side of Chicago by white liberals imagining an integrated church.  But no white people really ever showed up, so the church decided to give up and embrace its Blackness.

I dare you to find a "typical" Black preacher any quicker than you can find a typical white one.  Is John Hagee one?

My ambivalence about the democratic primary race evaporated the second the Clinton campaign (and/or its surrogates) started playing the race card.  I was done with Clinton as soon as Gloria Steinem and Geraldine Ferraro started hinting around that Obama was an unqualified affirmative-action case.  I was beyond done when this Jeremiah Wright stuff started.  Because, as the signs say, Wright is right.  And Wright's use of the spotlight to draw more attention to the issues about which he so deeply cares is nothing but spiritual opportunism at its best, if you ask me.

Wright got in trouble for suggesting that God may not bless "America" when it takes actions contrary to justice.  So, how do those who couldn't handle Wright's words manage to digest this:

"Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor,
   for yours is the kingdom of God.
‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
   for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now,
   for you will laugh.

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you* on account of the Son of Man.  Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

‘But woe to you who are rich,
   for you have received your consolation.
‘Woe to you who are full now,
   for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
   for you will mourn and weep.

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.*

Jesus preached that.  But then, Jesus wasn't really very typical was he?

If some white Christians aren't hearing this Word in their churches, maybe they need to go visit Wright's church, or one like it.  Because they are missing half of the story if they stop with the blessings.

* Luke 6:20-26

Comments

[Yondalla]

I was never bothered by the Wright clips. I was infuriated by the way they were used, but I did not think they were inappropriate things for a preacher to be saying.

I watched the Moyers interview the first time you told me to. It was wonderful.

[Margie]

I absolutely do not get the furor over Jeremiah Wright's statements. They were strong, to be sure, but he spoke the truth: If we don't practice justice and respect, how can we expect it in return?

I haven't listened to the Moyers interview, but will - thanks for the heads up.

[electriclady]

You know one particular media commentator comment (out of MANY) that drove me especially crazy? I can't remember who it was, but they said, in reference to hoping that Wright would just disappear after last week, that after "making a fool of himself" at the National Press Club he should be embarrassed to show his face again.

When we heard that, my husband and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. Because I'm pretty confident that Wright does NOT feel he made a fool of himself and that embarrassed is the LAST thing he feels. And anyone who thinks otherwise is just beyond clueless.

[DS-L]

If Wright is right then why did Obama denouce him unequivocally the other day? Either he doesn't think Wright is right or he was playing the race card -- pandering to whites afraid of that rhetoric, or the politics card "I have to distance myself from this guy for real now." I liked his message earlier better that he would not disavow Wright. Anyone running for President is a politician first.
DS-L

[Lula]

Jesus also wasn't white. ;)

[Kohana]

Thanks for the link, I really appreciated getting to see a whole interview with Reverand Wright.