Posted by
Walter Grandberry on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 2:21:53 AM
The absence of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah
Wright, Jr. from the media after clips of his sermons surfaced on the
internet is now nearly matched by his ubiquity over the past few days.
He has appeared on fora as divergent as PBS, the Detroit chapter of the
NAACP and the National Press Club, speaking to some degree at each
venue on the prophetic traditions of the African American church.
But
his recent interviews did little to add nuance to remarks that could
certainly have benefited therefrom. If anything, the lengthy snippets
from Wright's sermons that appeared on his Bill Moyers Journal interview
seemed to confirm that most people's initial impressions were right on
the money. (That such was the case is remarkable, as Bill Moyers was
more than gracious to his co-religionist, often tossing him slow-pitch
softball questions such as, "So God is not...exclusively or totally
identified with just the black community?")
The subtlety-challenged Wright was even more pointed in his commentary at his NAACP appearance on Sunday (CNN transcript here),
where he spoke of his "stuck on stupid friends" who attempt to
capitalize on Sen. Barack Obama's middle name. (I confess that I am
with Wright on this one; with friends like Bill Cunningham, John McCain doesn't need enemies.)
But it was Wright's remarks before the NPC (New York Times transcript here) that have caused the most consternation. To
be sure, Wright was emboldened by his reliance on a "prophetic voice,"
a mainstay of liberation theology that posits that religious leaders
and organizations have as their prime obligation speaking out against
injustice regardless of its source.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... 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... It was preached to set African-Americans free
from the notion of second-class citizenship, which was the law of the
land... 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.
By concluding that religiosity among African Americans was and remains
solely about the struggle against racism, Wright conflates his personal
belief system with that of the entire "black church" (such as it can be
exactly defined.) He also - and by my lights incorrectly - asserts the
centrality of liberation theology to the missions of black
congregations, even though many inner-city churches are focused on
economic or intra-racial concerns.
For those hoping that Wright
would strike a tone of conciliation, Donna Leinwand's Q&A session
was another opportunity for him to poke his detractors in the eye with
a sharp stick. Many (liberal) commentators now seem convinced that Wright is at best even more of a drag on Barack Obama's campaign, and at worst is doing so deliberately.
I'm not inclined to
be of the opinion that Wright aims to mortally wound Obama's campaign
(although Wright's tone of disdain and condescension to politicians of
all stripes is unmistakable.) I think that Wright, like most black
clergy, appreciates a certain theatrical element of preaching. Such is today's prophetic voice; the men of the cloth who claim to speak
truth to power with the authority of the Almighty are far from eating
locusts and honey.
Today's "prophets" are well-fed, well-shod and exquisitely housed.
Their prophecies are belied by the fact that they are socially,
politically and economically integrated into the very system that they
condemn. In most cases, they are elites in their own right, and are as
divorced from the downtrodden as the "oppressors" that they rail
against. Whatever the merits of liberation theology were in the past,
it is now just the sharpest tool for false prophets.