Martin Luther King Jr. famously said that 11 o'clock Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in the United States. And I think that the continuation of this state of affairs is at the heart of the current controversy over comments made by Jeremiah Wright, Sr., the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ (where Barack Obama is a member). The issue isn't really about Jeremiah Wright, Sr. as an individual as much as it is a basic discomfort with (at best) or rejection of the progressive/prophetic voice of the Black Church.
In other posts we've mentioned how even apart from labels like "Muslim" or "Christian" one can talk about the American phenomena of Black Religion as a God-centered holy protest against anti-black racism. We've also touched on Cornel West's idea of prophetic Christianity and have repeatedly discussed the radical side of Martin Luther King Jr. [1][2] [3]
In the article, Dallas-area black clergy defend Rev. Jeremiah Wright's message, Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Jeffrey Weiss do a good job of providing some context for Wright's comments within the Bible and the tradition of the Black Church. Similarly, in Is Obama Wrong About Wright? Michael C. Dawson (who is the John D. MacArthur professor of political science at the University of Chicago) locates Jeremiah Wright in the mainstream of the Black community, particularly in the Black Theology tradition of James Cone.
see also Abu Noor Al-Irlandee: Michael C. Dawson: Is Obama Wrong About Wright?
In other posts we've mentioned how even apart from labels like "Muslim" or "Christian" one can talk about the American phenomena of Black Religion as a God-centered holy protest against anti-black racism. We've also touched on Cornel West's idea of prophetic Christianity and have repeatedly discussed the radical side of Martin Luther King Jr. [1][2] [3]
In the article, Dallas-area black clergy defend Rev. Jeremiah Wright's message, Gromer Jeffers Jr. and Jeffrey Weiss do a good job of providing some context for Wright's comments within the Bible and the tradition of the Black Church. Similarly, in Is Obama Wrong About Wright? Michael C. Dawson (who is the John D. MacArthur professor of political science at the University of Chicago) locates Jeremiah Wright in the mainstream of the Black community, particularly in the Black Theology tradition of James Cone.
see also Abu Noor Al-Irlandee: Michael C. Dawson: Is Obama Wrong About Wright?
2 comments:
Thanks for noticing.
Jeffrey Weiss
The Dallas Morning News
Watch Rev. Jeremiah Wright's 9-11 sermon in context
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ
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