Our Jeremiah: Why Obama's pastor matters.

[Emit]

Our Jeremiah
Why Obama's pastor matters.
By Melissa Harris-Lacewell
TheRoot.com
Updated: 11:31 PM ET Mar 16, 2008

March 17, 2008--A black orator stood before a rapt audience, his voice rising to a crescendo as he made this fiery statement: "Statesmen of America beware what you do! The soil is in readiness, and the seed-time has come. Nations, not less than individuals, reap as they sow.

The dreadful calamities of the past few years came not by accident, nor unbidden, from the ground. You shudder today at the harvest of blood sown in the springtime of the Republic by your patriot fathers."

Sound familiar?

These are not the words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the embattled minister of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. These words were uttered by Frederick Douglass in his appeal to the U.S. Congress for African-American voting rights. ...

In his 1993 text, Black Messiahs and Uncle Toms: Social and Literary Manipulations of a Religious Myth, historian Wilson Moses labeled this tradition the black jeremiad. Like Rev. Wright himself, it is named for the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

~snip~

Jeremiah Wright is a modern Douglass. Both men are like the Old Testament prophets who condemn the injustice and corruption of the rulers of their government.

Let's be clear. American democracy has always coexisted with vicious, state-sponsored racism. The nation's first presidents worked to establish an innovative, flexible, radical democratic republic while simultaneously codifying enslaved blacks as a fraction human and relegating them to intergenerational chattel bondage. After emancipation, as blacks helped make America the greatest industrial and military power on earth, the country stripped blacks of the right to vote, segregated public accommodations, provided inferior education to black children, and allowed and promoted the terrorist rule of lynch-mob violence.

This week Barack Obama was pressured to denounce Jeremiah Wright. But in the hundred years following the end of the Civil War more than five thousand African Americans were lynched and not a single president denounced the atrocities. Because of this history, black patriotism is complicated.

Black patriots love our country, even though it has often hated us. We love our country, even while we hold it accountable for its faults.

~snip~

I attended Trinity United Church of Christ during the seven years I lived in Chicago. Although I do not know him personally, I heard Rev. Wright preach on dozens of Sundays. His sermons soothed my broken heart while I divorced, they eased my mental anguish when my sister was ill, and they helped give me strength as I watched the destructive power of racism, sexism and homophobia within my Chicago community. In short, his words did what a pastor's words are supposed to do. I am grateful for Jeremiah Wright and for his prophetic witness.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. She is also a seminarian at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. http://www.theroot.com/id/45301/output/print

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. I really like Professor Harris-Lacewell. nt

[Emit]

2. Thanks for responding

It's frustrating when only the flambait posts about how 'racist' Rev. Wright is what gets any attention.

edit clarity

[Voice for Peace]

3. I agree. Not just frustrating but infuriating. Thanks for posting this. nt

[KittyWampus]

5. one good thing come out of all this mess... found some really interesting voices out there

and refreshed some history.

[mac2]

7. It's a distraction not an education.

[DLnyc]

11. Yes, a conversation has been opened up, it seems.

In that sense, Obama, and we, have won.

[mac2]

4. I don't give a bit about any black (red,white, or yellow) religious leader.

We are having an election in November.

If you want to advertise a favorite clergy don't do it on our site. We are a political discussion group. I don't want to discuss anyone's favorite minister or how they helped you.

What about the serious issues we have to solve in this country? Your religious and spirtual concerns are none of mine. Nor you of mine.

As the Bible says...separate government and church. But of-course don't leave your morals and ethics behind.

When you step into that voting booth your religion, color, or sex should not matter. Is this not worth fighting and discussing? It's not complicated unless you make it so.

[anamandujano]

9. Agree.

[Emit]

10. 24-7 of 'racist Rev Wright' on M$M and DU

and you get your panties in a bind about an article written about the tradition of the black jeremiad?

I dare say you are woefully ignorant if you construe this article as an 'advertisement' of a 'favorite clergy.' Historically, there are many methods used to achieve social change, and while I dare say we disagree much with the basics on the matter of separation of church and state, the black jeremiad was a much needed method and arguably remains so, IMHO.

[Rex_Goodheart]

6. "Jeremiah Wright is a modern Douglass."

I stopped reading right there. The author is obviously whacked, and she does a great disservice to the legacy of one of America's giants.

[mac2]

8. Who cares? Advertise on some other web site.