As I made clear hereand here, there is now a loosely coordinated attack racializing Senator Obama, as the "dangerous black man," that are coming from Republicans and fellow travelers in the media. Two stages have now taken place. A week or so ago, Representative King began the official attacks with his comments on Obama's Muslim background and "optics," while just a few days ago the Republican surrogates in the mass media moved the Dr. Jeremiah Wright story from the racist fringe to the center.
This attack is on Obama's pastor Dr. Wright. The media have quoted only a few words entirely out of context from a few of Dr. Wright's sermons, and have as yet made no attempt to understand why millions of Americans agree with him or why his points may often be backed by data.
Here is the counter framing statement put out by his church, the largest United Church of Christ with 8,000 members, to counter the attacks on Dr. Wright, a leading black liberation thinker and minister in this still-racist country.
"AN ATTACK ON OUR SENIOR PASTOR AND THE HISTORY OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH"
Chicago, Ill. (March 15, 2008) —
Nearly three weeks before the 40th commemorative anniversary of the murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.
Notice how few in the media have sought to understand the philosophy and theology of Dr. Wright or his church. This we Obama supporters must do if Obama is to win. We must understand where African Americans are at, and why so many are angry at US racism.
Dr. Wright has preached 207,792 minutes on Sunday for the past 36 years at Trinity United Church of Christ. This does not include weekday worship services, revivals and preaching engagements across America and around the globe, to ecumenical and interfaith communities. It is an indictment on Dr. Wright’s ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite," said the Reverend Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ.
It is also an indictment of the mostly white-controlled media that they have not tried at all to understand Dr. Wright's point of view, or that of his thousands of church members. Instead, they have taken a few seconds of comments totally out of context, as is their custom. This is the worst kind of journalism, of course.
During the 36-year pastorate of Dr. Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ has grown from 87 to 8,000 members. It is the largest congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC) denomination.
That is a lot of "radicals" for the media to interview, yet they have done the most superficial of such interviews so far.
It saddens me to see news stories reporting such a caricature of a congregation that has been such a blessing to the UCC’s Wider Church mission," said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, in a released statement. " ... It’s time for us to say ‘No’ to these attacks and declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends."
And yet another "radical," the head of a major Protestant denomination calling for an end to these attacks serving narrow, shall we say, racist ends. Where are the media on this?
Trinity United Church of Christ’s ministry is inclusive and global. The following ministries have been developed under Dr. Wright’s ministerial tutelage for social justice: assisted living facilities for senior citizens, day care for children, pastoral care and counseling, health care, ministries for persons living with HIV/AIDS, hospice training, prison ministry, scholarships for thousands of students to attend historically black colleges, youth ministries, tutorial and computer programs, a church library, domestic violence programs and scholarships and fellowships for women and men attending seminary.
Moss added, "The African American Church was born out of the crucible of slavery and the legacy of prophetic African American preachers since slavery has been and continues to heal broken marginalized victims of social and economic injustices. This is an attack on the legacy of the African American Church which led and continues to lead the fight for human rights in America and around the world."<</p>
A prophetic church that, I suspect, Jesus himself would have joined if he were alive today.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached the Christian tenet, "love thy neighbor as thyself." Before Dr. King was murdered on April 4, 1968, he preached, "The 11 o’clock hour is the most segregated hour in America." Forty years later, the African American Church community continues to face bomb threats, death threats, and their ministers’ characters are assassinated because they teach and preach prophetic social concerns for social justice. Sunday is still the most segregated hour in America.
And media have shown absolutely no concern for the segregated US church, for the anniversary, for the attacks that continue on the black church.
Is it any wonder that black ministers call out US racism in strong language? Now it is time for all of Obama's white supporters to do the same.