Audacity To Hope Jeremiah Wright Part 1
Please review and reflect upon the inspirational text. Wright’s Sermon - “The Audacity To Hope”
copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert. BeThink.org
The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.
~ Barack Obama [Senator and Potential President] March 18, 2008
When we are separate, our experience is never equal.
African-Americans mingle among the many Anglos in this country. However, individuals with dark-complexions do not fully unite or fit into a society that segregates by color. While Americans have forcibly progressed beyond the laws that allowed for racial discrimination, the bias and bigotry that filled the hearts of many citizens in the United States for centuries still thrives. While we muse, we love thy neighbor, we react to those whose race is not our own.
Americans claim they are Christian, inclusive. Indeed, we are a Judeo-Christian nation. Yet, Jews are still scorned in America, as are people of any color that is other than a pinkish white. Amongst Caucasians, the habit of hate has been passed on for generations. Yet, when those whose skin is pale, hear the words of a Black man, a Reverend, Jeremiah Wright, who has been wounded by racism for all the years of his life, speak of his distress, they react as though they had never uttered a racial epithet in their lives.
The most respected Americans, white in color proclaim, "I have never heard such vile derisive language in an Anglo church." "No preacher, pastor, priest, or rabbi would ever express him or herself in such a loathsome manner." Shocked Caucasians inquire as if to invite a shared criticism, "Is this what Black people believe?" If reasons are presented for such resentment, the response from self-righteous lovers of G-d and man is, "African-Americans are bigoted!" "How dare they." The pink persons declare, "In the House of the Lord only words of love are spoken, at least that is the way it is in white churches, temples, and synagogues."
However, this may not be the case. Hate is harbored on every avenue in America, even in places of worship. As Barack Obama dared to remind us, on Sundays African-Americans and Anglos who reside in the United States are perhaps more divided than they are on any other day. The pale persons pray with those whose skin tone is similar to their own. When we look at only the surface, all whites may appear equal; and they are in the eyes of the Almighty. Yet, as humans gaze upon each other, they see differences.
A white man or woman, whose gender preference is unlike those of the self-ordained "absolved of all "sins" congregation may experience discrimination even in death.
Church learns vet was gay, cancels memorial
Texas congregation acted out of principle, not malice, pastor says
Associated Press. MSNBC
August 11, 2007
Arlington, Texas - A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.
Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.
“It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ’Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you,”’ she said Friday. . .
Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.
“We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press. “Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it — yes, we would have declined then. It’s not that we didn’t love the family.”
Love rears its ugly head in many odd ways. Fondness, in the form of fury and foment, is found on film throughout cyberspace. As the "average" American bears witness, people, pale in color, have become a community of contempt. Condescension is what appears in the Judeo-Christian churches throughout the land of the free. Americans, be they Jewish, Mormon, Protestant or Christian are calm when they contemplate the G-d and the all that he creates. People are polite in public; however, when they are in the comfort of their homes they express what they claim is never stated. The proper and pink teach their progeny to believe as they do.
The Year In Hate, 2005
A 5% annual increase in hate groups in 2005 caps a remarkable rise of 33% over the five-year period that began in 2000.
By Mark Potok
Intelligence Report
Southern Poverty Law
Spring 2006
Fueled by belligerent tactics and publicity stunts, the number of hate groups operating in the United States rose from 762 in 2004 to 803 last year, capping an increase of fully 33% over the five years since 2000.
The expansion of hate groups last year, documented by the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, seemed to be helped along by aggressive maneuvers that landed them on front pages and in national news broadcasts. The National Socialist Movement, for instance, repeatedly made national news with provocative attempts to march through black, inner-city neighborhoods. Other groups rallied with increasing fervor and frequency, and even undertook sure-to-infuriate campaigns like "Operation Schoolyard," an attempt in the 2004-2005 school year to distribute 100,000 free racist music CDs to schoolchildren . . . A growing Internet presence also helped groups' propaganda to flourish; there were 524 hate sites counted in 2005, up 12% from 468 in 2004.
Yes, whites individuals and groups do indoctrinate their young. The practice amid the pink population is as odious as they believe it is among African-Americans. Whites are as blackened by bigotry as their brethren may be.
Sadly, too frequently when we look upon another we see only what appears on the surface. Just as the oppressed of one color or creed voices words that may be defined as dishonorable, so too do those in the supposed superior sect. Each of us errors. We are all emotional beings, complex and never viewed completely. New York Times Columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof, addressed this truth in his recent editorial, Obama and Race. The articulate author writes of what goes on within the walls of Trintiy United Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois.
Many well-meaning Americans perceive Mr. Wright as fundamentally a hate-monger who preaches antagonism toward whites. But those who know his church say that is an unrecognizable caricature: He is a complex figure and sometimes a reckless speaker, but one of his central messages is not anti-white hostility but black self-reliance.
“The big thing for Wright is hope,” said Martin Marty, one of America’s foremost theologians, who has known the Rev. Wright for 35 years and attended many of his services. “You hear ‘hope, hope, hope.’ Lots of ordinary people are there, and they’re there not to blast the whites. They’re there to get hope.”
Professor Marty said that as a white person, he sticks out in the largely black congregation but is always greeted with warmth and hospitality. “It’s not anti-white,” he said. “I don’t know anybody who’s white who walks out of there not feeling affirmed.”
Mr. Wright has indeed made some outrageous statements. But he should be judged as well by his actions — including a vigorous effort to address poverty, ill health, injustice and AIDS in his ministry. Mr. Wright has been frightfully wrong on many topics, but he was right on poverty, civil rights and compassion for AIDS victims.
What should draw much more scrutiny in this campaign than any pastor’s sermons is the candidates’ positions on education, health care and poverty — and their ability to put those policies in place. Cutting off health care benefits for low-income children strikes me as much more offensive than any inflammatory sermon.
Indeed, what is an affront to a person affected by a policy or practice is barely observable to one who will never realize how a political promise or lack thereof can destroy the life of those they love. When in an impoverished community people depend on the kindness of a culture such as the society Thomas Paine described, one in which the commonweal was more important than the needs of any individual. The disenfranchised rely on the good will of people who believe in the Lord, practice as Jesus preached, "Love your neighbor as yourself.' Yet, inside and outside of a religious house, mere mortal man fails to adhere to the principles preached from the pulpit. We need only remember the plight of a sweet young child, a twelve year old, Deamonte Driver who died of a toothache Sunday, February 25, 2007.
A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.
If his mother had been insured.
If his family had not lost its Medicaid.
If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.
If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.
By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.
Few in a white American world can imagine such a situation. Certainly, a Caucasian churchgoer does not subscribe to the belief a child must suffer. No clergy would caste a little one to the wolves or ask them to endure the burden of a national budget disagreement. An ordained Minister, Reverend, Pastor, Priest, or Rabbi, a Shaman would not will a poverty-stricken parent, people within an impoverished community, or those not yet empowered, to care for a child without adequate means to assist the young person. That is unless the religious leader is part of the "Fellowship" or "Family," who congregates in Washington District of Columbia or other Capitols throughout the globe.
The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.
This group of world leaders, the affluent and comfortable from Congress to the Cabinet, from the White House to the wondrous world of power elite, accepts as part of their mission, that those whose pigmentation is darker, or persons deemed to be of lesser value may be left to die when they no longer serve the "masters." This theological order differs from some of the other organized religion.
The Family avoids the word Christian but worships Jesus, though not the Jesus who promised the earth to the "meek." They believe that, in mass societies, it's only the elites who matter, the political leaders who can build God's "dominion" on earth. Insofar as the Family has a consistent philosophy, it's all about power -- cultivating it, building it and networking it together into ever-stronger units, or "cells." "We work with power where we can," Doug Coe [Fellowship leader] has said, and "build new power where we can't."
African-Americans rarely and barely have authority equal to those of Anglos in this nation. "Affirmative Action," a policy established to appease those embarrassed by the actions of their ancestors, is granted and taken away. Caucasians complain of "reverse racism," for few can comprehend.
[B]lacks have not simply been treated unfairly; they have been subjected first to decades of slavery, and then to decades of second-class citizenship, widespread legalized discrimination, economic persecution, educational deprivation, and cultural stigmatization. They have been bought, sold, killed, beaten, raped, excluded, exploited, shamed, and scorned for a very long time. The word "unfair" is hardly an adequate description of their experience, and the belated gift of "fairness" in the form of a resolution no longer to discriminate against them legally is hardly an adequate remedy for the deep disadvantages that the prior discrimination has produced. When the deck is stacked against you in more ways than you can even count, it is small consolation to hear that you are now free to enter the game and take your chances.
Chances are opportunities will be scant and tentative at that. Former Congresswoman and Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro reminds us of this. For the Clinton cohort, and a former member of the Clinton Finance Committee, Barack Obama, and perhaps all Black Americans are "lucky" to be where they are today. For Ferraro, another Anglo American who evidently cannot connect to the experience of being poor or purplish-brown in hue, being Black in this country is apparently an advantage. Perchance, it is a privilege to suffer at the hands of those in power, the people who do not wish to speak of their work or worship. We cannot know. For unlike the scenes seen in volumes of video in the worldwide web or in news network libraries, there are no recordings of what occurs in "Fellowship" [Family] meetings. The "cells" remain cloistered, just as the rich do.
(T)he prayer groups have become cherished sanctuaries for their members—providing respite, however brief, from the cacophony of political Washington. Speaking about a group is strongly discouraged, and what transpires at meetings is strictly off the record.
No one will know if these elite powerbrokers express their racial hatred aloud. One can only determine what is true through the policies these persons enact. They may say they prayer for equality; however, the laws introduced and passed frequently, further disenfranchise the poor and people of color.
There is much evidence, anecdotal as the Ferraro affair may be, and research analysis, to suggest Caucasians in this country find it difficult to relate to the circumstances of those whose skin is a darker color. The predicament of people whose skin gleams a brownish-purplish hue is incomprehensible to those who do not suffer from the effects of racism.
A Jew can pass amongst gentiles. An Asian can climb, albeit inch-by-inch. Hispanics are hindered in their assent; yet, not in the way a Black man or woman is. An African-American is never fully free from the stereotypes. On screen dramas, depict African-Americans as villains. The nightly news amplifies this message. The public presumes if a crime is committed, certainly the lawbreaker will be Black.
Our language leads us to believe black is bad. White is good. From childhood on Americans are indoctrinated. Slavery may have ended with the Emancipation Proclamation; however, African-Americans remained incarcerated in caricatures.
From the introduction of animated film in the early 1900s to the 1950s, ethnic humor was a staple of American-made cartoons. Yet, as Christopher Lehman shows in this revealing study, the depiction of African Americans in particular became so inextricably linked to the cartoon medium as to influence its evolution through those five decades. He argues that what is in many ways most distinctive about American animation reflects white animators' visual interpretations of African American cultural expression.
The first American animators drew on popular black representations, many of which were caricatures rooted in the culture of southern slavery. During the 1920s, the advent of the sound-synchronized cartoon inspired animators to blend antebellum-era black stereotypes with the modern black cultural expressions of jazz musicians and Hollywood actors. When the film industry set out to desexualize movies through the imposition of the Hays Code in the early 1930s, it regulated the portrayal of African Americans largely by segregating black characters from others, especially white females. At the same time, animators found new ways to exploit the popularity of African American culture by creating animal characters like Bugs Bunny who exhibited characteristics associated with African Americans without being identifiably black.
By the 1950s, protests from civil rights activists and the growing popularity of white cartoon characters led animators away from much of the black representation on which they had built the medium. Even so, animated films today continue to portray African American characters and culture, and not necessarily in a favorable light.
Perhaps, the portrayals burned into our brains, when we were toddlers, those heard in church, in homes, in movie theatres, and on televisions, helps to explain why Anglo Americans cannot imagine what it like to be Black in America. Few Caucasians have experienced the pain of prejudice. Pinkish people cannot comprehend what it feels like to consistently be a victim of avoidance. An Anglo does not think that their mere appearance might threaten another. White people walk down the street without a care. No one crosses the boulevard in order to steer clear of them as happens frequently to a Black man or woman approaching from the other direction.
Anglos do not know what it feels like to be shunned, snubbed, or scorned because your skin is dark. Caucasians cannot pretend to know how what some say is a tease is truly a threat. When Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman smiled and suggested today's young players should "lynch Tiger Woods in a back alley," African-Americans did not laugh. A noose in the neighborhood can cause ones' blood to curdle. A word as vile as n*gg*r, does not cut to the core of a white man or woman who has never lost a loved-one to brutal aggressions based only on race. There is much the white world does not realize or rationalize as they sit in their ivory churches.
To whites, for example, it has been shocking to hear Mr. Wright suggest that the AIDS virus was released as a deliberate government plot to kill black people.
That may be an absurd view in white circles, but a 1990 survey found that 30 percent of African-Americans believed this was at least plausible.
“That’s a real standard belief,” noted Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a political scientist at Princeton (and former member of Trinity church, when she lived in Chicago). “One of the things fascinating to me watching these responses to Jeremiah Wright is that white Americans find his beliefs so fringe or so extreme. When if you’ve spent time in black communities, they are not shared by everyone, but they are pretty common beliefs.”
This thought is not merely a personal opinion, research documents the truth of this assessment. White Americans don't truly comprehend racial disparities in our country. Philip Mazzocco, co-author of the a study titled, Whites Underestimate the Costs of Being Black, and Assistant Professor of psychology at Ohio State University's Mansfield campus states, “The costs of being black in our society are very well documented." “Blacks have significantly lower income and wealth, higher levels of poverty, and even shorter life spans, among many other disparities, compared to whites.” Researcher Mazzocco avows, "white households average about $150,000 more wealth than the typical black family." Overall, the total assets for an Anglo family are about five times greater than that of an African-American family. The disparity seems a constant in American history. The chasm has persisted for years. Mazzocco said. . . .
“When white Americans find it within themselves to say ‘I must be compensated for a past injustice done to me' but the same logic evaporates when the injustice concerns black Americans, they are staring straight at bias,” Banaji [co-author Mahzarin Banaji, the Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University] said.
What is good for thou, is not tolerable for thee. Hypocrisy is a theme we know all too well. We witness it here in America. We hear charlatan expressions in our daily lives. Is this not the concern Caucasians present, when they criticize Reverend Wright?
Opportunely, those who protest too much forget the numerous groups who hate in the name of G-d, or the “Family” formed amongst the elite. Nonetheless, pinkish people preach; white worshipers never speak words of woe, or wrath. The Judeo-Christian clergy, and the congregation, at least when in church, do not speak badly of their brethren. If only Jesus had known. The Son of the Holy Father may not have felt a need to warn the hypocrites.
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
~ Matthew 7:1-5 RSV
Perhaps, our best teachers, those who see most clearly, understand the complexity that is humankind. Perchance, a parishioner hears what is truly said. One with love in his or her heart does not hear the gospel as a reason for grief. He, or she, the commoners within a congregation may understand the clergyman in a manner consistent with the whole being that stands before them each and every Sunday. It seems Kennise M Herring, an "average" disciple of Jeremiah Wright lives the lessons of the Lord more fully than those who gather in gentler, kinder churches.
I am a member of Trinity United Church of Christ and have been for 17 years. Interestingly, I’ve never seen Barack in church, which may simply speak to the fact that there are 3 sermons and our family attends a different service than the Obama family.
I was in attendance in the sermon after 9/11 that has been circulated. Ironically, I felt soothed following that sermon. I certainly remembered upon viewing the clips the infamous God Damn America comments, but that is not what stood out for me in that service. At the start of the service, Reverend Wright spoke poignantly about his fears as he was in New York on that fateful day. He spoke about the tremendous pain he observed, the evil and horror of the event and of his personal realization that he may never get to tell all of us how much he loved us. He spoke of realizing that his life with his family was not guaranteed and that he could not take anything for granted. He made a commitment to tell us at each service that he loved us and I experienced his words–I love you–simply and freely offered as real and soothing.
Yes–he spoke about policy matters and clearly used strong language but at the time, neither I or my three children or my husband found it the salient part of the talk. Despite the strong rhetoric, I left church feeling that “there is a balm in Gilead." Reverend Wright delivered the eulogy at my aunt’s funeral and it is not hyperbole to say that I was more moved by his words than I have ever been at a funeral. He was warm, compassionate, empathic, and genuinely sad for as he said repeatedly about my aunt, “this was not ordinary parishioner, this was my friend."
Reverend Wright frequently chided those of us too constricted to freely experience the passion often evident in the sanctuary and suggested that we were too educated to show our love for Jesus. I, being one of the more reserved–ok–constricted ones simply smiled for I longed for the kind of intimate, passionate relationship with God that he seems to have cultivated with God.
In finishing, I have seen this man on too many occasions do too much that is good and meaningful. He is imperfect–he will tell you that in a minute but I am certain in my core that he is doing God’s work and he loves God’s children even if he is disgusted by their behavior at times.
There are two Americas and the one I occupy is often invisible. How I wish that the peek inside my world had offered a fuller portrait of this man and not the caricature.
Might the Anglo individuals who dwell in the more visible America, assess their own passion, principles, and preachers. Might Caucasians consider the hypocrisy that lives within them and their clergy. Would white Americans be willing to judge one of their own people as harshly as they do Barack Obama or his Pastor, Reverend Wright?
Would Anglo Americans condemn one of the most profound and powerful Senators, Presidential aspirant Hillary Rodham Clinton for her affiliation with the "Fellowship?" Potential President Barack Obama "condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy." Yet, Hillary Rodham Clinton, an active participant of the "most elite cell" [their term] says nothing of the fact that . . .
The Family takes credit for some of Clinton's rightward legislative tendencies, including her support for a law guaranteeing "religious freedom" in the workplace, such as for pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions and police officers who refuse to guard abortion clinics.
The former First Lady, Caucasian Clinton may not have considered how these laws affect those in the Black community. Certainly, one would imagine that the Senator, a scholar would understand that without birth control, abortions are more likely. Perhaps, she, as most Anglo Americans is unfamiliar with a life that differs from her own.
As an elite, among the "Family" Hillary Clinton may not have experienced the hurt that is an African-American's life. Those in Black neighborhoods have limited access to pharmacists and clinics. The notion that African-Americans might shop around for someone to serve them is absurd. We need only consider the availability of viable transportation, the cost to travel, and the ultimate truth, the quality of health care services. Those whose complexion is dark in color remain separate and unequal in an America dominated by the affluent who are lighter in color and pray within a selective Fellowship.
Perchance, prosperous persons, members of the Family "cells," people such as Senator Clinton, do not rant and rage as they reflect on racism. They cannot; they do not relate. These prominent individuals do not need to discuss their mediation which remains publicly unmentionable. They to talk of prejudice or the policies they ratify in order to retain power. Possibly, affluent Anglos and those who merely wish to appear proper do not need to speak of the strife that is their life in church, synagogues, or temples, for their situation does not compare.
For most Caucasians and for former First Lady Clinton, church conversations are yet to be called into question. However, we might wonder, what if Senator Clinton's religious beliefs, her practices, and her pastor are not subjects of scrutiny. What if all Anglos were subject to such severe scrutiny? Might the discussion help eliminate the disdain? Could empathy be the cure for what ails America. Barack Obama asked us to consider that possibility. Yet, apparently the request is denied.
Churchgoers in the white community continue to think they do not speak of cruelties committed against them, few as these may be. These pious people truly believe they live by the Golden Rule, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Sadly, it seems Anglos do not wish to discuss hypocrisy either. Perhaps, those with paler complexions should. From Americans reaction to the topic of racism, it is obvious, parishioners in pinkish neighborhoods still have much to learn of the Lord and the lessons he hoped to impart.
Audacity To Hope Jeremiah Wright Part 2
Please review and reflect upon the inspirational text. Wright’s Sermon - “The Audacity To Hope”
Sermons, Sources, A Search for Truth and Hope . . .
- Wright’s Sermon - “The Audacity To Hope”
- Church learns vet was gay, cancels memorial, Texas congregation acted out of principle, not malice, pastor says. Associated Press. MSNBC. August 11, 2007
- The Year In Hate, 2005 A 5% annual increase in hate groups in 2005 caps a remarkable rise of 33% over the five-year period that began in 2000. By Mark Potok. Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Spring 2006
- Obama and Race. By Nicholas D. Kristof. The New York Times. March 20, 2008
- pdf Obama and Race. By Nicholas D. Kristof. The New York Times. March 20, 2008
- Trintiy United Church of Christ.
- The Christian Bible Reference
- For Want of a Dentist, Pr. George's Boy Dies After Bacteria From Tooth Spread to Brain. By Mary Otto. Washington Post. Wednesday, February 28, 2007; B01
- The Colored Cartoon,
Black Representation in American Animated Short Films. By Christopher P. Lehman. University of Massachusetts. January 2008
- African-Americans and Caucasians have similar emotional brain activity when seeing African-Americans. Medical News Today. May 10, 2005
- Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics, By Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet. Mother Jones. September 1, 2007
- pdf Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics, By Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet. Mother Jones. September 1, 2007
- Hillary's Ties to Religious Fundamentalists, By Barbara Ehrenreich. Barbaraehrenreich.com. AlterNet. March 20, 2008
- Reverse Racism, or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black, By Stanley Fish. The Atlantic Monthly. November 1993
- Ferraro cries reverse racism, By Roger Simon. Politico. March 12, 2008
- Take Two: Hillary's Choice, By Joshua Green. The Atlantic Monthly. November 2006
- Researchers Chronicle Unequal, Race-based Health Care. By Carol Cruzan Morton. Harvard University.March 22, 2002
- Suburban Sprawl and Transportation Racism, By Environmental Justice resource Center.
- Hypocrites, By Wayne Blank. Daily Bible Study