God Damn America!!!
Everyone remembers the tempest raised in March 2008 when video surfaced of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago pastor whose church candidate Barack Obama attended, was shown proclaiming "God Damn America!" If you need to have your memory refreshed, use Google. Most of the sermon excerpts that gained national attention in March 2008 were taken from two sermons: one titled "The Day of Jerusalem's Fall", delivered on September 16, 2001, and another titled "Confusing God and Government", delivered on April 13, 2003.
Wright was attacked for saying "God Damn America!" Candidate Obama was attacked for sitting in the pew when Wright delivered his sermon, although, IN FACT, Obama was not present.
I am a 70-year-old white Southerner, born and reared in Mississippi, educated in Southern Baptist Sunday School, now retired and living in Virginia. Reverend Wright was right. "God Damn America!"
Go below the squiggle for the rest.
To understand Wright's comments, one must first understand PROPHETIC PREACHING. It's no wonder that few people are familiar with prophetic preaching. After all, what passes for "preaching" in today's churches is patriotism, "praise," prosperity, and why a woman should not control her body. What, then, is prophetic preaching?
Prophetic preaching takes its name from the Old Testament prophets. Even though you may be an agnostic or atheist or some belief system other than Christianity, you no doubt are aware of the fact that the Christian Bible is divided into two sections -- the Old Testament and the New Testament. In simple terms, the dividing line is the birth and life of Jesus. The Old Testament is the history, legends, heroes, laws, and spiritual journey of the "Children of Israel" -- the Jews.
You know the Old Testament prophets -- Samuel, Ruth, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Amos, and the like.
First, let's dispel a common error: The Old Testament Prophets were NOT soothsayers or fortune tellers. You would not ask the Prophet Ezekiel which numbers to play in the Jerusalem lottery nor would you ask the Prophet Isaiah if there would be sufficient rain for your crops. Instead, the Old Testament prophets were powerful political and spiritual commentators.
The Old Testament prophets all preached the same four-part message.
1. You, the Children of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were chosen by God. You are His Chosen People. Because you are His Chosen People, he will protect you -- he will take you to a land flowing with milk and honey -- he will save you from your enemies -- he will cause your descendants to be as many as the sands of the sea and the stars in the sky.
2. In return for blessing and protecting you, he requires that you follow some simple rules: Have no other gods before me; honor your father and mother; do not lie, cheat, steal, murder; protect the widow, the orphan, the sick, the downtrodden. Or, as the Prophet Micah put it:
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
3. HOWEVER -- you, Oh, Children of Israel -- you have not kept your side of the bargain. God delivered you from Egypt. He led you for 40 years through the desert to a land flowing with milk and honey, feeding you and providing you with water, protecting you from your enemies. And what have you done? You have turned your back on him -- brought strange gods into your homes -- built mansions while the poor have to fight the dogs for scraps of food -- turned you backs on the downtrodden who beg for mercy.
4. Because you have not kept your side of the bargain, God Damn Israel!!! The wrath of God will be visited upon you -- you will be carried into captivity -- your wives and children will wail and walk about in sackcloth and ashes -- the dogs will lick your blood from the stones (those OT prophets had a way with words!!).
Does any of this sound familiar?
Let's us for a minute consider the most important part of our Constitution -- the Preamble. You know -- the part of the Constitution that no one reads. The Preamble is what we are all about; it is the foundation of this nation; this is the deal we made with ourselves, just as the Children of Israel made a deal with God. The rest of the Constitution is nothing but process. Here's the Preamble:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Got that? The Preamble states the six reasons we exist as a nation:
1. to form a more perfect union,
2. establish justice,
3. insure domestic tranquility,
4. provide for the common defense,
5. promote the general welfare, and
6. secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
Let's apply the Old Testament prophet test to our nation and see if we have remained true to our founding principles.
"to form a more perfect union"
Oh, really? Form a more perfect union while Governors, members of Congress, and state legislators of certain states assert their right to secede from the Union and to nullify the laws passed by Congress.
"establish justice"
Ferguson, Missouri? New York cops choke a man to death and walk away? We incarcerate a greater percentage of our citizens than any other nation? And most of them are dark-skinned and poor?
"insure domestic tranquility"
Armed "militias" rush to defend a lawbreaker and confront United States marshals with high-powered weapons? "Oath Keepers" vow not to obey lawful orders? "Sovereign citizens" claim they are not subject to any laws?
"provide for the common defense"
"We know where the WMD are." Wasting thousands of young men's lives to involve ourselves in someone else's civil war?
"promote the general welfare"
The wealthiest one percent of our population owns almost half the wealth in the country.
"secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"
My grandsons -- ages 7 and 4 -- will never know the middle-class prosperity I have enjoyed.
NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I SAY "GOD DAMN AMERICA?"
We need PROPHETIC POLITICIANS who will call us back to a rebirth of our fundamental reason for being. Just as the Old Testament prophets called the Children of Israel to repent and to uphold their end of the agreement with God, so should we return to our fundamental purpose. And if we don't . . . .
Suggested reading: "Where Have All The Prophets Gone?" by Reverend Marvin A. McMickle
Buy it here.
http://www.jmm.org.au/...