Reverend Wright, Part 2

Let’s get back to talking about Reverend Wright, Black Liberation Theology and Barack Obama.

Black Liberation Theology (BLT) was born in the turbulent 60s when blacks were either following MLK to change things peacefully or Malcolm X to change things not so peacefully.

The theology combined Christianity with politics and preached activism against the oppressors (whites). Yes, it talked about personal salvation but combined with issues like political social justice.

On the Christianity side as I have mentioned before, they saw Jesus as coming to earth to liberate his people from oppression. They site New Testament passages like Luke 4:18, Mathew 25:31 and John 3:16; “…to release the oppressed…”, “…he will sit on his throne…”, “For God so loved the world…” These blacks see themselves as His (Jesus’ / God’s) people and are doing God’s work.

The preachers see themselves as Old Testament “prophets” whose mission is to warn the people about their sinning and the repercussions to come if they don’t change their ways BUT also as the Old Testament prophets who preached to “nations” to mend their ways. So when we heard him say “…damn America…” he was only doing what these prophets do; they damn people and nations when they are doing wrong. This really put things in perspective for me.

But back to Jeremiah Wright. He probably should have stayed quiet and out of the public’s eye. He was mad that people did not understand him and called him unpatriotic. His interview with Bill Moyers on Public TV gave him the opportunity to explain himself and he did BUT…

The idiots at the Detroit NAACP invited him to give a speech at their biggest gathering. His speech was OK, it was about being different but not deficient where some of his ideas and comments were, how should I put it, not very smart.

BUT then he went to Washington, DC in front of the National Press Club where he answered questions and where more “not too smart things” came out like the U.S. Government inventing AIDS to kill black people.

Rev. Wright has been a preacher / pastor for over 35 years and built up a very large congregation that did and does many great and charitable things. These people came for a reason and stayed and their reason was what Rev. Wright preached so we cannot condemn the man for a few unfortunate words and maybe a few totally stupid beliefs BUT…

In the end, he was not smart enough to just shut-up. He let the limelight get to him and he grew arrogant and yes, divisive.



His legacy after 35 years will be a historical footnote about how he became a negative issue in the presidential candidacy of the first African-American candidate with a realistic chance of attaining the office.

The great irony here is that through 35 years of trying to help blacks throw off their oppression and become equal participants in the American society, he compromises the chance for a black man to govern over that very society.