Sunday, March 23, 2008

Reverend Jeremiah Wright in Context

Not surprisingly, much of what you have seen of Barack Obama's pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, has been taken out of context, which is horrible considering that most of his sermons are taped. There has been some very selective editing and some convenient "forgetting" to mention context.

This clip contains the "chickens coming home to roost" sound bite that has been all over the news, especially a certain Faux network.

The problem is that the sermon is anti-war and anti-violence. His point is that "violence begets violence, hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism." More to the point, if you pay attention, he was quoting Ambassador Edward Peck.

He was questioning what our response should have been (the video only shows one answer of three -- self-examination of one's own relationship with God).



Here is another sermon that has been taken out of context in the media. This clip contains the "God damn America" clip that is part of a much larger sermon focused on the plight of Black people in America, the unchanging nature of God's truth, and His loving divinity. God has always been a God of love -- and God does not change. His point is that the American government does change, and America has not showed that same unchanging love for Americans of African descent.



I don't agree with the vehemence of his stance, but I support his freedom to say it. And I don't think he is totally wrong. But partial truths can be dangerous.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

A lot of white Americans are going to have a huge problem with Pastor Wright when the Republicans make him an issue in the general election.

I understand that the context of what he says helps, but I doubt it will help enough. It is going to be hard for white Americans to vote for Obama when his preacher seems to be attacking them, rather directly.

This will be the Republicans Swiftboat attack. Obama will need yet mightier, loftier words to beat back the storm that will be coming late this summer and in the fall.

Anonymous said...

I fail to see the significance of showing this video in entirety. Bottom line: He's saying that America is as bad as the enemy. That we have no right to be indignant for the 9/11 attacks because we brought it upon ourselves. "Our chickens are coming home to roost?!? Second of all: Did we just bomb Khaddafi for no reason? Or did we attack him because he supported a hijack which killed Americans. Did we just attack Saddam in the Gulf War for no reason? And how many civilians did we kill in the Gulf war? Violence begets violence?! Really? So we shouldn't have defended Kuwait because violence begets or we shouldn't have established a base in Saudia Arabio for our interests because violence begets violence? Try to filter out this twisted logic, for it is false logic which crackpots propogate!

And what about his claim that the white government created the aids virus to infect African Americans?

And how about this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnI431s1r6s

Sorry, the man is just no good!