I am not a religious man, but I understand the way that one’s pastor, or rabbi, or priest, or anything - can become a part of your family. And I can understand being selective in what you agree or disagree with regarding the advice they give - the same way I understand how to listen without agreeing to a family member or friend who imparts mis-aligned wisdom around the holidays or whatever.
Barack Obama, has in his life, a person who is politically dangerous… this pastor, Reverend Wright who goes off occasionally and sounds a little crazy too. I cringe whenever someone mentions his name. And I do agree that Afro-Centric Christianity has both benefits and detriments. To hear Wright declare "God Damn America" for whatever sins we have perpetrated - I first disagree, then get a little pissed, then worry about the effect on Barack. But I temper that concern with the memory of the goose bumps I got when I read Dreams Of My Father and realized how the entire idea of Hope was born to Obama in a single sermon at the very beginning of what became a new more spiritual life, and indeed it was a Reverend Wright sermon.
And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of the ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had been spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until the black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.
And let me tell you, if there is one thing I do worship, it is Ideas - the origins of Ideas - and this grand idea that shaped Barack Obama’s life, that has in turn shaped my life and the lives of millions of others, and perhaps exponentially more - was born in that church on the South Side of Chicago, and this pastor and all his baggage was a part of it’s birth. And I am grateful for that.
I often say of family and old friends, that the great thing about them is that you and them don’t really have a choice but to put up with each other, that faults must be accepted and worked through. That an old friend at some point can be an asshole to you of all people, and that’s ok, because you won’t let them shake free that easy. The eccentric family member no one else likes, you need to keep trying to get to know them just better enough, to mine whatever connection you can find, on nothing other the principle of family. Sometimes the people that are important in your life weren’t choices that you made - but yet there they still are, and you have to appreciate them as is.
And so my point is that this Wright character, and he is a character, can really harm Obama now and in the general. But the way Barack has responded to this situation just makes me respect and admire him even more. Because Obama can take his name off some honorary list - make sure there is no official connection - but he will not repudiate the man himself. He will not promise to stop talking to him or tell the world he has suddenly seen the (Fox News) light, and now understands this character is something vile to be rejected after the fact. He won’t quit the only church he has known in his spiritual life and go someplace safer for the public to consume. Instead Obama compromises: I take the good with the bad, the good maybe is worth the bad - and he will not jettison family so he can be more easily elected President of the United States.
Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he’s been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.
The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation. When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.
Amen.
And hell, maybe a few people will finally realize he isn’t a Muslim after this all hashes out.
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