Let me first confess the sigh that I uttered walking past the upstairs and downstairs bookcases at our home. Hunting through hundreds of volumes for the two copies -- one that is Becca’s and one that is mine, both of us buying these before we were married nearly 3 decades ago-- and finding neither book here. At church, perhaps, but that I haven’t seen or referred to it such a long time is a bit of an embarrassment. The book I was searching for Black Liberation Theology[i] by James Cone who is now nearly ending his career as a distinguished professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. But the book was written in the fires of our nation's racial divide in the mid-1970s. It was radical and new and incredibly insightful, especially to those of us whites who could not get otherwise inside the minds of our black sisters and brothers. Dr. Cone’s perspective is at the core of the teaching and preaching of Rev. Wright. It is a sophisticated perspective that, if understood by more whites, might help bridge that still substantial divide.
The shock for me is to recognize that 30 years have gone by and that the reality has changed so little. So much of the drama that we are witnessing these days about the preaching of Barack Obama’s former minister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, does, indeed, flow from that same lack of comprehension.
A few days ago I was talking with one of the members of University Christian Church (in Austin) about Obama’s speech[ii] on race. I had another confession for that conversation. Even though I consider myself a hopeful person and understand that to be a part of the Christian message -- a deep abiding hope-- the words in Obama in his speech were strikingly more hopeful than mine -- at least most of the time. Obama said of Reverend Wright’s remarks, “they weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country -- a view that sees white racism[iii] as an endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America……as such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive.”
I went to look up the word endemic and after doing so, I cannot see how Obama makes his statement. Endemic: “natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place; native; indigenous.” [iv] White racism is such an inescapable aspect of American history that to say it is not endemic is beyond my comprehension. Especially so when the comment comes from a man who has experienced so much of that racism firsthand.
He obviously doesn’t claim the same Pollyanna view of Lou Dobbs who tonight (March 22) on his CNN show said that he’s sure 99% of the American population isn’t racist. I wish I had a chance to ask him what he meant by “racist.” If he means that whites aren’t out literally physically beating blacks as in the 60’s, I’ll agree. But my understanding of racism is the quiescent participation in a society where simply by virtue of my race I’m granted privileges, security, status, and opportunity that are not equally available to those of other races. If I am not actively resisting that system, if I continue to reap those benefits at the cost of others, I’m racist.
I don't know how this primary selection process will work its way out. And that's not the point. Whether or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama ends up being the nominee of the Democratic Party for the presidency in the election this fall, this fresh look at the issue of race in America -- painful as it may be -- certainly holds the potential of moving us closer to that “beloved community” that Dr. King envisioned[v].
Our denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has embraced an antiracism initiative as part of our denomination-wide Reconciliation Ministry. Even a brief introduction to the work has the potential to open our eyes to the endemic racism that characterizes the United States of America. Certainly we are not the only racist nation -- as racism infects virtually every collection of people near and far -- but I think a fairer look at our racial division compared, let us say, to other developed Western cultures will demonstrate that we have a long way to go even to approach the level of reconciliation that other developed countries have reached.
“But it's not about racism, pastor. We are talking about Reverend Wright’s the foul language and anti-American sentiments.”
I will agree that his language is jarring, and would be an inappropriate in the pulpit of University Christian Church in Austin, Texas, but from reports we are getting it clearly seems it is not to all that inappropriate for some black congregations around our nation. Dr. Wright's comments may sound extraordinary and inflammatory, but that may well just indicate white lack of cultural awareness.
We’ve just learned that our own Disciples seminary in Ft. Worth, Brite Divinity, in preparation for its 4th annual State of the Black Church Summit and Awards Banquet next week will continue to respect the decision of its selection committee months ago to honor Dr. Wright . They have posted a statement explaining their decision. What they don’t say, that I would add, is that by not knuckling under to the political pressure to avoid the conflict that their decision brings (which could be substantially damaging to the seminary), they are actively resisting another one of the dominant culture’s attempts to squelch an authentic, prophetic voice of the black church that obviously still does need to be heard. I applaud the courage of the Brite Board of Directors. See also Nancy J. Ramsay and Eugene Brice's Special to the Star-Telegram on this matter.
Regarding Wright’s condemnation of the policies of national and state governments and the nonpolitical, individual racist acts of white Americans, Reverend Wright’s comments are a clear and consistent perspective of many in the black community. We have only to look at the statistics that mark the difference between lifespan, health care access, educational achievement, incarceration rates, economic status, etc. that differentiate between the white community and the black community and the statistics alone should tell us that something's going on. By chance alone there is no way you could have and maintain such a wide divide. The old stereotypes of racial inferiority may have fallen by the wayside in the thinking of the average American white person, but how do you then explain the continuing chasm between black and white? Racism is institutionalized and it also exists outside of institutions and it still has tremendous sway in our thinking and in our actions.
Our denomination’s Reconciliation Ministry states, “The mission of reconciliation is to nurture the wholeness of the church by dismantling systemic racism and other oppressive structures towards becoming a church that demonstrates the True Community, Deep Christian Spirituality, and Passion for Justice. The ministry is accomplished through organizing, education, and advocacy.”
In the mid-1970’s Becca and I attended the United Church of Christ seminary in Chicago, Chicago Theological Seminary, next door to where Dr. Wright was studying at the University of Chicago Divinity School for his doctorate. While we had the luxury of white skin and were able to study a book about Black Liberation Theology in the comfort of our white seminary protected by the state of Illinois’ second largest police force (the University of Chicago campus police) making sure that the white educational enclave in which we resided was well protected from the overwhelmingly black ghetto surrounding, Reverend Wright was already serving a small 87 member congregation of Trinity United Church of Christ[vi] nearby. We read about the struggle. He lived it and led his people through it.
I have the highest regard for Reverend Wright and what he has accomplished in that fabulous ministry of a congregation that now numbers over 8000.[vii] But it is not the numbers that I celebrate. There are many other congregations of that size and larger who stand for a gospel that I don't find in my New Testament , that I don't see in the teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures prophets. But at Trinity United Church of Christ, in the ministries that they have developed, in the care they have provided for people of that community, and the educational programs that they have for their children and youth, in the inspiration of their worship, in their fruit, they have demonstrated a spirit that is faithful to the Gospel message being preached among and lived among an oppressed people within a society that marginalizes them, the very experience of the early Christians who contributed their experience of a saving God in the midst of an oppressive Roman empire.
Dr. Cone points out that In 1969, the theologian James Cone wrote Black Liberation Theology, the book that so influenced Jeremiah Wright. Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, sees a straight line from the rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr., through Wright to Obama himself. Indeed, in 1964, when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, King spoke movingly about -- what else? -- audacity and hope. "I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow...I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits." In Obama's rhetoric, "the fierce urgency of now comes from his church," explains Cone. "His emphasis on hope-hope has been the most dominant theme with black people because without hope you die. What that church represented for Obama is hope for black people." Cone sees in Obama a prophetic, King-like figure. " He represents what America wishes was true. I think the vast majority of Americans want a society without racial conflict and racial oppression. Obama strikes a note in that hope and that wish."
[ii]Obama’s speech is at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23690567/
[iii] Some of Wright’s detractors are calling him a racist. The definition of racism, from dictionary.com is , “
1.
a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2.
a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3.
hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
None of these of can be applied to Dr. Wright’s teaching and preaching. Even the newly focused on episodes fit none of these definitions.
[iv] From http://www.dictionary.com/
[v] E.J. Dionne in Another Angry Black Preacher, postedFriday, March 21, 2008 at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003021.htmlVietnam War at his own Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Feb. 4, 1968: "God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . . And we are criminals in that war. We've committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place." King then predicted this response from the Almighty: "And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power."
[vi] From Trinity UCC’s website Because…“We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian...our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and we remain “true to our native land”, the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation; and we constantly affirm our trust in God through the cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black community.”
(Trinity Website http://www.tucc.org/cfab_mstatement.html)
[vii] See writes,”Listen to what King said about the The Church of Contradictions: Why Obama's place of worship looks so different to different people. By Lisa Miller a
Newsweek Web Exclusive Updated: 6:02 PM ET Mar 18, 2008 at http://www.newsweek.com/id/124162/page/2
