The Black Church Is Not Being Attacked

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is attempting to hide behind a "wall of smoke" when he accuses the media of attacking the "Black Church." I have been in a "Black Church" on many occasions, and while it is customary to preach about social and political issues, I have never heard any preacher/minister spout the kind of venom I heard from the mouth of Reverend Wright.

The good Reverend and every Obama supporter I have seen address the issue refuses to acknowledge the impact of the Reverend's words. They talk about taking the words out of context, taking snippets of the sermon and running it in a constant loop, saying MLK spoke that way, the good work his church is doing, his service in the Marines, the fact that he is now retired, to name a few excuses being perpetuated, but they refuse to say "GD America" and the other explosive statements are wrong, divisive and hurtful. Instead, they, including the Senator himself, continue to defend the Reverend and lay the blame at the feet of others and the media rather at the feet of the man who spoke the words.

Reverend Wright's little redemption tour is nothing more than an attempt to put others on the defensive in an effort to deflect from his incendiary comments. What is at issue is his criticism of America's foreign policy positions, and its history of racism and has NOTHING to do with an attack on the Black Church. He claims his church is part of a white denomination in one breath, then in another claims there is an attack on Black Theology. No one I have heard discuss his comments have attacked the "Black Church" as he has claimed. What has happened is an analysis of his remarks, his 20 year relationship with Barack Obama and how this relationship has shaped Obama's beliefs. No one is talking about his Mama, his daddy, or his grandmother's religion has he has suggested. That is just a bald-faced lie.

Reverend Wright seems to relish the media attention he is getting, even as he criticises the media for parsing his words. He was just preening and dancing like a pugilist in a boxing ring. As a matter of fact, there no difference in his demeanor from what America saw in the "snippets" and what we saw today. In fact, his performance reinforced the opinions that have been drawn about him, and he did nothing to dispel the negative impressions about him. In fact, Reverend Wright seems hell bent on embarrassing Obama. He has basically characterized Obama as a say-anything-do-anything politician that says what he has to to get elected, the very criticism that Obama has of Hillary Clinton! Essentially, he is saying Obama is not being true to what he actually believes. The good Reverend seems to want the destruction of Obama's campaign because he is further alienating the very constituency Obama so desperately needs. This "performance" makes it less likely that Obama will ever convince these voters to support him and as such, his prospect of getting the nomination just took a serious turn, despite having a delegate lead. If he is unelectable, a delegate lead will not matter because the Democratic Party insiders is not going to risk losing the Presidency and other local races because of this controversy. I suspect that Wright is doing these speeches to intimidate white America, daring them not to vote for Obama, and the Democratic party in particular, if Superdelegates choose to give the nomination to Hillary Clinton. What is ominous is the sense that a message is being sent that Blacks will cause trouble if/when Hillary gets the nomination if the calculation is made that Obama can't get white middle class votes.