Two weeks ago, I wrote an essay entitled The Case for Black Theology. Since that time a firestorm has erupted regarding snippets of sermons preached from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, by the retired pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Dr. Wright is credited by presidential candidate Sen. Barak Obama with "bringing" him to Christ. He officiated Sen. and Mrs. Obama's wedding, as well as oversaw the dedication of their daughters. Thirty-six years ago, Wright was called to a small church on the south side of Chicago that was struggling for survival. Today, Trinity is the largest and most vibrant congregation in the UCC with a membership somewhere between 8,500 and 10,000. Some of the most influential people in Chicago worship at Trinity. And many pastors young and old, look to Rev. Wright as a mentor. There are other ethnicities that are members of Trinity, but it is overwhelmingly African American. And not only is the worship liturgy Afro-centric in nature, but the theology is African centered as well. As I said two weeks ago, all theology comes out of a particular culture. The point is that no political pundit bats an eye when that theology is white in nature.
If there was something wrong with a plurality of cultures and communities, then we would not have four gospels that speak to different communities, both Jew and gentile. If practicing your theology within the context of your culture is wrong, then the Greek Orthodox, the Syrian Orthodox, the Russian Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox, Egyptian Coptic, Polish Catholic, Irish Catholic and many other churches are wrong.
American society has always been fearful of a strong and vibrant Black Church. All other Black leadership is beholden at least in part, to those outside of their community for financial solvency. For years, the Black pastor has been the emancipated leader in the Black community because whites could not fire him. It is precisely Rev. Wrights appeal to so many in the African American community, those numbers, that freedom, that voice, that frightens so many whites today. Chris Matthews said last week that Rev. Wrights "rhetoric scared the hell out of whites". I doubt it.
The national cable networks, led by Fox, and echoed by MSNBC have consistently played sound bites of sermons and immediately began to misinterpret both the context and the content therein. Every member of a Black church knows that the meat and often the point of the sermon happen before the celebration at the end of the sermon. Quite honestly, if all that one paid attention to in the sermon was the celebration, then all that we would know about Jesus was that "early that Sunday morning, he got up, with all power in his hands!" No "Sermon on the Mount", no parable, no compassion, just "he got up".
Jeremiah Wright is very capable of defending himself, so that it not what I am trying to do here. But I do want to lift up the hypocrisy that plagues our political culture that criticizes Black people for doing the same thing that every other ethnicity in the US does. Every ethnicity votes for those that are like them, buy from those that are like them and support those that are like them. Why is it, that the only time that it becomes the subject for political discourse is when the group happens to be African Americans?
We may call God the same thing, but there is a fundamental difference between Black theology and Euro-American theology. There are even various degrees of Black theology. The foundation of African American theology is the syncretism of Africanisms, slave theology and white Christianity. The independent Black churches of the south, particular Baptist congregations maintain that legacy. You then have the independent Black denominations i.e. the African Methodist Episcopal Church that separated from larger white bodies to form their own fellowships. They were independent, but as church historian E. Franklin Frazier wrote in his classic The Negro Church in America, in 1816 when Richard Allen was elected bishop, the church adopted a book of discipline "which embodied the same articles of religion and rules as the Wesleyans", the white Methodists. Then there are those fellowships that formed and remain within larger white bodies, like the National Christian Missionary Convention within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
All manifestations of the Black church were changed during the Civil Rights movement and the birth of Black Liberation Theology in the late 1960's. Many begin to see the need to define and articulate theology themselves instead of have it dictated to them by others. They were also awakened to the universality of the struggle of African Americans, Black South Africans, Palestinians, Asian and South American brothers and sisters.
Pastor Wright embraced, as many others, myself included, Professor James Cones' paradigm shifting magnum opus A Black Theology of Liberation. This work showed that you could be, as Trinity's motto says, "Unapologetically Christian and Unashamedly Black". I mentioned above some of the various ethnic theologies operating in our world today, but one of the greatest misconceptions is that most white congregations and many Black ones as well, are not operating from a certain social, cultural and political view that is based in the Euro-American model.
There appears to be a need by some whites to erase any vestige of non white theological discourse. I often use this example. My wife wears glasses with a prescription that is designed especially for her; that meets the needs of her ocular deficiency. The point is that those are her glasses, designed for her. If I wear my wife's glasses, then my vision is so obscured that in fact it affectively blinds me. Not only is there a need for an authentic African American theological expression, not only is it the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. Our liberation will not come from a theology based in myth, pseudo-science and racism that justified the enslavement of our ancestors.
The truth is that this never would have been an issue without the desperation of political operatives and the compulsive behavior of certain members of the national media who are obsessed with knocking down the model of the "ideal Negro" that they, not too long ago helped prop up. He was not a "race hustler" or a high profile figure in traditional Civil Rights circles. His major connection with the African American mainstream was in fact his church. His bi-racial heritage was not some albatross around his neck, in fact, it was a badge of courage. His life, in many ways has been the embodiment of the so-called American dream.
Even though many well known white evangelicals espouse theology that is rife with status quo politics, and even though Jeremiah Wright has preached prophetic poetry from the pulpit of Trinity for over thirty years, because he happened to be Obama's pastor, a lifetime of preaching, teaching and ministry are being assailed by every talking head on cable television.
If Obama, the "ideal Negro", cannot run a race with integrity and hope without being torpedoed by this insanity, then what hope is it for the rest of us? If political operatives and the main stream media refuse to allow this Black man (Obama) to be judged solely on his ideas, and not by non-issues and the politics of distraction, then how can I, in good conscience tell my 14 year old son and my 11 year old daughter that in this nation, their nation, they can be anything that they aspire to be - even President of the United States?
What is often lost in the sound bite shuffle is that so many in our community, after hearing these clips wonder, "Where did Rev. Wright lie?" There is a difference between a lie, and indignation that someone told the truth. So I ask you, has Hillary ever been called "a n@@##r"? Have taxi's ever passed her by because of the color of her skin? Is it not true that we dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Were not we one of the strongest allies of South Africa at the height of Apartheid, and steadfastly refused to sanction that evil and oppressive government as it slaughtered and enslaved millions of Black South Africans? Without question, we are the number one ally of the state of Israel, a government whose domestic policies regarding Palestinians out paces even that of South Africa according to Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and former President Jimmy Carter. Where did pastor Wright lie?
Without question, our nation is more comfortable with the Gospel of Ignorance than with truth. But, there is a difference between telling a lie, and telling a truth that you just don't want to hear. In the bitterness of this political season, truth appears to be the ultimate casualty.
