Rev. Jeremiah Wright Appears On PBS’ ‘Bill Moyers Journal’
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright tells PBS’ Bill Moyers that snippets from his sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ, on the South Side, have been taken out of context and offer a faulty picture of his views.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright tells PBS’ Bill Moyers that snippets from his sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ, on the South Side, have been taken out of context and offer a faulty picture of his views.
“I think they want to communicate that I am unpatriotic,” Wright says in the interview for “Bill Moyers Journal.”
The show will air at 9:30 Friday on WTTW-Channel 11.
Obama has distanced himself from Wright since video clips surfaced last month of sermons in which Wright blamed American foreign policy for contributing to the attacks on the World Trade Center. In one clip, Wright says, “God bless America? No, God damn America!”
Four brief excerpts from the interview:
Excerpt 1
Rev. Jeremiah Wright: “The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly. When something is taken like a soundbite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that’s not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or, as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a ‘wackadoodle.’
“It’s to paint me as something: ‘Something’s wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with this country . . . for its policies. We’re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them.’ That’s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the soundbites is exactly what those pushing those soundbites want to communicate.”
Moyers: “What do you think they wanted to communicate?”
Wright: “I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And, by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That’s what they wanted to communicate.
“They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison ministry. They know nothing about our food ministry. They know nothing about our senior citizens home. They know nothing about all we try to do as a church, and have tried to do, and still continue to do as a church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to be together. And that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning, but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.”
Moyers: “What did you think when you began to see those very brief soundbites circulating as they did?”
Wright: “I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious reasons.”
Excerpt 2
Moyers: “Did you ever imagine that you would come to personify the black anger that so many whites fear?”
Wright: “No. I did not. I’ve been preaching since I was ordained 41 years ago. I pointed out to some of the persons in Chicago who are in all of this, new to them that the stance I took in standing against apartheid along with our denomination back in the ’70s, and putting a ‘Free South Africa’ sign in front of the church, put me at odds with the government.
“Our denomination’s defense of the Wilmington 10 and Ben Chavis put me at odds with the establishment. So being at odds with policies is nothing new to me.
“The blowup and the blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years ago and now becoming a media event, not the full sermon, but the snippets from the sermon and soundbite having made me the target of hatred, yes, that is something very new and something very, very unsettling.”
Excerpt 3
Moyers: “Here is a man who came to see you 20 years ago. Wanted to know about the neighborhood. Barack Obama was a skeptic when it came to religion. He sought you out because he knew you knew about the community. You led him to the faith.
“You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet, he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about you. . . . How did it go down with you when you heard Barack Obama say those things?”
Wright: “It went down very simply. He’s a politician, I’m a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they’re two different worlds. I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in Philadelphia where he had to respond to the soundbites, he responded as a politician.”
Excerpt 4
Moyers: “In the 20 years that you’ve been his pastor, have you ever heard him repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?”
Wright: “No. No. No. Absolutely not. I don’t talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.”
© 2008 The Chicago Sun-Times
All the coverage of this in major media leaves out the most salient argument against their handling of “Wrightgate”…
Rev. Jeremiah Wright: “The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly. When something is taken like a soundbite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that’s not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or, as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a ‘wackadoodle.’
“It’s to paint me as something: ‘Something’s wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with this country . . . for its policies. We’re perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them.’ That’s not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the soundbites is exactly what those pushing those soundbites want to communicate.”
Moyers: “What do you think they wanted to communicate?”
Wright: “I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ. And, by the way, guess who goes to his church, hint, hint, hint? That’s what they wanted to communicate.
“They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison ministry. They know nothing about our food ministry. They know nothing about our senior citizens home. They know nothing about all we try to do as a church, and have tried to do, and still continue to do as a church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to be together. And that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning, but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.”
Corporate Media = Propaganda
This is one of those things that should never, ever have been touched by PBS, signaling that perhaps we now have a more politically-controlled PBS than we should have.
(Hardly a surprise after 7 years of the wrong administration, I guess.)
But Rev. Jeremiah Wright is not a “public” figure except as paraded by one party for the race-bait benefit of one party.
The goal now is to paint McCain as either a flat-out liar about his efforts to get “Wright” ads pulled from TV in North Carolina (and everywhere else) , or as an ineffective old stooge so disrespected by his own party that he cannot control “anything.”
I’m looking forward to seeing this. Bill Moyers usually conducts his interviews very thoughtfully, so I have high expectations for tonight’s program.
The Wright “controversy” seems so farcical, despite the efforts of a whole cadre of people (media pundits, political surrogates, etc.) to make it into an important “issue.”
After all, abolitionist minister William Lloyd Garrison set fire to the U.S. Constitution at a Fourth of July rally in 1854, famously calling it “a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell.” As the flames reduced it to ash he proclaimed, “So perish all compromises with tyranny!”
That’s the mid-19th century equivalent of “God damn America!” (and on the nation’s “birthday” no less!)
I can only imagine how some of our contemporary politicians would have reacted had they been present for Garrison’s rally.
DD,
I can’t entirely agree with your assessment that Wright is being made into a public figure by one party “for the race-bait benefit of one party.”
Senator Clinton has also paraded Wright around at various points in the campaign in order to increase her own chances of winning the nomination. In fact, she did it nine days ago in the ABC “debate.”
So it isn’t accurate, strictly speaking, to claim that the Wright “controversy” is being exploited for political purposes by only one party.
No one watches PBS, so how is this going to affect public opinion? Of course, there isn’t another show he could go on that would attempt to be fair–Stephanopoulus and Russert have proven that time after time–so if it’s PBS or nothing…
I hope Reverend Wright’s interview embarrasses the hell out of the Corporate Media, Billary, Johny Bomb Bomb, and the like.
Moyers: “What did you think when you began to see those very brief soundbites circulating as they did?”
tough journalism there, Mr. Moyers. those “very brief soundbites”. I hope the extended interview is the type of vigilant journalism Moyers and his show (rightfully) engage in with Right Wingers, corporate apologists and the like. But it looks like a spin piece, so far.
Thing is, Rev Wright said some messed up stuff. Guy is longtime pastor to leading candidate for Dem nomination. This is all newsworthy and the Rev’s explaining that Obama is just doing what politicians do only makes matters worse (for Obama, I think).
Now, the Dems need to run some ads with Robertson and Falwell talking about U.S.A bringing 9-11 onto ourselves (clips are out there) with our “evil” behavior (abortion, gay marriage, etc), and then jump back and forth to shots of McCain with those two and McCain saying how he supports them and such.
But Obama’s whining and his former minister’s non-denials don’t help get the Republicans out of the white house.
You don’t have to like Wright, but he didn’t say(on behalf of himself) what he was given credit for. It was taken out of context by Fox News and attributed to Wright.
FOX Lies!! Irresponsible Media! Barack Obama Pastor Wright… (From: What Really Happened website)
Fox news doctored and falsified the video of Obama’s pastor Wright. Wright did not preach those words himself. He was quoting a White Man.; Ambassador Edward Peck. And he is a retired, white, career U.S. diplomat who served 32-years in the U.S. Foreign Service and was chief of the U.S.mission to Iraq under Jimmy Carter. The complete video below will show that Pastor Wright is telling his audience that “I will tell you what a white man named Ambassador Peck said”. And then he will quote Mr. Peck. And he ends by reminding his congregation “A white man said this, I didn’t say it”. Fox didn’t show that because they wanted people to think it came from Pastor Wright.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdlnzkeoyQ&feature=related
There were a couple of sermons on this site by Wright…I really can’t see him preaching racism. He spoke of many races in the two I watched, not just blacks.
I would say that any thinking person would always take words out of Fox with a mountain of salt. Even Michelle Obama’s words were parsed, making her look “anti-American.”
Many many people watch PBS.
Fox and the other sycophants are the real “anti-Americans.”
I watch PBS.
Perhaps this is the best thing to happen to the Obama campaign. Now people know he isn’t a…gasp…muslim!
As for Wright’s comments, who says he was wrong in what he said?
For all this talk about “anti-american”, I would argue that the current state of the country DEMANDS that we all be anti-American. Until the United States becomes a country that you can be proud of, that you can respect, that you can admire, you should NOT support it in any way. If you keep on with your flag-waving and your faux patriotism, you’re no better than the fascists.
In our former city, we belonged to a United Church of Christ church. As a church, they are heavily steeped in helping others through good works and being activists for change, whether it be helping migrant workers or yelling about policies that keep people down. It is an inclusive church.
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
Malcolm X
“All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.”
William Bernbach
“All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values”
Marshall McLuhan
“The media tends to report rumors, speculations, and projections as facts… How does the media do this? By quoting some “expert”… you can always find some expert who will say something hopelessly hopeless about anything.”
Peter McWilliams
“The media’s power is frail. Without the people’s support, it can be shut off with the ease of turning a light switch.”
Corazon Aquino
Daniel David (11:45 am) writes, “This is one of those things that should never, ever have been touched by PBS, signaling that perhaps we now have a more politically-controlled PBS than we should have. (Hardly a surprise after 7 years of the wrong administration, I guess.)…”
- Why the hell shouldn’t PBS examine this? All indications are that Wright was portrayed wrongly; that his remarks were distorted & taken out of context. You are saying that someone with Bill Moyers’ track record shouldn’t be allowed to try to rectify this?
Note that DD, the arch defender of Democrats, really does believe in censoring the media for political purposes.
Will they do a profile on McCain’s firebrand as well?
The United Church of Christ is one of the few religious organizations that can be trusted. It’s message is one of peace and love rather than what you need to know to get into heaven.
Rich M,
Agreed!
Mr. David’s call for PBS’s self-censorship is vile. I agree with everything Rev. Wright has said - even before I listened to the full context.
Sorry to say, but after an neighborhood-by-neighborhood analysis of how Obama did here in Pittsburgh, thing’s don’t look good for the general election. Obama is excatly the three things the downwardly mobile white working class majority in the US hates - black, “foreign” name, and a Wall-Street-loving yuppie - all wrapped in one!
You rich, Wall Street Democrats kicked Edwards and Kucinich out of the race, because that were insufficuetly pro-business. So, it looks like you will get the nicely pro-business McCain as our next president come November.
…
Rev. Wright’s comments about US foreign policy are pretty standard fare for anyone concerned with US history. His opinions are debatable but reasonable: Wright believes the US government plays a dangerously provocative role in the world. Even honest neoconservatives who still advocate imperialism would have to admit (especially after the last 7 years) that invading foreign countries, overthrowing governments and the like will not come without a price.
Wright said it best — the folks who think his comments are “unpatriotic” are willfully unhistorical.
Trouble is, these are the same folks who think that any generalization (accurate or not) made about someone like them is, by definition, condescending and elitist.
As for the comment that Obama is a politician. Yeah, that does seem to invite more anti-Obama spin. However, who doesn’t know that ALL politicians are practitioners of demagoguery, doublespeak, evasion and prevarication? Who doesn’t know that personal loyalty takes a back seat to ambition?
I watch PBS as well, and make a point to watch Bill Moyers, as well as NOW with David Broncochio (sp?). I know many people who watch both. Thanks Bill Moyers for his excellent interviews and for setting the record straight on this matter. And shame on the rest of the media (and Hillary Clinton) for reducing the race to mud slinging back street kick in the face vile “swift boating” tactics. Seems that’s all the elections are reduced to these days.
After seeing an article commending one of Mr. Wright’s sermons, I finally downloaded the subject video and watched it. Of course, I’m white; and maybe I’m even more open-minded than most of “my” race tends to be (which is not to “our” credit), but I’ll tell you this, not only were the ostensibly “bad” parts taken *completely* out of context… in his fine sermon Mr. Wright, in saying the things which so many were casually objecting to (including Hillary Clinton, to her great discredit)… Mr. Wright is during those phases of the sermon reciting the parts of evil players which his sermon against reckless violence is against.
In other words, Reverend Wright, like most Americans and like any reverend *should*, was standing against the Iraq war, telling of chickens coming home to roost; and so those who are so actively condemning Mr. Wright were condemning him for the very role his sermon stood against.
It’s entirely irresponsible and wicked therefore to condemn Mr. Wright for it.
What I don’t understand then, is what Mr. Obama apologized for.
But still, I think we should return to the real matters at hand.
If it is impossible to maintain a privatized circulation (subject to interest) but by re-borrowing whatever we pay against principal and interest as subsequent debts, increased so much as periodic interest… then our false “economy” can only fail; and “money” cannot be the representation of wealth most any person among us intends for it to be.
So if you are really concerned about the economy, you will be concerned that none of the candidates before us has the slightest evident inclination to adopt “mathematically perfected economy,” even as Mr. Obama says “We are the ones who we have been waiting for.”
This is a critical public election, and I don’t doubt for a moment that you can attend Mr. Wright’s church and find him doing his and others’ best to teach the gospel — something the rest of us here are quite guilty of ignoring.
Rev. Wright quit college to join the Marines during Viet Nam war. As a private. He then joined the Navy and became a medic. He was top of his class. He was one of the personnel to take care of President Johnson during his heart problem and received two (2) commendations from the White House.
Of course Chaney had 5 defirments because quote, “I had better things to do.”
Idiot George as we all know joined the air reserve and never finished…..it was called AWOL for more who did that. But daddy again took care it.
The madmen media can’t leave this alone but don’t ask them to look into the story and do some work……no, no, no just take the sound bites and run, run, run.
Those SOB’s are killing this country. I won’t watch TV anymore because they lie, lie, lie.
Also we should from now on call the so-called “news” what it is “spin, spin, spin.
Amen, camus13; and thanks for the relevant background. I frankly think this is just about as ugly as ugly gets; but then again, we probably ought to know better. Thanks to Bill Moyers, Common Dreams, and Mike Thomas for turning on the standard. I don’t watch TV either.
Some quotes
The first casualty when war comes is the truth. ~Sen. Hiram Johnson
“My country right or wrong” is like saying, “My mother drunk or sober.” ~G. K. Chesterton
Only the winners decide what were war crimes. ~Gary Wills
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything. ~Alexander Hamilton
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. ~Plato
I believe in only one thing: liberty; but I do not believe in liberty enough to want to force it upon anyone. ~H. L. Mencken
The coward threatens when he is safe. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Benjamin Franklin
I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit. ~Thucydides
The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous. ~Frederick Douglass
It is far easier to make war than peace. ~Georges Clemenceau
We have guided missiles and misguided men. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
“There must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will.”– Frederick Douglass 1857
“The Patriot Act followed 9-11 as smoothly as the suspension of the Weimar constitution followed the Reichstag fire.”– Srdja Trifkovic
“Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Our enemies…never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. ~George W. Bush
“Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed. Silence comforts the tormenter, never the tormented.”– Elie Wiesel
Imagine. ~ John Lennon
To Rotogroover who said:
“Thing is, Rev Wright said some messed up stuff. Guy is longtime pastor to leading candidate for Dem nomination. This is all newsworthy and the Rev’s explaining that Obama is just doing what politicians do only makes matters worse (for Obama, I think).”
I have a lot of experience with Rev. J. Wright. He has spoken at my church on many occasions as he came every year for about 10-12 years in a row to speak at a 5-day revival. So I have heard him preach at least 25 times.
It’s VERY interesting that people who perhaps have no experience of hearing him firsthand have so many assessments. Let me just say this. Dr. Wright ( he has an EARNED Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, ironically the same U Chicago as Milton Friedman) preaches what’s called liberation theology.
I read a book of his once that pays great homage to Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated for his human rights work in El Salvdor. This is who J. Wright has been influenced by. The fact that he said “those words”(repeated them from Edward Peck by the way) is not surprising. He is an advocate for truth.
Many people cannot handle the truth because sometimes it hurts and that’s okay. Some are not ready to unplug their brains from the MATRIX. Maybe in time, they’ll be ready but for now, the voices crying out in the wilderness must continue to do what they have been called to do. If somehow that hurts Obama in the GE then so be it. Now I’m beginning to think that perhaps this nation doesn’t deserve a leader that will tell you the truth. Perhaps lies are all we can handle. Therefore you get the government you deserve.
Maybe when we’ve all grown up, we can truly listen and make rational judgements and not allow ourselves to “major in minors”.
“But let a man examine himself….” I Corinthians 11:28
The Wright brouhaha can only have a negative effect (towards Obama) in the minds of ignorant, stupid, vacillating hypocrites and borderline racists.
It can have a positive effect in showing how blacks speak when alone–OH, how i’d like to be a fly on the wall of the Bush Administration, or the Kissinger/Nixon consultations. Go listen to some of those old Nixon tapes. And those McCain/Hagee chats. Or the ones Cheney must be having with Scaife and Prince Bandar and Rummie:
“Whoops, Saddam tossed the nerve gas on the Kurds instead of on Iran! Oh well, those hajis get uppity too…”
I mean, America has been officially evil in the eyes of much of the world since WWII. So god might damn America. Since our 5% of the world is using 25% of the resources, we have the the wherewithall and the assets and the profits already, but our official actions are still after more. We are due for a grand comeuppance, like Rome. Or any empire. Only ours may be accelerated due to the fast pace of modern evolution. It’s a smaller, faster-moving world these days. Whole cities can disappear with the push of a button. 285 million cell phones in ten years. The loss of the artic ice cap within five.
So “America” has a lot of maturing to get through before it can save the world, or before it should even try.
First: We need to be good.
I want to know when we’re going to see equal time on Hillary’s spiritual advisor,Doug Coe, leader of “The Fellowship” or “The Family”. (See “Hillary’s Nasty Pastorate”,The Nation, Mar. 20, 2008.)
Then let’s showcase McCain’s sought-after endorsement from that hate-monger, John Hagee of San Antonio, TX, who just this week reiterated that the people of New Orleans were destroyed “by God” (Katrina) because the City had a gay pride parade scheduled for the next day. Hagee has called the Catholic Church the great whore. And McCain gets double duty. How about Rod Parsley, whom McCain calls his “spiritual guide”. Rev. Parsley believes that America “was founded to destroy Islam”. (See AlterNet for both Hagee and Parsley, http://www.alternet.org/blogs/election08/80253).
I’d like to see some effing equal opportunity here, folks. It seems to me, if we’re going to use the template that a person is responsible for the beliefs and the statements of their ’spiritual guides’ or their ministers, then that template should be administered across the board for all the candidates AND WITH EQUAL VIGOR. I’d like to see this done by a journalist who has the guts to stay on-subject and not back down every time they see McCain’s ire flicker or Hillary butt in with a diversionary non-answer. That goes for TV ads, too. Something like “Hate Points of Hagee” would be a nice McCain ad.
I fell for the spin about Rev. Wright prompted by the short clip repeated over and over out of the context of his sermon and attributing to him the “God damn America” which was actually said by US Ambassador Peck - a white man. The entire segment of Wright’s sermon made clear the immorality of violence and the necessity for each of us to look deeply into our spiritual life as our country experiences the results of violent hatred directed toward us and to ask: How have our actions been a part of creating this horror? I am ashamed at my initial, unjustified anger at Rev. Wright whose message was just the opposite of the spun clip from his sermon. What he said was that hate feeds upon itself and becomes even more hateful and that we have become caught in that web of hatred. His message equaled the intensity, passion and spiritual depth of Martin Luther King speaking in a time of hatred and horror, calling us all to open our hearts and minds and actions of liberating, demanding, saving love. Everyone must listen to the entire sermon of Rev. Wright before making any judgement.
i’d vote for reverend wright long before i’d vote for obama, who apparently learned nothing from the rev…
he certainly didn’t learn to be the politcal weasel he became from listening to the rev’s sermons…if he listened at all.
fs
The so-called “Wright controversy” is entirely trumped up by the reactionary establishment (both Democrat and Republican of course) in the the United States who will do anything to try to stop the United States from evolving from the Big Plantation model (all advantage to the rich, scraps for the rest) into a social democratic model such as was adopted in Europe, Canada, etc. decades ago. The reactionaries who control this country suffered a major fright during the protest era of the 60’s and 70’s and have now figured out how to stay in power by using the Big Lie and Big Fear to control the American people. There is no real possibility for any progressive to gain power in the United States. You may as well forget about it unless the larger mass of Americans somehow awakens from its mesmerized state and realizes how it has been manipulated for years.
Time for REVOLUTION
The Rev Wright is Right.
In developmental psychology it is well known that we human beings begin to figure out the law of cause and effect in human relationships as early as 18 months old. A toddler knows that if he or she hits or bites someone, they may hit or bite you back, or get mad. Anyone who hears the whole sermon about US policies of violence and gets upset is in a trance that denies the law of cause and effect—the same one we learn as toddlers. That is what “chickens coming home to roost” is about, or the law of Karma, or cause and effect. Such denial of US policies and their likely effect (people sometimes hit back) is a state of nationalistic delusion—a trance like the one Leo Tolstoy wrote about in The Kingdom of God is Within You. Tolstoy said that the nation state gets its gullible citizens to suspend their consciences with regard to state-based murder and torture. This book helped to transform Gandhi’s thinking. THAT is what Rev. Wright, and Ward Churchill, and Noam Chomsky, and many, many writers at CommonDreams are confronting—a trance state of delusion. It is to Bill Moyer’s credit that he did the long interview with Wright. Sadly, Barack Obama is one of the ones who resists supporting Rev. Wrights statements that illegal, immoral US policies continue to harm others in the millions and also harm us though the resulting blowback.
frankscott April 25th, 2008 7:35 pm
“i’d vote for reverend wright long before i’d vote for obama, who apparently learned nothing from the rev…
he certainly didn’t learn to be the politcal weasel he became from listening to the rev’s sermons…if he listened at all.”
And you apparently learned nothing from the Reverend Wright.
I just watched the Moyers piece and have come away with even more respect for Wright. This guy has his head on straight and is totally unafraid of telling the truth.
The thing is, Reverend Wright understands the constraints that Barack Obama is under, as a politician and a presidential candidate. He knows (and said as much) that Obama cannot say certain things, even if he believes them to be true, because the political reality (which may have nothing to do with true reality) dictates that he keep them to himself. Wright knows that if Obama wants to stand a chance to become president so he can fight for whatever values he has, he has to play the game, at least, as much as is necessary.
Politics suck. Let’s get over that part and maybe we can move on to improving things.
P.S. Reverend Wright was and still is…RIGHT!
The U.S. seems to be a few short steps from equating “unpatriotic” with “treasonous”. Unfortunately many people who criticize the country, including perhaps Wright, play along with the newspeak trap by trying to justify a different form of patriotism rather than admit to being unpatriotic.
If we wish to promote free speech in the U.S. we must make it ok to say “I am unpatriotic”. And I will do it here: I am unpatriotic. I don’t believe the U.S. ever did anything good and I don’t believe it ever will. I think Wright agrees with this skepticism, and I think it’s too bad he didn’t feel free to say so.
I, too, watched the Bill Moyers interview with Rev. Wright. I am more impressed by his clarity and erudition than I had thought. I knew even before seeing this piece that the aspersions cast upon him by his and Barack’s ‘enemies” were more than likely unfounded. What I witnessed tonight far surpassed my expectations. Rev. Wright is a very clear and committed advocate of peace and an authentic “Christian” way of life. That is a way that honors all of life and takes affirmative action to bring the lives of those in the community to a higher place of joy and fulfillment of life as it was meant to be. Whether we call that Force God, Jesus the Christ, Buddha, Universal Intelligence, Nature, Allah or It or any other symbol, what is true is that we are here, all of us, to express and experience our highest consciousness of Divinity. If struggle and pain are a part of it, then so be it. Listen to the Rev. Wright; listen to Dr. King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, or Thich Nhat Hanh. As Rev. Wright said, most of the Sacred Texts contain passages which in today’s political, social and civil society would not stand critical scrutiny, though I am afraid that this is not as true as I would hope. Much of today’s political and social mores still accept slavery in some form, mysoginy, racism, nationalistic exclusivism or a variety of abusive practices and beliefs that deny full sovereignty of humans and all life forms.
I could go on for quite awhile, but want to get this posted so it is part of the mix of post-Bill Moyers’ Journal comments. I intend to encourage my friends and associates to view and hear this interview. It is a profound and relevant commentary on today’s global issues.
I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john
We need to stop being cowed by the neocon theft and abuse of language. They’ve succeeded in giving 1984 meaning to the values traditional to the American Dream, reducing us to using a reactionary form of double-speak. Just speak your piece. Let it stand on it’s own legs. Quit calling socialized medicine things like “single payer”, and remind us that taxes are our only means of building our common wealth and are to only be used for that purpose. As long as they control the language and we accept their new definitions, we are doomed to their remaining in power and our attempts to communicate are reduced to the level of just more spin.
Excellent interview! Rev. Wright gave an intelligent and informed critique of our country.
Sad to say my idiot family in Tennessee who have always been democratic are voting for McCain because they won’t for a Jigaboo nigger. Go figure.
I am thinking of moving to Canada and divorcing those hillbillies. Ya dig?
I stop watching tv 15 years ago. I haven’t miss much as I can see. Who is watching those talk show like fox “news” anyway. Read a book, it is much better for your writing skills.
I grew up in Minnesota listening to Winnipeg CBW radio because I thought it was just another station. I have visited Canada off and on since the 1960’s. Unfortunately, even though a move to Canada may get you good health care if you can pull it off, corporate interests seem to be just about as strong in Canada. Bucky Fuller, and Jeremy Brucher (sp?) of The Nation helped me see that we really have world government now, only it is corporate, and the media don’t want to talk about it. These elections are really irrelevant anymore. We can’t take it with us. We can only hope to be with loved ones and die peacefully and painlessly in our sleep. Good luck to all, and peace, if you can possibly find it.
Reverend Wright makes Christianity relevant to the community and in so doing improves the community. After listening to Bill Moyers and Rev. Wright, I now have a high respect for Rev. Wright. Repug’s who would abuse this good man are less than human and to be pitied.
Mixed - on the one hand, I thought Rev. Wright’s analysis of terrorism, media control, imperialism, racism, and politics was spot on.
On the other hand, the homophobia, religious nonsense he spouts, his lack of understanding that missionary christianity destroyed the “religions” of africans esp. african-americans, his idiotic bible thumping, his approval of the tyranny of christianity - he is a foolish, stupid, dumb, heterosexist “religious” wingnut. People can both be smart and dumb at the same time!
Bill Moyers gives such excellent interviews! His style is active listening; asking good questions; allowing and respecting viewers to form their own opinions - and people DO watch PBS! It’s just that the people who need it most are watching other shows.
sandyk77 April 26th, 2008 1:49 am
“Excellent interview! Rev. Wright gave an intelligent and informed critique of our country.
Sad to say my idiot family in Tennessee who have always been democratic are voting for McCain because they won’t for a Jigaboo nigger. Go figure.”
I’ve heard similar stories from other quarters. Really opens a window on the core of the Democratic Party makeup. Not that all, or even most, Dems are racists, but neither are they progressives. Which renders the “vote all Democrat all the time” motto rather vacuous.
As a staunch, unwavering agnostic, if there were a few more Jeremiah Wrights around, I might actually start going to church. He is completely familiar with the scriptures, and he has far too much sense to interpret them literally. His sermon following 9-11 described the path that true believers would have followed. (As opposed to the path that the pseudo-believers on the religious right urged.) From the Moyers interview:
“September 11th, I looked out the window and saw the second plane hit from my hotel window. Alright, I had members who lost loved ones both at the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center. So, I know the pain. And I had to preach to them Sunday. I had to preach. They came to church wanting to know where is God in this. And so, I had to show them using that Psalm 137, how the people who were carried away into slavery were very angry, very bitter, moved and in their anger from wanting revenge against the armies that had carried them away to slavery, to the babies. That Psalm ends up sayin’ “Let’s kill the baby-let’s bash their heads against the stone.” So, now you move from revolt and revulsion as to what has happened to you, to you want revenge. You move from anger with the military to taking it out on the innocents. You wanna kill babies. That’s what’s going on in Psalm 137. And that’s exactly where we are. We want revenge. They wanted revenge.
. . . The people of faith have moved from the hatred of armed enemies, these soldiers who captured the king, those soldiers who slaughtered his son and put his eyes out, the soldiers who sacked the city, burned the towns, burned the temples, burned the towers, and moved from the hatred for armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents, the babies, the babies . “Blessed are they who dash your baby’s brains against a rock.” And that my beloved is a dangerous place to be. Yet, that is where the people of faith are in 551 BC and that is where far too many people of faith are in 2001 AD. We have moved from the hatred of armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents. We want revenge. We want paybacks and we don’t care who gets hurt in the process.”
The full transcript is available here. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/transcript1.html
A link to the two most controversial sermons in their entirety.
http://essence.typepad.com/news/2008/03/the-full-story.html
Having researched the full context of the “snippets” early on in the MSM manufactured Jeremiah Wright “controversy”, I didn’t need to see the interview to know the MSM was giving a false impression of him and his ministry. Bill Moyers did a public service in interviewing him, though I have little hope that it will reach very many of the people whose views of the man were affected by the media echo chamber. Fox News has no doubt already cherry-picked soundbites of the interview to re-play and parse in a negative fashion. I’d turn on the telly to find out, but I don’t happen to like vomiting.
Does anyone remember “Justice Sunday”? That is when a US Senator made the statement “Democrats are against people of faith”. I was dismayed, not only by the statement, but more by the fact that it was applauded. When I argued it at church, I was told that “Most democrats are atheists.” I shopped around for another church and finally gave up. I no longer attend church.
I also remember when right-wing fundamentalists claimed that Katrina was the result of the evil of New Orleans.
When I was young, the only involvement of churches in religion was to prayer that those in power whould be guided to do the right thing. Now, religion is more about politics than God.
I still believe in God. Sometimes I wonder if organized religion does.
I am most amazed of all about this tempest in a teacup, that no one has pointed out that the comments by the rev. were on point and true and accurate. Why has no one recognized this and said so? The hatred of most of the world and certainly of the Arab and Muslim world has been generated by our unquestioning support for the State of Israel and it’s policies.
I remember on 9/11 as the second plane hit the building,thinking “Those bastards have brought this down on our heads” It has only gotten worse since as we have taken our cues from them, and it will continue to get worse until we have leadership with the good sense to denounce their “bad behaviour”.
It may sound disturbing to some Americans, but many Europeans stated plainly, right after 9/11, that Americans have nobody but themselves to blame.
That came even from the most peaceful people, who have no history of anti-Americanism. Many Europeans have long been disturbed by US bias in international politics - polls show that (if/when they are released).
I was reminded of the prophets from the Old Testament as I listened to Reverend Wright. They were great reminders to the the people to look carefully at their actions. Wright did the same for America. He was impressive and while his is not my path, he calls for a return to an authentic Christian way. After watching this unfold over the past few weeks, then seeing the interview I come back to, what is for me, a relevant question in my decision on who to vote for in the coming election. For the life of me I cannot understand why Senator Obama did not truly rise to his pastor’s defense, why his campaign did not bring the pastor to the fore so to speak? Where is Obama’s loyalty. Instead of telling us that he objected to the soundbite comments, why did he not show how they were taken out of context and used for political purposes. So, is Obama “another politician” or what? While I have not been a supporter of Ron Paul, he made the same observations as Pastor Wright. I can no longer abide the senator from Chicago.
Penelope
I just watched the entire interview on
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html and shown in context the things he said are all true. The sound bites shown on TV over and over are like poking at a snake with a stick. The media does Rupert Murdock’s bidding by constantly poking people to piss them off so they will ignore REAL truths and REAL problems. Like Rev. Wright pointed out in the interview, our history was written by us…the winners. Had it been written by the
Native Americans, or the Africans brought here on slave ships, it would read quite differently. Our policies in the Middle East have caused thousands of deaths before the
Bush war and hundreds of thousands after it
began. Why wouldn’t those people be just a little pissed at our government? And why wouldn’t black Americans be just a little pissed at the treatment they have received here, especially those who lived during the 1940’s through the 60’s? As a 68 year old white male, I remember when a black man didn’t dare walk down the front street of my home town. They came in the back door of businesses and didn’t look a white man in the eye. Talking to a white girl could have repercussions, sometimes administered by the very people who were assigned to uphold the law. Americans can run around with their flag pins and say our country is the best in the world but we have lots of room for improvement. Getting used to the idea that Black Americans may have a different view of America than White Americans would be a start.
Ritual Defamation. Long history. Rev. Williams is lucky he doesn’t lead a Movement for economic and social justice. He wouldn’t just get the Paul Robeson treatment. He’d be executed by a couple of white cops at a traffic stop on orders from the FBI. The white cops would be exonerated as they always are. THAT’S OUR AMERICA.
I watched the entire interview last night with Rev Wright on PBS. I agree with everything Rev Wright said. The man spoke the truth. People need to hear the truth instead of lies.
The media in this country does a tremendous disservice to the people. They have a great responsibility to report the truth. Instead they have become little more than mouthpieces for our corporate government.
Our society is crumbling before our eyes. If you think God averts his eyes from the misdeeds of our corrupt government then you best look again. As Rev Wright said the chickens are coming home to roost.
Someone once said that “You cannot keep a people down without getting into the gutter with them, and that truth crushed to the ground will one day rise again”!! I made those quotes to emphasize the point that nothing Rev. Wright said was inaccurate historically/factually. The problem lies with what Bill Moyers noted as “white fears to black anger”, and what Rev. Wright termed the miseducation of caucasians. They (whites) know how they would act/react if the roles were reversed and it is this fear of retribution that white politicians pander to in order to get elected. Matter of fact, this entire Rev. Wright incident was no more than a thinly veiled attempt, short of actually assassination, to “stop” Barack Obama from becoming the FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT of America. Good, decent, and honest people of all colors understand this and are working hard everyday to correct the ugly stain that slavery has inflict on everyone in this country. The best medicine to cure what ails america is “The Truth”, and please do not call america a christian nation until america is ready to deal with the truth about the past, present, and the future! The real question should be “Are you men and women enough to handle the truth?”
He looks almost white, or at least Hispanic.
“He looks almost white, or at least Hispanic.” So maybe he’s not so bad? What if he was plaid or transparent? Would his words be truer then?
USAn,
“We rich wall Street Democrats” didn’t “kick Edwards out… because” he was “insufficiently pre-business”. We kicked him out because he was and will forever be an ambulance-chaser. He made $30 million out of falsely accusing the honest and hard working obstetricians who work tirelessly day and night to serve their communities. That is why we kicked him out.
Thank you Bill Moyers for giving us, my husband and I, the REAL story of Reverend Wright on your PBS show last night. That presentation allowed our aching hearts to change with gratitude because of the magnificent and honest words of Reverend Wright as his sermon was presented in its entirety.
We have seen and heard many of the historical moments in America’s past as we are both in our seventh decade of life and we know where of he speaks. We know the truth in those words “god damn America”. We are however not in sync with the traditional concept of “god”, but we certainly could be after listening to the reverend. We would go to his church too if he were located near us.
We are thankful as well for the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama and his leadership on the high road. The highest road in politics we have seen in a long time. His relationship with his pastor is a plus in his life and also in ours. And, we support the message in the Obama theme song written by Ben Harper, “I believe in a Better Way” Listen to those words, they really do lead to a vision of hope.
Bill Moyers should be President.
peerooz21….
ROFLMAO at that bogus statement.
sLiMsHaDy
Thanks for reminding us of J.Edwards’ ROFLMAO on his way to bank at our expense. How accurate.
Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a HERO, in the real sense of the word. A former Marine and a former Navy corpsman, all in the same war, and a medical assistant to a president.
Hillary and Bill served nowhere during the Vietnam war. Cheney served nowhere during the war. Bush served nowhere during the war. I wager none of Wright’s most voceriferous detractos did not serve in vietnam either.
My point? An American service man or woman with medals and commendations won on the field of battle can say and pretty much do whatever they want, except of course, commit high treason. Blood earns the right to be highly critical; after all, your blood preserved the society you are criticising and anyone whose life has not been at risk is a freeloader.
Reverend Wright is a strong, spiritually-grounded Black man who has earned the absolute right to speak as he chooses about America.
Obama did exactly as Wright says, he responded as a politician would and perhaps should respond to such supposed calumny. He backed away and said what the benighted electorate wanted to hear to be mollified. Shame on America.
Obama is the next President of the United States of America; he will be elected by white Americans who believe in his message of change and hope. Black people will help, and perhaps a few latinos will be rational enough to vote for him, but their indigenous conservatism derived from their Catholic Church instruction militate against such rationality. For shame.
Obama IS the man!!!
I tend to agree with penelope. Wright, through the medium of his own cosmology, simply speaks the truth for people of conscience. Which of his talking points were offensive to Obama? What part of that sermon did Obama feel he needed to distance himself from? Maybe Obama has been talking to Daniel David about electability as he chucks one principle after another overboard in the interest of campaign buoyancy. It isn’t going to work. Those attack ads are going to paint him and Pastor Wright both as black militants, and the more he cries “I know him not” the more the dumbassed voters of America will perceive him as both a subversive and a liar. He had better embrace Jeremiah Wright and put him front and center, out of the shadows of what the Blue Pill Media has omitted, and stop being ashamed of his association with him. Wright may stay under the rug, but his message will not.
If this election is about choice, or even our feeble, quixotic effort to make a choice, it will be a choice between soulless capitalism as represented by Bush/McCain and conscience as represented by Pastor Wright. The more “distance” Obama puts between himself and moral substance, the more he looks like oatmeal to me.
voxclamantis: Me three.
Since, like Homer Simpson, I am unable to take refuge from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes by retreating to an Octopus’ Garden Under the Sea, the campaign has forced itself upon me. And I’ve been having a conversation with someone who was drawn to Obama and sent some choice items showcasing Obama that I indeed found impressive.
In a nutshell, I do consider Obama to have an intellect and character of a higher order than his competitors. And, problematic though it surely is, I do believe that Obama is trying to rescue the political process from its present deteriorated nasty, brutish, and agonizingly long state. He’s not buying into the settled charades of dueling gotchas, etc. Very commendable, and faintly inspiring even to my desiccated civic heart.
But it’s hard not to gag when Obama distances himself from Jimmy Carter and mouths the AIPAC-compatible hard line, refusing to meet with Hamas unless certain conditions are met. And, as you note, Obama will repudiate or disclaim positions and relationships if their unpopularity threatens to metastasize.
Supporters are forgiving about this kind of thing, seeing it as a series of no-win binds that will mousetrap Obama one way or the other. And my prObama interlocutor disputes the criticism that Obama is repudiating Wright; it’s just the opposite, I was told when I bitched about it when the story first broke. Obama explicitly rejected cutting off Wright, etc.
But, like you, I’m not so sure. Time will tell, I suppose.
The problem is the right wing lie machine.
Their truth is different from our truth. We know that the USA has had a long bloody history of imperialism and violence. We know that capitalism is based on the ideology of Social Darwinism and might makes right. We think in an entirely different way from right wingers.
Right Wingers say clearly that our truth is false. They claim violence and competition is the only good and cooperation based societies are evil or irrelevant. These are irreconcilable differences. Only violence will solve these differences. Right wingers need to be killed. Jefferson understood this. That is why he called for frequent revolutions.
As people become emotionally adapted to eating obvious lies, they proportionatley gag when served-up anything resembling provable truths.
I think this political phenomenon can be analogued on a strictly physical level to a person who instinctually gags on Broccoli after years of adaptive gorging on fast food bacon burgers and sugar-soaked thick shakes.
All Rev. Wright does is to tell something approaching a healthy truth about his country’s human failures: racism and the moral wrongness of all of eiltist power.
He doesn’t blanketly-damn his country for these failures; but he rightly damns the failures themselves and the System hypocrisy that tries to hide healthier, provable truths.
And isn’t it something to behold!: even a modulated critique like Wright’s is far too much a threat for our corrupted System’s thought police — America’s ‘popular’ news media.
As with the pre-Glasnost USSR’s TASS and Isvestia, America’s corrupt media immediately demonize any critic who, especially Reasonably, points out the hypnosis underpinning the ruinously Rote-learned, Incomplete National Self-Image.
It hardly needs noting that none of the MSM, which furiously foamed at the mouth on discovery of some of Wright’s erstwhile ‘controversial’ church sermons, cared at ANY point to invite him to speak his unexpurgated (un-soundbyted) mind after the frenzy which that same MSM propagated at Wright’s and Obama’s expense, sold their intentionally hystericalized headlines for money, money money.
Only Moyers cared to let Wright speak nationally and un-manipulated. Whereupon Wright proved himself a reasonable truth teller — to anyone not adapted to instantly gag on [the slightest suggestion of] truth.
So, I have to diagreee with our fellow poster, Daniel David, who apparently thinks that Wright’s viewpoints, as they were recently and openly broadcast on PBS were designed to, or will in any case, wrongly hurt Obama’s ‘chances.’
I do not understand Christian/Liberal Democrats who profess to worship a Jesus-God [symbolic or literal] who, as the Bible Story goes, willingly got crucified in the name of speaking simple, decent human truths –when they [these same Democrats] think that there’s no longer room for such truths, as represented by a normal human, in the US political process.
Obama’s no God, obviously. But if he can’t get elected by telling, or being associated with even politely-rendered, uncomfortable truths, what possible difference to the present US predicament could his election make?
… the more he distances himself from his principles,
the less I like him, as WHAT is a MAN other than his
word and beliefs ?
I guess there is always room for hope ( it is usually very slim )
Namaste
What do you think little children learn from this clown? They were sitting right there in that church..
That white people are the ENEMY?
If we ever are to become a ‘color blind” society, this kind of hatred must stop.
Did you see the 1.2 million dollar home Wright is about to move into…in a white neighborhood? Why don’t you talk about that? WHY NOT?????????
Thank God for FOX(y) NEWS. All the rest would have swept it under the rug…..and you know it.
I actually considered supporting Obama in Nov….that is until I heard this hate spewing Rev. Wrong telling black people that I am against them and they should distrust me because I am white….It’s just plain sad, that’s all. Very sad…
And you folks buy into it…hook line…and sinker. That’s very sad, too. Why can’t you be objective…FOR ONCE!!!!!!TRY IT!!!!
your friend, banjoman
… at least you COULD wait next time, for the venom to dry ( ¿¿ You’re my friend ?? ),
Your idea of color-blind must be closer to actual blindness, IF you’d expect honest and moral people to buy into your propaganda
banjoman, you have been watching way too much Fox news. Your “fair and balance” connection in your pea brain has become slanted just right of Dick Cheney. What are you so pissed about, that he can afford a 1.2 million dollar home, or that he has the balls to move into an “all white neighborhood? And by the way, you may be John McCain’s “friend”, but I think I’d pass on your friendship.
Did anybody see the MSM go psycho when GW Bush told his wealthy audience, “this is my base: the haves, and the have-more’s”? It’s OK to rape America for power and profit; but if you’re on the other end of that “relationship,” boy you’d better not say anything that even suggests you dislike being raped….How Biblical!
I appreciated seeing Wright’s sermons in context. I found them to be powerful and inspiring and really the essence of what Christianity should be about–a faith actually that challenges its followers to live in the example of Jesus and question authority.
To paraphrase W, xtians should appeal to a “higher father” than that of the government which forces them to kill.
God bless Rev Wright for speaking truth to power on a consistent basis.
As someone said upstream, if there were more preachers out there like Wright I might actually consider going to church or taking Christianity seriously.
Nobody got on John McCain’s case after he called the Vietnamese “gooks,” demeaned women by calling his wife a “c*nt,” and was against the great Martin Luther King’s birthday celebration after he was assassinated by the right-wingers. This racist-sexist should not be running for the presidency of the United States.
Rev. Wright seems to be a chameleon. When he was with blacks, he preached hate towards whites (which is strange because it’s obvious he has quite a bit of white blood himself), and when he’s with a white commentator like Bill Moyers, he’s a pussycat. Go figure.
The American people and particularly its corporate media cannot handle people like Wright who are simply telling the truth about America, as both Malcom X and King did. They like the Kennedy’s were killed for wanting peace. These people who wanted the promise of America to come to fruition.
America has always been a country that believed in helping other people and believed in justice, unlike most of its political leaders who were interested in empire and power.
There is a fundamental shift necessary in the America that must be realized with the election of Obama. Should this take place America will begin to regain its place in the world? If Obama dared show how truly he agreed with many of you here he would take the same place as others who we would like to see in his place.?
Change in America is necessary and the election of an African American will elevate this country and its place in the world, it has lost with the Bush regime. But most of you know that who write here but are not convinced that Obama must win because you are purists. There is nothing pure about politics and very few who can maintain their character being part.
However, I think the strength of Obama will defy all the so called experts here and on the media who will eat there words about Wright and who will show them to be the fools they are.
Reverend Wright the nigger!