Inspiration Versus Degradation
Sometimes our degraded press prefers the prediction to the event itself. I’m talking about Jeremiah Wright’s interview with Bill Moyers. It aired last Friday night and to my mind was one of Bill’s best interviews. Rev. Wright was talking to someone in his own metier. Moyers is also ordained, is a great speaker and cares deeply about social justice. So it was an equal interviewing an equal — so seldom the case on television.
Bill Moyers nevertheless pushed Wright hard, raised all the questions Wright’s out-of-context sound bites have aroused and played lengthy excerpts from his sermons. I was inspired. This is a pastor I’d listen to on a Sunday instead of namby-pamby Tim Russert or the various screaming clubs on network TV.
Wright seems utterly sincere to me. He strikes me as having a true spiritual calling. When he says, “America’s chickens have come home to roost,” I can’t fault his logic. Haven’t we been squandering hard earned taxpayer money on overseas adventures while we starve poor children? Haven’t we been supporting dictators while prating of democracy? Haven’t we been enriching profiteers at the expense of health care and education? You betcha.
A week ago I told my audience in Rome that in the last several years, I’ve been ashamed to be an American. A cheer went up from the amphitheater. It was such a relief, audience members later told me, to hear an American speak the truth for a change.
The Italians may have voted for Silvio Berlusconi, but they don’t think George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have been good for America or the planet. Like most Americans, they would love to see them gone. So would Italians. Italians love American and feel pain when we slide away from the great ideals our Constitution and Bill of Rights have given the world.
Italians feel they have a stake in America. It’s interesting to hear how thrilled they are by New York. When I say “sono New Yorkese” (I’m a New Yorker), they are delighted. And they also love LA and Chicago and Miami. Many Italians commute between New York and Rome, LA and Milan, Miami and Florence. They can’t vote in the US but you’d never know that by how interested they are in American politics. They love our great 18th century traditions — sometimes more than we.
So where’s the discussion of Jeremiah Wright’s real calling? You can’t find it. Our idiotic press prefers to play orphaned excerpts and force Barack Obama to apologize for words he never spoke. What is this apology stuff? Everyone has to apologize for their pastors, their doctors, their mothers, their fathers, their churches, their social affiliations. Why? Apologies are cheap. Inspiration is hard to find.
Just because a man is inspired by his pastor doesn’t mean he agrees with every word his pastor says. Duh. Even a moron knows that. But inspiration remains important. And you will never be inspired by running stuff out of context and playing gotcha.
Our press has become a sea of triviality, meanness and irrelevant chatter.
God knows inspiration is always welcome. Moyers and Wright gave us that on Friday night.
Erica Jong is the author of eight novels including the new novel Sappho’s Leap.
Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
One of my favorite parts of the interview, and I am paraphrasing “Different does not mean deficient.”
I am what many non-white folk might call a “typical” white guy, except that I’ve seen Rev. Wright’s sermon, and I watched him last night at the NAACP Convention in Detroit. WOW! The more I see and hear him directly(instead of through the filters of the corporate media bobbleheads), the more enamored I am of his intelligence, compassion and commitment to this country and his Lord. Soledad Obrien and Rowland Martin did a good piece afterwards. But then the bobbleheads (now including Tim Russert) come on to tell me how I should be understanding what I just heard. I must say that they (the bobbleheads), as Georgie and Charlie did with Barack in their recent interviews, make Rev. Wright look like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians. Good piece Erica.
Erica Jong has it right, all the talking heads on TV do not have a clue. Sadly, white Christian America misses the point as well.
I am also disappointed in Barack Obamas’ vague response to the controversy because he is missing a tremendous opportunity to articulate what a prophetic faith is all about. But then again, maybe this would NOT get him elected.
A prophetic faith is about critiquing the system of oppression. Yes, it is about damming a rigged system ruled by wealth and power. It is about a spirituality of liberation, whether it be Black liberation or the liberation theology in Central and South America, it is all the same. The spirituality of liberation is certain to be the Christian message of the 21st Century,
In condemning the oppression of empire and wealth, Christ also showed how to overcome such evil by disarming one’s enemy with non-violence, love and compassion. Christ unequivocally challenged the entire world not to react to violence with violence. It continues to be the unrelenting folly of Humankind.
It is nearly impossible for Americans to hear the truth. To hear such truth is about as hard as a camel struggling to get through the eye of a needle.
I feel like an important opportunity was missed in the whole “controversy” over Obama’s membership in Wright’s church.
When public discussion turned to Reverend Wright, Obama should have turned the tables on Clinton and said, “Let’s forget about whether or not you think I should have walked out of Reverend Wright’s church. Do you think 6,000 people (the membership of Trinity UCC) are wrong for attending such a church? What kind of church should the black, hispanic, and white members of Trinity UCC be attending, in you opinion? Is your concern with the church I attend or the church that 6,000 of your fellow Americans attend?”
In other words, force her to either admit that this is mere political gamesmanship and that her only interest is in where Obama worships or to face up to the patronizing implications of her position (i.e. an elite white woman telling mostly brown people which religious institutions they ought to attend and which they ought not).
32 years ago I left the RC Priesthood because my understanding of the New Testament was in conflict with the American Church’s support of such attitudes as “my country right or wrong”. Cardinal Krol in Philadelphia reflected this majority attitude. The Christianity I had come to believe in (the same as Rev. Wright) told me it was all wrong. My attempts to preach it from the pulpit were met with some of the nastiest attacks on my character. The right wing did not fight fairly then or now. As I have reached senior status I have come to understand that the message Christ preached will never be the faith of the majority of any group. Christianity, like our flag, will be hijacked and made to represent the basest, ugliest and least noble of attitudes. I have not left the Church, I have simply wandered out ahead of it and it will not likely catch up to me in my lifetime.
Reverend Wright is very gifted. A brilliant mind and a very talented speaker. I would like to organize a write-in campaign. Jeremiah Wright for President. We should all pledge to vote for Jeremiah Wright as a write-in candidate. Maybe if we can build a groundswell of support for this idea we can use our power to force Obama to begin adopting true progressive ideas. Let’s force Obama to affirm his roots and work as president to implement the visions and hopes of his own beloved minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Wright for President!
Almost everything Jeremiah Wright said makes perfect sense
to me. But he said, “God damn America!”, and that is political suicide. Since no politician would ever say that, they’re trying to suicide Obama by linking him to the statement, by painting with a very wide brush. Obama is no threat to the established socioeconomic hiearchy of the country, but the Clintons and the Republicans want to paint him as that. I’m hoping that he is really closer to Wright in his opinions of what is wrong with America than he feels free to admit in public. Then, at least, we could begin to discuss like adults what to do about it.
ppeters - you very precisely detail a falling out that I am sure that many of us have experienced as we have tried to grow up in America. Just as you left the priesthood because you couldn’t be the priest you wanted to be, I felt I couldn’t be the American that I thought I was supposed to be. So, I left my country twenty years ago. I’ve never been happier in my life.
Hoa binh
I had taped the interview and watched it last night. I was struck as well by Wright’s dedication, intelligence, and astute analysis. He said nothing that was untrue. While I am not a Christian, I found him to be totally credible and inspiring. More Christians should listen to him. No one who is a true Christian could fail to agree with him.
Wright is brilliant, articulate, insightful, compassionate, passionate - we could benefit from such leadership. I too am disappointed in Obama’s response about Wright - I feel the threw him under the bus - or like Peter denying Christ - he wimped out. A totally Hillary move - does not bode well, I fear.
Who will rid us of these troublesome neocons?
I appreciate Erica and her point of view. I did hear from Erica during the Bush blackout these last six years. Yes, Wright is an extremely articulate man and has had the courage of truth and belief in rightful acts and speech.
It is good that this man speaks up now for he has shown how the media distorts what people say and the news-reader group are merely a government mouthpiece for its right wing policies!
The American media itself, with its concentration in too few hands, is one of the largest dangers to the free world and democracy since it supports and is part of the Oligarchy that America has become. It is now clear for all to see with the rev. Wright scandal.
The emasculation of the FTC, the continued government policy to have be nothing more than a ministry of information, with Powel’s son, a Republican, wanting to continue the concentration of media power to be able to continue to put the right message to the public.
It is all out there for all to see, what the media is able to do and does on a regular basis. GE owning NBC and ABC, Turner owning the news channels, and so it goes. . .the pretty American female conservative faces that have become the ministries of misinformation.
Can this change? Tt must change as far as the government is concerned. Perhaps the internet will also be put in too few hands and controlled by the secret police which we will see happening in the coming years.
I have a different p.o.v. - i loved Wright ON POLITICS; and I hated hated hated Wright ON RELIGION! He was childish & stupid on religious issues; the usual delusional b.s., of course - and a lack of understanding of christianity’s crushing african “religions”, too, if you are into that sort of delusion.
But I agree, Bill Moyers is the best interviewer we have today!
Haven`t we had enough already of these preachers like Obama`s Wright running off at the mouth about political matters? The religious folks got into the last two elections in a big way and see where it got us.
Religion can be a good thing for a country if it is practiced in the homes and churches, and kept out of political issues of the country. We have too much religious input in our government now, and certainly do not need more.
I am so happy to be reading Erica Jong again! Thank you Erica for your insight. I feel better knowing that we are on the same side of this issue too.
Like Rome, Spain, and the British Empire before us, we seem destined to self-destruct as a great power. The dumbing down that has happened within our borders within a few short decades is nothing short of staggering. We now have at least two generations of younger Americans who are largely unequipped to analyze what is happening in the country and in the world, because they have been conditioned to focus on vapid popular culture, to think superficially and not to seek out the information they need in order to be informed citizens capable of reaching sound positions on issues. They are easily misled by the many demagogues religious, corporate, and political who will lead them down the primrose path and take the country into perdition.
How is it helpful to say how dumb americans are? Why not meet people where they are and persuade them in language we can all understand? I hate all the elitism on here - how about pamphleteering? How about constructive ideas rather than always bitching and moaning??
I do not think Americans are dumb! What’s dumb is our media. I have just about given up watching any TV news. It seems everyone is afraid of the truth. Rev. Wright was correct in saying that Americans need to be educated in the wrongs this country has done. We don’t need any more of this blind patriotism!
If I were Barack Obama, I would invite Wright to give my nomination speech at the convention. If you haven’t seen Moyers’ interview of Jeremiah Wright go to:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html
It is well worth the hour to see him. If you didn’t get a chance to hear his adsdress to the National Press Club earlier today, check CSpan’s programming. The Detroit NAACP address is running on CSPAN right now. This guy is really something else!
This continued discussion about Rev. Wright, within the context of the Presidential campaign,
is dismal and depressing, not to mention, absurd. Every time we give this topic energy, we are contributing to the darkness of the Hillary Clinton Machine and the right wing lunatics.
Let’s grow up and get down to business, please. Let’s put our focus on electing the most enlightened leadership we can find.
Erica,
Thank you for writing this, as vital as Moyers work is, so is this kind of follow-up analysis and amplification. You have been doing great work in this difficult time in our history.
RIchard Power
http://words-of-power.blogspot.com
The neocon noise machine will soon enough regret the day they ever tried to make Jeremiah Wright a spectacle. This guy is smart, funny, passionate, multi-cultural as well as multi-lingual (by which I mean he can speak several different dialects of the English language with equal fluency, effortlesly jumping from one to another). Kind of reminds me of another eloquent, thoughtful, determined, and charismatic preacher named Dr. Martin Luther KIng Jr.
Interstingly enough both are (were in the case of MLK Jr.) third generation pastors. Wright’s tour de force before the National Press Club will run on CSPAN at 11PM Eastern time. CSPAN can be viewed over the net at:
cspan.org
I have found myself in agreement with all of Wright’s out-of-context soundbites the media has been bombarding us with anyway (Well, maybe not the one about AIDS being a government plot. I said maybe). But the problem is, he’s a black man speaking truth to power and that is always trouble. We have not progressed as far as we think we have. See New Orleans.
But it’s great to see Jong speak out favorably on Rev Wright.
Poet (9:30 pm ) writes, “The neocon noise machine will soon enough regret the day they tried to make Jeremiah Wright a spectacle…”
I doubt that’s so. I view Wright the same way you do, but what he is in reality is going to have no effect on how he is portrayed. The media is going to demonize him, regardless of what the truth about him is. The reason for this is simply that he won’t kneel down to them; he refuses to back off on his entirely legitimate assertions.
If you doubt this, just look how the Washington Post writer Dana Milbank portrayed Wright’s talk today before the National Press Club.
Here’s a snippet from Milbank, just to illustrate:
“Should it become necessary in the months from now to identify the moment that doomed Obama’s presidential aspirations, attention is likely to focus on the hour between nine and ten this morning at the National Press Club. It was then that Wright, Obama’s longtime pastor, reignited a controversy about race from which Obama had only recently recovered - and added lighter fuel.
Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks (”God damn America”) and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America….”
I’m so sick of hearing about this guy. He’s not running for office. But I need to speak my piece.
Yes, I had problems with what Rev. Wright had to say. I’m no flag-waver. I get annoyed with the “love-it-or-leave-it” types also. But when you simply run down America and condemn it, you condemn the American people as well as all of the good struggles. It’s nihilistic. It’s not that far off from what Falwell or Roberston has said about America.
Also, while I am not supporting Obama wholeheartedly (he’s overrated in a nutshell), Wright had to know that his comments would hinder Obama’s chances.
When people go on long moralistic tirades on all this nation’s evils in a manner that isn’t constructive, it does create a perception that you simply hate the country. And if people think that you hate the country or associate with people who do, then they’re not going to trust you. They think that you want to purposely undermine the country and Her people in some way.
Not that I’m for ignoring our historical underbelly. It’s there, but I don’t want to wallow in it either. I want solutions.
If anything Wright threw Obama “under the bus” (I’m hating that catchphrase) by basically referring to him as just another politician.
Do I think Wright really hates America? No. I don’t think Obama does either.
Here’s what I think, and if I offend some people, I apologize.
I think the only thing Rev. Wright really cares about is filling up that basket.
That goes for Hagee, Robertson, and all the other preachers and evangelists that give religion a bad name.
People like Rev. Wright are just symptoms of larger problems. If our nation didn’t suffer from inequality, resentment, intolerance, and disillusionment, if our nation’s sins didn’t persist, and this is just my humble opinion…
…they’d all be selling used cars for a living instead of pandering to their flocks. Again, that goes for Rev. Wright, John Hagee, etc.
Oh yeah, I wrote in Dennis Kucinich last Tuesday.
And don’t get me started on John Hagee. McCain wholeheartedly welcomed his endorsement! And nothing is said! Hagee said the jews brought the Holocaust on themselves, lambasted Catholics and Muslims, and felt that Hurricane Katrina was a righteous act of punishment from God!
I agree with the posters here who speak favorably of Reverend Wright. I saw the Moyers interview, portions of the NAACP speech, and the National Press Club question and answer, which can be seen here:
http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/?p=913
The more I see of Reverend Wright, the more I love this man. I wish his church was in my home town. I’d be there, and I’m not even a church goer. Not only is he extremely intelligent, passionate and knowledgeable; he’s very funny, and I believe we all could learn a great deal from him.
Reverend Wright is a truth teller, and he’s not afraid of anyone or anything, it seems. Is he hazardous for Obama’s campaign? No doubt. Do I care? I’m beginning not to, even though I want Obama to win this election. Wright has every right to speak out and defend himself and his church, and I don’t think he should stay silent for the next 6 1/2 months, until the election is over. Maybe he’s a loose cannon, but I’m just plain tired of people being afraid to speak the truth.
Wright spoke at the NAACP dinner about how the poor are fighting and dying in Iraq, while the privileged never serve. Amen, Reverend Wright! Discussing the issue of his patriotism, he noted that he served for seven years as a marine, unlike Dick Cheney, who never served. Amen again, Reverend Wright! And he added that he never went AWOL (unlike President Bush, though he didn’t mention Bush by name). I LOVE that the things we all talk about here on CD and know to be true are being voiced by this man in the national media.
So my feeling is, let it all out. Let’s start talking. And listening. The people who don’t like Wright and what he says would have found some reason not to vote for Obama anyway.
And let me just say that I take Reverend Wright at his word when he says he’s not anti-American or anti-Americans (as he said today in the Press Club speech). He is anti-American government when the American government enslaves, slaughters, terrorizes, arms, and bombs people. If Americans can’t handle hearing these truths, so be it. I’m sick to death of all the lies. Give me some truth!
That was one weak article.
What, if anything did she say?
Yeah, Wright’s Human But Okay.
Was That REALLY News?
But Oh My-She has a NEW NOVEL! Let’s write an article and get our name in print a couple times-weak, weak, insipid & weak!!!
“The religious folks got into the last two elections in a big way and see where it got us.”
VERY important.
Who isn’t ashamed to be an American in George Bush’s America . . . ????
An America of stolen elections –
False Flag operations, lies, war — bankrupting of our Treasury.
Warmongering all over the planet.
Wars of aggression, murder of innocent citizens, torturing prisoners.
Spying on citizens, especially anti-war protesters.
Penning in citizen who oppose the government.
Signing statements which say that what Congress has voted on doesn’t count in the up is down world of Bush.
Politicalization of our DOJ and using it to foster more
corruption.
Umpeachment should have brought all of this to an end last year —
iwarrior April 28th, 2008 10:32 pm
Sorrry my friend i couldn’t resist:
“If anything Wright threw Obama “under the bus” (I’m hating that catchphrase) by basically referring to him as just another politician.”
What is is about Obama that makes people think he is anything but a politician’s politician I’ll never know. The man is a complete calculator as is Hillary. Notice they don’t take on any really risky positions like calling for an immediate withdrawal of all the troops from Iraq. It’s about calculating votes, being vague and being careful to straddle the fence. Hillary admires McSame and Obama was mentored by Joe Lieberman.
When I point out how conventional the Democrat’s are and how non-threatening they are to the status quo I have been told that to do otherwise would mean he/she wouldn’t get elected. That is the definition of a politician. It not about what you believe, it’s about saying or doing anything to get elected, and dumping anyone that becomes a liability.
To hell with the Democrats, they are part of the problem and have refused to either end the war or impeach the criminal Bush. Spare me any lectures about I am electing McSame. I didn’t leave the Democrats, they left me when they became Republicans. As far as I am concerned a Democrat is just a mildly left of center Republican. And as for me, I’m voting for either Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader or a socialist, at least they are progressive in deeds not just speech.
Lastly, as far as Americans being stupid, oh hell yea! Bush still has close to 30% approval. Therefore at least 30% of Americans must be blooming idiots. I apologize if I offended any of them. Sorry, but I meant it.
Look, I should reiterate that I’m not a flag-waver. Hey our country is guilty of a lot of evil things. But America is more than the worst things She has ever done and more than what horrors the elites have wrought.
Wright’s laundry list of America’s sins isn’t what I have a problem with so much. I’ve done that too and have been called a bunch of names as a result. But I’ve never said “goddamn America” afterwards. I didn’t toss everything out of the window. Maybe that wasn’t Wright’s intent, but that’s how he came off. That’s why I have problem with what he said.
Of course racism is a part of the American experience. I will never defend America’s imperialist rampages. But dissent is American too. So is the civil rights movement, the worker’s movment, the women’s movement, etc.
I want this country to be better, to do right by Her people. What I don’t want is to abandon our nation and let it rot away or just burn it to the ground. Again, I’m not saying that what Wright intented to say, but when you run down the country and them condemn it wholesale, that’s how it seems. That’s nihilism. America isn’t a utopia, but it isn’t an ashtray either.
I saw part of Wright’s talk with Bill Moyers, and it just seemed to me that he was backpedaling somewhat, trying to come off as a calm man instead of a ranter and a raver, like he was trying to temper his image for some sort of career change. The lucrative lecture circuit maybe?
Maybe I’m too cynical? Because again, ANYONE banging on a pulpit theatrically gives me the impression that they want your money. People like that exploit dissatisfaction for their own gain. I mean, Rev’s doing alright for himself.
And while I am ambivalent towards Obama (he seems like a good guy but his stances on the issues are shaky, halfway, and timid) I don’t like seeing people beat up on him over his race or religion. All Wright’s diatribes did was spray fuel onto that fire, whether opr not it should be burning.
Look at how we’re all talking about Rev. Wright, yet he’s not running! I’m sick of reading and hearing about the guy, but he keeps coming up. I’m sick of Pat Robertson too. They’re all hucksters to me who aren’t doing anything to better this world for working people and the poor. They’re all just spouting off and making a killing from it.
McCain’s the one who really worries me, partly because the policies he supports give the Wrights of the world more ammo, which just keeps the discord going which keeps us at each other’s throats, which helps maintain the status quo, etc.
“What is is about Obama that makes people think he is anything but a politician’s politician I’ll never know. The man is a complete calculator as is Hillary. Notice they don’t take on any really risky positions like calling for an immediate withdrawal of all the troops from Iraq. It’s about calculating votes, being vague and being careful to straddle the fence. Hillary admires McSame and Obama was mentored by Joe Lieberman.”
You have a point tailcap. That’s why I can’t totally back him.
“When I point out how conventional the Democrat’s are and how non-threatening they are to the status quo I have been told that to do otherwise would mean he/she wouldn’t get elected. That is the definition of a politician. It not about what you believe, it’s about saying or doing anything to get elected, and dumping anyone that becomes a liability.”
I get that a lot too. I got so much flak for writing in Kucinich partly because people don’t think candidates like him, Nader, McKinney, etc. don’t have a chance in hell. And what gets me is that I think if people like them got the airplay, the people would listen, respond, and be empowered not alienated by what they have to offer. The people want something. They do want real change, but Obama and Clinton aren’t offering a whole lot.
“To hell with the Democrats, they are part of the problem and have refused to either end the war or impeach the criminal Bush.”
Very true.
“Spare me any lectures about I am electing McSame. I didn’t leave the Democrats, they left me when they became Republicans.”
Good point.
“As far as I am concerned a Democrat is just a mildly left of center Republican.”
That’s how I see or saw all the other candidates aside from Kucinich and maybe Gravel.
“And as for me, I’m voting for either Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader or a socialist, at least they are progressive in deeds not just speech.”
I may do just that.
“Lastly, as far as Americans being stupid, oh hell yea! Bush still has close to 30% approval. Therefore at least 30% of Americans must be blooming idiots. I apologize if I offended any of them. Sorry, but I meant it.”
I’m not offended. Those folks are in the minority and needs some sense slapped into them. Most of us are coming around. The polls don’t lie.
yabut…on “the News Hour” on Public TV tonight, the anchor was taking things(Wrights and Obama’s) out of context again so as to smear Obama. The “commentators” they brought in were also using subtle persuasion to do in Obama. This is NOT an unbiased news service/station anymore.
PS, Rome just voted in a Neo Fascist as mayor.
I’ve seen the Reverend’s speeches and I don’t understand what the fuss is all about; he just gives a piece of his mind and that may be unpalatable to some people. All he’s saying, I think, is: you reap what you sow, and the US has been sowing shit for quite some time now. Calling him un-patriotic and un-American sounds pathetic, almost childish, considering the way the US has been pursuing it’s interests all over the world, being seen as the biggest bully in the play-yard.
For the life of me, I just can’t believe how delusional the talking heads on TV are, as if America was free of sin.
But it also astonishes me to see how Rev Jeremiah Wright continues to publicly attack America when he should be well aware that the America people can not deal with such criticism.
Why is Rev. Wright continuing to destroy any chance for a Barack Obama win? Is Rev Wright a secret weapon of the Clintons? This is all so crazy.
In my frustration, what I do know is that one half of the American people are brain dead about American exceptionalism in spite of how the U.S. is destroying the world.
This only proves to me that capitalism is diabolically evil, the destroyer of the human spirit, the destroyer of democracy and the destroyer of human reason.
Erica Jong, wow. I guess I was right to dump her in the sixties after only a few tumultuous dates. She’s just too religious for my taste. I like a less uptight and less inhibited girl. Sorry, Babe, you’re a great read, but I couldn’t take your old-tyme religion then or now. I’m not interested in Obama’s preacher, and I think, like others here, that religion should stay out of politics even when preachers make political sense.
I myself am an atheist. I know that to Americans my atheism means that I have no moral compass and that I am unable to distinguish right from wrong. Well, if Erica can quote a Baptist preacher, then I can be confused too.
She wrote a nice article here, but I read it partly in anticipation of the sex scene, just for old-tymes sake, Babe. Is it the Reverend or is it Obama who does it better, eh Erica? It’s a crucial election and voters need to know!
Anyway, Sweetie, thanks for the write up and also for your statements elsewhere regarding the official lies about 9/11. Erica Jong for mayor!
Isn’t it nice to see someone, upon being Swiftboated, come out of the corner swinging? Isn’t it refreshing to see someone speak his mind and consequences be damned? I’m so weary of carefully parsed bullshit from the likes of Shrum and Carville. As Howard Beale said in “Network”: “First, you’ve got to get mad!” Damn right.
If expressing support for someone like Rev. Wright would cost Obama the election, then we truly are lost as a nation, and deserved whoever the bobbleheads decide should be president.
As to Wright’s comment that America has practiced terrorism: we ran a campaign called “Shock and Awe”; need I say more?
On Sunday before Tuesday congressional election my Pastor hd an insert in bulletin which said vote for Eliz Dole and R Burr for they are against abortion and gay marriage.
I had no opportunity to rebutt that a vote for them was a vote to slaughter many innocent persons, to distribute our wealth and income to the very richest and not help the poor..
I would ask my Pastor what would Jesus say .
Turn your swords into plow shares. Expel the money changers from the temples.
Care for the Least of thee not the richest.
Jesus would expel our Pastor.So would I.
OK….get the rocks ready!
“Our idiotic press prefers to play orphaned excerpts”
I have carefully read the transcripts of these sermons and many others of Wrights before they were withdrawn by the church.
I read Black Liberation Theology as practiced and posted by Trinity and compared it with Cone’s original thesis. Not much difference.
I watched all the interviews, especially Moyers.
All I can say is that I found the “sound bites” to denigrate, the context around them was just as bad. These weren’t isolated instances.
Black Liberation Theology is the most racist creed and philosophy I’ve read since the KKK’s.
Racism, hate and bigotry aren’t that hard to identify and as far as I’m concerned if you sacrifice truth to ideology, all your other opinions become suspect.
Make no mistake about this, so far Senator Obama has not answered the question about Wright. And the question is about his judgement not any of this other silly stuff. Thats what he is running his campaign on and if anyone thinks its not a legitimate question to ask, well….say hello to President McCain. You arte helping elect him.
My country is shrinking and growing increasingly borderless. Jimmy Carter is still my President, and Bill Moyers is my television media. Pastor Wright is my Pope. My fellow citizens are a small but exceptional circle of educated friends. Commondreams is my wider world of unknown but kindred spirits spread like tiny lights across the darkness of America and the world. A couple of dozen authors live out there too, and are my university. We live dispersed in an eternal hinterland of mediocrity, elbow to elbow with a race of foam peanuts whose speech consists of whatever memes happen to be coming through the pipes - all the historical lies and larcenies and muggings that give it shape and meaning. It is election year in Roboville. They’ve turned up the chatter volume. The nonsense is filled with barnyard passion. Thoughtful people should keep their distance from it. Look what happened to Bill Moyers, from standing too close to the pigpen.
We want to believe in the possibility of a good king, an evolutionary uptick in which the unselfish gene is suddenly dominant and all the stifled creative possibilities of the human spirit are suddenly released like doves. But there is no progressive dialectic. The messianic hopes of mystics and Marxists just gallop along with the rest of it. History is a standing wave, an unchanging status quo, producing at its best some nice violin music and eggplant recipes, at its worst Dick Cheney pheasant shoots and the Spanish Inquisition. I can not bring to mind a time when gentle, intelligent people were given the opportunity to remake the world. We should be grateful that gentle, intelligent people exist at all.
Jesus Christ threw the money-changers out of the temple in a fit of anger and look what happened to him. The American “Christians” are the new Jews screaming: Crucify! Crucify!
I have never been at a religious service where I can agree with everything the pastor or priest or minister or rabbi says. Usually I am having trouble staying awake.
Why should a politician have to endorse his or her minister? Because they all have to play the religion game to be elected. That is the main problem.
I read with interest the comments of Americans. I consider myself a humanist and not one that has the USA tattooed to my backside although I gave three years to the military and so have a right to speak. Nationalism, is always based in me-firstism, let the rest of the world be damned mentality.
The economic system that determines all peoples survival regardless of where they exist, also determines what a country will become, much of it the result of chance. In that regard the USA has been lucky, with well-worn imperialist ideas brought over with the Pilgrims. America has taken this country from the people who were here, the European model, without paying them. Some of us here know the story. The so called, “free market market system”, formerly American capitalism, and now globalization into which it has now morphed. the US with its European allies has created the current means of controlling everything for the few. The G 8 has developed ever-greater means to develop these ideas and to take what it wants from the rest of the world and its own population.
The African Americans, the Africans, the Hispanics, Asians and Indians have been the slave classes that have built the white European and American wealth. The historic exploitation of the working classes of America brought from the world into its “melting pot” with the so-called freedoms and democratic ideals built from the blood spilled to form, compared to the European monarchies and divine kingship, so called Democracy unique in the world. The freedoms bought so dearly, were the first “Divine Kingship” of the “Robber Baron” and now, corporate power elitism.
To keep the masses quiet and to build the lives of Americans, consumer ideology supplanted education, the study human purpose, as a goal in itself. The economic forces, which have built their power, care little for human development and survival. They care largely for their continued power as an end in itself and for the few who have the most based on its protection with a huge military force, hence the oil wars in Iraq, this to support an auto centered disposable consumer society.
The expense of privilege in the community of nations may become the death of the globe and its entire people as a result of the American and European economic system, now out of control. Many American economists, Jeffrey Sachs, Joe Stiglitz, and others view these historical developments as a threat to global harmony and survival.
American wealth once had an altruistic quality about it. The post-World War II USA, developed the Marshal Plan and cared about the condition of the world. Now the top one percent, those who have taken so much, continue to be supported by the thirty percent of Americans who still believe George Bush, and his myth of global superiority at the expense of the rest of the world.
We sit on the edge of an environmental and economic disaster. This American system is out of control and the economic meltdown will continue regardless of who occupies the Oval office. The only difference is that Obama is intelligent enough to know that there are fundamental change needed in the way America and the so-called “free world” do business.
Rev Wright, simply addresses continued black slavery in a world of exploitation of all people led by the US and now the power elite in collusion with the government to continue the “American Dream” mentality, represented now by corporate multilateralism and their wealth and power. Corporate elitism cares for itself alone at the expense of all people, the environment, the human experiment, its freedoms, and so called democratic ideals which has become nothing more than an oligarchy.
We should not be too pejorative about Rev Wright who simply rails against the exploitive aspects of the Western mentality and points out the deficiency in the USA of evolved thinking toward the slave classes and the human species. He, having been able to experience directly because of his skin color these abuses is perhaps too angry which limits his effectiveness. His experience in seeing the wreckage of black America and his intelligence, has caused him to take up the defense of the disenfranchised.
America has a history of caring about others, once a genuine American direction, led by people, despite their failings like: The Kennedy’s, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and so many others who died for their belief in a better America and a better world, caring about humanity.
The media who carries their continued assault against those, who would in any way, attempt to include different thinking to bear on the so called “American Dream” which has become the world’s nightmare must be seen by the masses for what it has become. The media must begin to understand its roll as an objective commentator to the necessary changes that must be made to the USA and the world if humanity is to survive.
the media above all must be changed once again to give democratic exposure to all important ideas. It must present an understanding of the complex thought needed to be brought to bear on global complex issues of survival. A departure from the simplistic superficial treatment ad-nauseam we witness each day which passes for news presented by the Barby-Doll class of newsreader called journalist.