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        Wednesday April 30, 2008

        Why Wright's Black Church is Different

        wright3.jpgOne of the key arguments Jeremiah Wright has advanced in defending himself against charges of radicalism is that criticisms of him by the news media and by conservatives represent an attack on the entire black church. God-o-Meter, though, has been struck by the number of religious experts who've noted that Wright's Church, Trinity UCC, is not a typical black church--that it's much more progressive, intellectual, and affluent.

        Quoting from an Obama biography, The New Republic's Noam Scheiber argues that those qualities--at least the first two--are what drew Obama to Wright in the 1980s:

        Wright remains a maverick among Chicago's vast assortment of black preachers. He will question Scripture when he feels it forsakes common sense; he is an ardent foe of mandatory school prayer; and he is a staunch advocate for homosexual rights, which is almost unheard-of among African-American ministers. Gay and lesbian couples, with hands clasped, can be spotted in Trinity's pews each Sunday. Even if some blacks consider Wright's church serving only the bourgeois set, his ministry attracts a broad cross section of Chicago's black community. Obama first noticed the church because Wright had placed a "Free Africa" sign out front to protest continuing apartheid. The liberal, Columbia-educated Obama was attracted to Wright's cerebral and inclusive nature, as opposed to the more socially conservative and less educated ministers around Chicago. Wright developed into a counselor and mentor to Obama as Obama sought to understand the power of Christianity in the lives of black Americans, and as he grappled with the complex vagaries of Chicago's black political scene.

        That helps explain why Obama grew close enough to Wright to consider him family. But it also sheds some light on Wright's fierce iconoclastic streak, which has come back to haunt Obama. Rather than exemplifying the black church, Wright seemed to have rebelled against it. He did the same thing to Obama this week.

        Filed Under: Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, Trinity United Church of Christ

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        To Whom it Wrightly Concerns:

        Reverent Wright has proclaimed that God should damn America, and certainly not bless it. Thus he reverentially invokes the holy condemnation of the United States. Reverend Wright has proclaimed that an attack on his politico-theology is an attack on all Black American churches. Thus he reverentially announces that he represents all such churches. Reverend Wright has assumed a title that connotes the necessary reverence due him for his closeness to the most Reverend of them all. Thus he reverentially acknowledges the divine validity of all his proclamations. Therefore all African-American attendees of African-American churches must be praying for the dissolution of the very nation that allows them the freedom to worship as they choose. Or is it remotely probable that Reverend Wright is as humanly fallible as those he divinely despises? His appeal to wrath surpasses his appeal to reason. But Reason in its originally transcendental sense as the intrinsic disposition of Logos has drastically waned. Indeed, the mere mention of it is commonly derided, often tacitly, as the product of Intellect, itself often derisible as immaterial to the necessary material of the good life, which we would have if only God would damn the forces that prevent it. Is it reasonable to presume that our deplorable absence of eden is the despicable fault of those who, by contrast, make it obvious? In contradistinction to the material sort, the spiritual communism of a community of spirit must be had, but not until...

        Ut Intelligar Precor.
        Ioannes.

        Sadly!!!! The Preacher did not speak out of turn, most thinking persons out side America, had a strong feel, That FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS something tragic was on its way to America. However we just did not know from where.
        Millions of people were Angry at what American foreign policy did in their Country in their support of despotic minority ruling class and governments in their homelands.
        Some points to ponder are the economic, and trade policies the USA forced on them through the IMF.
        This caused massive interest payment at times 50% of their GDP leaving no money to fund schools hospitals and infrastructures, while the Banks in the USA got richer, and richer.
        USA farm bill subsisted food which the USA forced these Countries to buy at a price which stifled and bankrupting local farmers. Most of these farmers now are working in the USA and they are Angry
        They were also Angry at the USA’s Machiavellian methods used in their trade and economic policies, in Latin Americans ,Asians, Africans in Africa , Palestinians, ,Huge populations of the Arab world were Angry, some Eastern European Nations were Angry.
        And finally you have a huge Angry population at home. ( If you don’t know what is fueling it then you wont see it when it’s about to blow)
        I think the preacher is on message!!!
        You boys down there have cooked yourselves a nasty brew at home and abroad .
        In my opinion, Bombing , shooting and jailing you way out of it is futile, it intensifies the potency of the Brew , which you will one day have to drink.
        You have been able to control you angry disenfranchised population at home by psychologically turning it on itself, for the time being, however that anger will turn outwards someday.
        We are now seeing the opening of a second front against the disenfranchised, and that is by the cunning fostering of America’s Ethnics minority wars, nurtured and implemented by the media.
        Will that save America’s BLIND RULING CLASS from her angry disenfranchised and psychologically, manipulated ,dysfunctional millions, now residing inside and outside the USA ?
        Will this unsavory manipulative selfish crewel navel gazing, blind ruling class in the USA, continue to do their dastardly deeds while attempting to hide in Europe’s bosom,? Will they continue to invoke and imbed themselves deep within, and behind the screen of White American style freedom,(a term originally coined by Western Europeans aristocrats as a badge of Ethnic and cultural Superiority over none Europeans)
        This was a brilliant psychological move , the down trodden peasant class of Europe was given a social leg up, they now saw themselves as no longer as Europe’s dregs of society
        They are now “white”, and God has given them the right to race around, looting and plundering at will, the Chinese, Japanese Africans Indians Arabs North and South American Natives, Australians ect.
        . They have hung on to the “white banner” with fiendish reverence, while wrapping it in Christianity
        The poignant part of it is they have no remorse for what they did and what they have become.
        It is time you boys set about healing you own country before it destroys itself from within.
        Or just take The Rev Wright behind his church and Lynch his black mouthy ass. Or you could character assassinate him.
        Thoughtful Canadian

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        The God-o-Meter (pronounced Gah-DOM-meter) scientifically measures factors such as rate of God-talk, effectiveness—saying God wants a capital gains tax cut doesn't guarantee a high rating—and other top-secret criteria (Actually, the adjustment criteria are here). Click a candidate's head to get his or her latest God-o-Meter reading and blog post. And check back often. With so much happening on the campaign trail, God-o-Meter is constantly recalibrating!

        God-o-Meter blogger Dan Gilgoff is Beliefnet's Politics Editor. A former political correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, he is author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War.

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