Land v. Dreher on Wright... who is right?

Dino--

Dreher's response was right on the mark, but Kuo's post was right on the mark, too. JWalking has not always shown the graciousness that Kuo says he aspires to. Dreher's response pointed out the most egregious failures. But I believe Kuo when he says that he truly does aspire to a certain level of graciousness.

What I've found odd... and disturbing, because this post has generated the most comment although several posts around it are far more worth reading... is that both Kuo & Dreher stooped to ad hominem against each other (Dreher less mildly, to be fair). Dreher's response was fair, but it was also acid.

And was it necessary? Just a few weeks earlier JWalking commended Dreher's excellent column about the "chief of sinners." Surely Rod Dreher didn't suddenly believe that Kuo thought he was a bad bad man?

(my earlier comment accusing Larry of baiting was meanspirited and unfair. I take it back to the extent that damage is undoable, and would be grateful to see it scrubbed)

Richard Land was playing the usual safe alabastar game of Can't-We-All-Just-Get-Along. Land acknowledged that we indeed have a huge problem with the bane of socially ingrained xenophobia in America that has gone unaddressed for centuries the same way we banaly recite the I Have A Dream speech two or three times every February in the name of Black History. Land's observation of the racism that is alive and well everywhere in America was just another insincere trite acknowledgement of the obvious by a white man out to publicly absolve himself for being a beneficiary of the very curse that still afflicts the son of slaves, the sons of Natives who were taken in genocidal agression, and the rampant sexism that gave us the burning of women as witches. Yes, it's terrible, but Land will literally be damned before he will earnestly commit to working to resolve and restore the human community of this terrible thing.

Rod Dreher, however, was a racist a$$ on an entirely malevolent level though. I don't know if Rod is jealous or just hateful. Both negative sentiments bled ruthlessly through Dreher's caustic commentary on Dr. Wright's just receiving the home his congregants have built for him as a retirement gift in appreciation for his service to them! One would think that the man had fleeced the planet to illegally acquire prime real estate in Heaven by the way Dreher went on about a $1.6 million home in the greater Chicago area. Incidentally, $1.6 million is not that lavish for a home anywhere in Cook County, Illinois, where some studio towne homes start at just under $500,000.00.

"Wow. For Rev. Wright, fish don't burn in the kitchen, beans don't burn on the grill. Who knew that kind of thing was even possible in the U.S. of KKK-A.? See, Barack's not even president yet, and already things are changing for the better. Keep hope alive!" That was naked bigotry on too many levels to say. Yet, this was Dreher's "contextual" judgement of Wright, based on a third party's stereotypically cliched observation of mega-ministries that have thrown off the shackles of poverty to hypocritcally put on the blessed garments of God's ordained prosperity in the tradition of Jabez. That third party's observation was negatively colored by a Fox News report of the congregants at Trinity UCC rewarding their pastor for his many years of service to an entire community.

The truth is that Hannity had been beating that most provocative 3 to 5 minutes of Dr. Wright's sermon for months, with no one paying him much mind. Hannity finally got his prime window of opportunity to use the well pared footage when it became obvious that Hillary no longer had a snowball's chance in hell of beating Obama, who just happens to be polling better than Insane McCain for November. The thing is, though, Hillary is Rupert Murdoch's choice for President, and Rupert Murdoch is Hannity's boss and owner. So, to distract the nation from real issues that would prove conducive to making a reason decision in the voting booth in November, Fox News dedicated hours of air time to instigating the nationalistic xenophiboc attack on Pastor Wright for his anti-American, pro-Black, treasonous speech against a Nation at war in the Middle East, based on a criminally selected few minutes of a 30-minute sermon rather deliberately taken way out of context. As a result, all anyone has heard was GOD DAMN AMERIKKKA! That's right - GOD DAMN AMERIKKKA!!!

What all these detractors need to do is to go back and view the entire sermon in question in the true context of Dr. Wright's legitimate critique of the Nation attacked on 9/11 that subsequently attacked and still occupy a sovereign nation that was neither responsible for nor ever linked to the destructive attacks on American soil that fateful Tuesday in 2001. Dr. Wright is not the only American who has been courageous enough to call America out on her many political sins and global offenses. Most of the sermon in question is a collection of quotes delivered by white Christian patriots who share Wright's concern that American policies serve the ruling elite at the expense of the most vulnerable. Countless abolitionists maintained then and many activist still agree that America was founded on an occidental heritage of colonial imperialism and xenophobic hegemony that has wrought some of the greatest atrocities known to man, slavery and genocide being among the greatest of our sins.

I am certain that Dr. Jeremiah Wright loves his country, because, like his namesake the Prophet Jeremiah, he told his countrymen the truth they most definitely did not want to hear. Contemporary America wants to hear that we have resolved the issue of the socially engrained bigotry that benefits the majority of her citizens in complete oblivion of the suffering of people of color still seen socially as second class citizens. We want to throw up our progress as a demonstration of all being right with the world. We want to stop people of color to stop singing We Shall Overcome and start singing that We Have Oversome because, for the majority, this is as many and as much as can be withstood if our American 'heritage' is to maintained in that manner that preserves the status quo in tact. We can't possibly dare to have a true America if the current majority is displaced or any-what changed. We must keep things 'right' to preserve our traditions and a coyly crafted history that blankets foundational crimes to perpetually glorify and annoint the intended beneficiaries of our Christian heritage of Manifest Destiny by mandate of Divine Providence, and other legendary wives tales.

Thus, a National outcry for the severed head of Wright is consistent. After all, how dare Dr. Wright use his pulpit to point out to that America has ignored too long the glaring reality that peace is inextricably connected to the resolution of the issues of poverty, hunger, guilt, shame, and human rights. How dare Wright point us in the direction of the truth that will make us all FREE AT LAST! He dared to step away from the Fox talking points that made the majority comfortable with us all having overcome, to alert us that America has not come over far enough to righteousness and justice. He let it out that our policies are evil in their intent and their purpose. Wright loved America enough to make us uncomfortable, mad, cry, hurt, and aggitated with the reality that we are anything these days but Christ-like and Blessed.

Dr. Wright has been working to eradicate prejudice and bigotry for years. He's also worked in the vineyard of his community faithfully enough for years. He's still fighting for justice, peace, and equality for all Americans, hoping to finally legitimately validate that we as a single nation of people have resolved the unfinished business of affirming for all the world that all humanity is a single race of people. That the limited twit demographic of Fox News viewers can still only hear that Wright said GOD DAMN AMERICA bespeaks more about idiots who waste time swilling at Sean Hannity's crass tittivision infotaiment troughs than about Dr. Wright's life and works.

Bigotry is a serious sin that many christians are still covering up.It is a sin that causes many of us to point the finger at someone else,rather than to look deep into our own hearts. it is that time.