Why Is Benedict Right And Wright Wrong?

Tha Artivist Weighs In...Special To W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio...

Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service
In Chicago, Mr. Obama embraced Christianity under the tutelage of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., known for sometimes inflammatory views.

Pope Benedict XVI

Two weeks ago, Pope Benedict XVI made a historic visit to the U.S.A….Many felt that this was a major turning point in public relations for a Pope who is noted as being a strict disciplinarian and was nicknamed "TheRottweiler " during his days as a cardinal in the Vatican…Now the Infallible One can seem to do no wrong and has proven to be just as media savvy if not universally as beloved as his predecessor Pope John Paul II…

And taken a cue from Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI has shown that he has a soft spot for those in pain and suffering because of the effects and imperfections of an all too human institution: The Catholic Church in particular and organized religion in general…Just as Pope John Paul II apologized for The Catholic Church’s involvement in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade & lack of intervention in the Jewish Holocaust, Pope Benedict XVI went out of his way to apologize and meet with several people who had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests…He also went to a synagogue in NYC which further symbolized The Church’s Solidarity with Judaism…That took courage and fortitude as well considering that the German Pope was a former Hitler Youth member while the Rabbi who welcomed the Pope to the synagogue was a Holocaust survivor…Regardless of his personal connection to this horrible chapter in human history, The Pope was still welcomed by NY’s large Jewish population with forgiving open arms…

All in all, in spite of the historic and recent problems of this most powerful of institutions, The Catholic Church proven that its brand is resilient and stronger than ever, a good sign in seemingly forever controversial and gloomy times…

The Verdict Is In: America Loves The Pope

It’s very sad indeed that America can embrace a Pope who is a moral leader and who represents an institution that tries to stand on the principle of moral clarity yet still finds itself muddled and mired in the flaws and contradictions of the human condition and all the while America can not make room in its emotionally obese heart for love and forgiveness for one of her own prophets, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright…Rev. Wright did nothing but tell like it is and called it like it was for nearly 40 years of ministry…Rev. Wright was an activist or change agent in the truest sense of the Prophetic Tradition…He justdidn ’t lead from the pulpit, but he mixed his rhetoric and spirituality with his actions to form a Molotov cocktail for social justice through his innovative if at times misunderstood Chicago-based ministry…

Rev. Wright had the audacity of hope to invest in a community that was ravaged and decimated by institutional racism, communal, spiritual and historical despair…His ministry represents the rose that grew from concrete, blossoming in a place that received the less sunshine and was the most malnourished….
His congregation even produced a Presidential candidate whose historic bid in a nation where the acknowledged original sin was the enslavement of African people seemed so impossible or like a fairy tale until of course recently…

And so to have all of these good and noted works diminished by 15-30 second sound bites taken out of context seems to show that America still has a problem in exploring all the complexities and shortcomings of her national character…Yet instead of analyzing the message, America has in the traditions of Empires/ Superpowers past and present tried to destroy the messenger whose only fault is that the messenger cannot refuse, reject and denounce The Truth…


Jeremiah Wright (second from right), in 1966, as a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman. He is tending to President Lyndon Johnson, for which he was commended (see letter superimposed on photo).

It is truly ironic that a man who served as a proud U.S. Marine and then as a proud U.S. Navy man (actually volunteered and left college to do so unlike Dick "5 Deferments" Cheney and George W. "Missing In Action" Bush), who was a personal medical assistant to U.S. Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson (receiving three letters of commendation from the grateful Pres. Johnson) and who was called by then Pres. Bill Clinton to theWhitehouse in 1998 to provide spiritual counseling and comfort to the President during the Ken Starr Inquisition could ever be accused of being unpatriotic…


Jeremiah Wright (center left), in 1998, greeting President Bill Clinton during a prayer breakfast at the White House.

It is also confusing and sad that the Honorable Rev. Wright could be called a racist by many, but yet his ministry is part of a predominantly White denomination, The United Church of Christ, that cites Rev. Wright’s ministry as a shining light…As a matter of fact United Church of Christ considers Rev. Wright’s Trinity United Church to be a great gift to ‘wider church family’…

I also would suggest people to read the letter put out by Rev. Wright’s denomination in defense of Rev. Wright & Trinity United Church of Christ:
http://www.ucc.org/news/chicagos-trinity-ucc-is.html




I wish people would actually study the last 4 years of Dr. King’s life…The Black Church on a whole was not opened to King’s radical message of love and change…His famous Letter From A Birmingham Jail was addressed to Black clergy(the moral leaders of the Black community) in particular…During the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Dr. King’s father was told by powerful members of the Black Baptist preachers fraternity to go to Montgomery and bring his rebel rouser son back to Atlanta to keep him quiet…In 1967, Dr. King was dis-invited from the Whitehouse for his outspokenness against the Vietnam War, he went from being the Nobel Peace Prize Winner and Time Man of the Year in 1964 to being labeled by the AP Gallop Polls as being one of the ten least liked Americans…There were pulpits in the Black Church that Dr. King wasn’t allowed to speak from…Rev. Wright has nothing on Dr. King when it came to the rhetoric condemning the antics, tactics and character of the good ole U.S. of A. which Dr. King called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" ...Dr. King, not one to chide away from controversy or the truth, also stated "America was founded on genocide, and a nation that is founded on genocide is destructive"…Dr. King also went on to state that "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death"...He also accused the majority of White America as being racist and was very wary of liberals, both Black & White , who advocated charity over justice, moderation over expediency, and waiting over perseverance…Dr. King also endorsed the redistribution of wealth and reparations for African Americans descended from enslaved Africans…

40 years later people forget or rather choose to not remember just how unpopular doing the right thing remains today…Jesus was killed for telling and living the truth and so was Dr. King…Today instead of killing the flesh they are trying to kill the character and spirit of Rev. Wright…However, if history is any indicator, Rev. Wright will be resurrected and vindicated with his message in tact…

Living in a world of no snitching and prosperity preaching, people have forgotten or choose not to remember what it feels like to really struggle for something that is righteous and just…Just like the days of old where Jesus would chase the money changers out of the temples and turn over the gaming tables…Unfortunately, today like it was in Jesus’ time, evil men prosper when good men do nothing still rings painfully true…Considering what’s going on in the world today we need silver tongued Prophets like Rev. Wright to keep many of us honest, cognizant and on the right path…

Malcolm once said that the media has the power to make your enemy your friend and your friend your enemy…Many of our most celebrated institutions were built out of sin…The United States, The Vatican and yes even The Black Church…

They say that the most segregated time in America is Sunday morning…The reason for that could be traced back to the fact that White Christians did not allow their Black congregants including Richard Allen and Absalom Jones to be seated in St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in the ‘City of Brotherly Love’ and Birthplace of the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia…Philadelphia by the way is also the birth place of Rev. Jeremiah Wright...So the Black members led by Allen and Jones staged a walkout and form the influential A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) Church…

It’s time for America to start embracing her better angels and to reject and denounce her demon spawns…
We have a choice to make…Like Dr. King said “WE CAN LIVE TOGETHER AS BROTHERS OR PERISH TOGETHER AS FOOLS”…If we choose the latter then like the literary prophet James Baldwin (a minister himself) wrote “the fire next time”…

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: Black Liberation Theology 101:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/03/23/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio

The Rev. Wright Controversy Told Through Video Media:
http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2008/03/rev-wright-controversy-told-through.html

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special: Barack Obama & The Hip Hop Effect On American Politics:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/02/10/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-Radio

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special~Eyewitness To The Crucifixion: The Last Days Of MLK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2008/04/07/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio-1