In interviews at churches in cities and towns including Charlotte, Greensboro, Lumberton and Goldsboro, ministers expressed the view that Obama and Wright had been attacked by a superficial and biased news media. Many said they were teaching Wright’s sermons in Bible study classes. They are delivering lectures on the roots of Wright’s style of ministry and preaching against what they see as attempts to make Wright a divisive figure.
“People get fired up when they see people trying to scapegoat a presidential candidate because of a pastor,” said the Reverend Dr. William Barber II, the pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro and the president of the state branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “And No. 2, the fact that you’re beating up on someone that’s very profound and very prophetic.”
But many parishioners are not nearly as sympathetic to Wright, saying they are disappointed with him for taking a personal dispute public with little concern for the harm it would do to the Obama campaign. (This sentiment is particularly strong among younger voters.) Others call Wright arrogant and untrustworthy, and still others say he is fighting old fights.
“He needs to take the political and keep it separate from the spiritual,” said Rita Harrison, 48, an Obama supporter who was cutting hair at Allison’s Salon in Whiteville. “Why would you risk this man’s campaign because of some personal comments? Because that’s what it is, it’s personal.”
I was at home when the original uproar about the Rev. Wright’s comments hit the news. Several black Christians from the Raleigh area called the local talk radio show to say that they had wide experience with black churches in NC and did not hear views like Wright’s expressed in sermons around the state. Most pastors, they said, focus on the biblical message and personal sin and responsible behavior. I hope and believe that Obama’s and Wright’s church is well outside the mainstream of black Christianity in America.
The difference is that Obama was not just a ‘person in the pew’, he counted Wright as a ‘mentor’ — which is a very influential relationship — as well as a friend, Wright preformed the wedding ceremony of Barak and Michelle, baptised their children, and served as the head of at least one Obama campaign committee (on religion and politics?). Obama even named one of his books based on a phrase from a Wright sermon.
That’s more than just an average parishoner/pastor relationship.
Peace
Jim Elliott <><
I see the problem from a logical base being: A) If Wright is truely prophetic and speaking the truth then: “Senator Obama is just another politician doing what politicians do” ( a quote form Wright) or B) If Wright is a nut job and what Wright said last week, that so outraged Obama, is nothing new ( and from sermons of the past it isn’t) why did it take Senator Obama a nationally televised speach and twenty years to “wake up”? Either way I guess Wright IS NOT LIKE HIS WHITE GRAND MOTHER whom he CAIN’T DISAVOW!!!!
I concur with #1.
It is salubrious for the political process that this has been publicized; indeed, it deserves greater publicity. At the same time, the reporting should be accurate for all the candidates. Similar examples of questionable judgment or affiliation with, err, ‘unusual’ causes, should receive like attention.
I take great exception with those who believe Wright should have remained silent for fear of risking the campaign.
If affiliation with Wright, as vitriolic and venomous as he is, could risk the campaign, then maybe it should.