March 26, 2008
Wright’s comments lose candidate vote
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory diatribe cost Sen. Barack Obama my vote. Sen. Obama is one of the most gifted men I have ever seen in public life. Articulate, poised, intelligent, insightful. I have every confidence America would have a president in Barack Obama we could be proud of again.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s comments— actually the African American community’s response to them— concern me. If Rev. Wright was one man trapped in the sixties, a holdover from America’s embarrassing past, a grown man still dealing with a trauma he experienced in his youth, the anger he expressed could be excused.
The hard reality is he is a leader, role model, and spokesman for much of the Black community. His audience that day did not sit in polite silence, nor did they receive his hate-speech with jaw dropping stunned disbelief, but rather affirmed his rhetoric with yes-yes nods, surely a few “amen’s” peppered the auditorium; saying “amen” to a preacher is like saying “sic-em” to a dog.
In religious circles what Rev. Wright did would be called “preaching to the choir,” in other words preaching to an audience certain to accept your message. If Rev. Wright would have given that same speech in a “lion’s den,” perhaps a joint session of congress, with all those gray haired, white faced, good old boys starring back at him Rev. Jeremiah Wright would now be a hero of mine. Instead he is what I perceive to be as an embarrassment to the cause of Christ.
It’s hard to believe Rev. Wright spent over 30 years in the pulpit; could his persona really symbolize his idea of Christ likeness?