Sunday, March 16, 2008

What's wrong with Wright

I won't defend the words Rev. Wright uses, but I understand where he's coming from. It may not be helpful for Obama in this election cycle for the rest of the country to know the truth about America's history of questionable intervention in the affairs of other nations, but Rev. Wright is at least being truthful with his words, as inflammatory as they are.

Rev. Wright is not the only religious figure to use hateful and angry words, and even deliver those words just as passionately. If you've ever been to an evangelical church, you'd see plenty of white guys screaming hateful and dangerous words to their congregations, and sometimes these congregations numbers are massive!

But the media does not seem motivated to point this out. Do we ask these worshipers to disavow their preachers? Do we assume that they believe exactly those words they hear from the pulpit? In the Catholic churches where the priests were molesting children, did anyone think that the churchgoers were also molesting children. Were any of these people asked to leave those churches? When Jimmy Swaggart was busted for screwing whores, did anyone think that his congregation was screwing whores too? Were they asked to distance themselves from Swaggart? What about Jim Baker?

I won't make excuses for Rev. Wright, but I think black folks from his generation can be forgiven for being a little angry. Any white person that doesn't agree also doesn't have a right to say anything on this matter because they haven't had to suffer the same injustices as black people. That is fact, plain and simple.

I think before folks come down with a case of superiority, they need to look inside and around themselves to see if they're guilty of ever saying something they wish they could take back, or if they still associate with people who have said anything nasty or despicable.

Clinton supporters, I'm interested in your perspective on this.

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