Anybody see Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Moyer?

[Don Kiyoti]

Interesting man. He was a Marine and a Navy Hospital Corpsman . They showed a photo of Wright in the operating attending to President Johnson after his gall bladder surgery.

To listen to him speak quietly and sincerely about theology and ministry is quite a contrast to the raving nutcase he's been portrayed as by some elements of the media. Listening to his famous statements in the context of a compete sermon is also illuminating.

My impression is of a man who can express anger in passionate and uncomfortable ways, but hateful or subversive he is not.

[RgrF]

...and John Kerry wasn't a coward or traitor. It's the right wing spin machine at full tilt.

[Don Kiyoti]

Huh?

[RgrF]

I was talking about how the main stream media, fed by the right wing, take an episode like the video of Rev Wright and turn it into a definition of the man when he clearly is not what they want you to think he is.

It's all a sick political game.

[Don Kiyoti]

Gotcha.

[Black Landlord]

You could infer the context appropriately from all the misused soundbytes if you really wanted to.
I find him very likeable, and I think Obama might have been better off explaining his comments than distancing himself

[lafinfil]

I caught it last night too - very interesting interview.

He certainly was far from the "raving nutcase" he's been made out to be (no big surprise)

It was very interesting to see his "God Damn America" comments put back into context with
the rest of the sermon - comments on how America had treated Native Americans, Japanese during WW II etc ...

As he pointed out the basis of "damning" someone / something is condemning them, which in the religious tradition
is creating a separation from God or being unworthy of preservation by God.

As he was pointing out, we (the USA) had in the past treated many of it's lesser poorly.
Perhaps he picked a particularly raw time to make this proclamation (right after 911) but at the
same time it was a time when peoples eyes were being opened to the fact that not everyone loved us.

When Moyers asked him about Obama's "distancing" himself from him I thought his comments about
"he's a politician and says what he needs to say, and I'm a pastor and say what I need to say" very true.

All politicians say what they need to, even the ones we like. I would find it easier to vote for one
that are realistic about where we are and what needs to be done. Instead we get happy talk
about "vote for me and I'll fix everything" This comes from both parties.

Pastors need to speak the truth and sometimes that truth is unpopular and we don't like it so much.
Sometimes we have to be challenged and have it pointed out that we as a nation are not always perfect
and that we can all do better than we have at times in the past.

Anyway - that's the message I took away from his "rant"

[Black Landlord]

[quote lafinfil]
All politicians say what they need to, even the ones we like. I would find it easier to vote for one
that are realistic about where we are and what needs to be done. Instead we get happy talk
about "vote for me and I'll fix everything" This comes from both parties.
That's a pretty good capture of the essence of what's been disturbing about this election.

[Dennis S]

I agree with the above. I see why Obama went there 20 years. He's a good preacher. Of course, I'm sure no right-wingers even saw the show, or if they did, they wouldn't let the facts and truth change their minds.

[Hibidder]

I allowed him his defense that he was "taken out of context" so I downloaded the entire sermon(s) in podcast form.......
The "context" was worse than even the little bits I have heard. There was naked race-hatred, hatred of the
US and its Laws and the Constitution, blame whitey for everything, all the time. And, oh, yeah, we are owed!
No amount of context can justify shouting "G__ D___ America!" - particularly with such joy and enthusiasm.
Pay up, sucka. Reparations Now!