Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Barack Obama’s home church on the south side of Chicago, knows a thing or two about preaching. It’s clear the aptly-named Reverend Wright understands there is a place in the pulpit for righteous anger.
A “jeremiad” is a spoken or written work lamenting the state of society and cautioning the powers that be to change their ways. The name is derived from the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, who foretold the collapse of the Kingdom of Judah for having broken covenant with God.
Reverend Wright has come under attack for two jeremiads in particular. In a 2003 sermon at the Trinity United Church of Christ, Wright preached this: “The government gives them drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God bless America.’ No, no, no, not God bless America. God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent Americans. God damn American for treating our citizens as less than human.”
Critics – white critics, to be more precise – are expressing shock (shock!) that a black preacher would describe America’s treatment of poor black men as damnable. Presumably the good Reverend should have been more nuanced in his expression.
I am sure the critics would not dispute the facts. America was built on the backs of African and African-American slaves. The struggles for abolition and civil rights cost inordinate amounts of blood. Racism remains a persistent feature of the American cultural landscape.
But the critics would have had Jeremiah Wright preach that these things are … what? Regrettable? Unfortunate? The gall of the man, to say that American racism is damnable.
The other jeremiad for which Reverend Wright is being pilloried is one in which he asserted that the 9/11 attacks on New York represented American “chickens coming home to roost.”
Perhaps the metaphor is too complex for Reverend Wright’s critics to understand?
Americans may like to pretend that they are a peace-loving people, but the historical record is clear. Throughout its history the United States has sought military solutions to international problems. (For a 90-second video summarizing the history of American military involvements see www.mapsofwar.com.)
Should a nation which routinely intervenes in the affairs of other nations expect never to come under attack itself?
Reverend Wright is guilty of good “exegesis.” He takes Biblical passages, extracts from them their essence, and applies them creatively to contemporary problems. That he does so sometimes in the context of a “jeremiad” is not to be condemned. It is to be commended.
Most preachers are afraid to say frankly what they really think the Bible says. They are afraid because they know that if they say what they really think the Bible says, they will catch hell from churchgoers who disagree with them. What results is “least common denominator” preaching, preaching which never gives anyone offense.
Some churches – some black churches, especially – have done a better job than others of maintaining a tradition known as “freedom of the pulpit.” The idea is that when it comes to the Sunday sermon, preachers should feel free to call things as they see them. Through prayer and study and self-discipline preachers can hope that the way they see things comes into line with the way God sees things.
Do preachers always get it right? Of course not.
But here is one vote for hoping that preachers across America don’t stop trying. And here’s one vote for hoping that the current controversy that swirls around Reverend Wright doesn’t forever banish jeremiads from American pulpits.
God forbid that America’s preachers end up sounding like her politicians.
A “jeremiad” is a spoken or written work lamenting the state of society and cautioning the powers that be to change their ways. The name is derived from the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, who foretold the collapse of the Kingdom of Judah for having broken covenant with God.
Reverend Wright has come under attack for two jeremiads in particular. In a 2003 sermon at the Trinity United Church of Christ, Wright preached this: “The government gives them drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God bless America.’ No, no, no, not God bless America. God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent Americans. God damn American for treating our citizens as less than human.”
Critics – white critics, to be more precise – are expressing shock (shock!) that a black preacher would describe America’s treatment of poor black men as damnable. Presumably the good Reverend should have been more nuanced in his expression.
I am sure the critics would not dispute the facts. America was built on the backs of African and African-American slaves. The struggles for abolition and civil rights cost inordinate amounts of blood. Racism remains a persistent feature of the American cultural landscape.
But the critics would have had Jeremiah Wright preach that these things are … what? Regrettable? Unfortunate? The gall of the man, to say that American racism is damnable.
The other jeremiad for which Reverend Wright is being pilloried is one in which he asserted that the 9/11 attacks on New York represented American “chickens coming home to roost.”
Perhaps the metaphor is too complex for Reverend Wright’s critics to understand?
Americans may like to pretend that they are a peace-loving people, but the historical record is clear. Throughout its history the United States has sought military solutions to international problems. (For a 90-second video summarizing the history of American military involvements see www.mapsofwar.com.)
Should a nation which routinely intervenes in the affairs of other nations expect never to come under attack itself?
Reverend Wright is guilty of good “exegesis.” He takes Biblical passages, extracts from them their essence, and applies them creatively to contemporary problems. That he does so sometimes in the context of a “jeremiad” is not to be condemned. It is to be commended.
Most preachers are afraid to say frankly what they really think the Bible says. They are afraid because they know that if they say what they really think the Bible says, they will catch hell from churchgoers who disagree with them. What results is “least common denominator” preaching, preaching which never gives anyone offense.
Some churches – some black churches, especially – have done a better job than others of maintaining a tradition known as “freedom of the pulpit.” The idea is that when it comes to the Sunday sermon, preachers should feel free to call things as they see them. Through prayer and study and self-discipline preachers can hope that the way they see things comes into line with the way God sees things.
Do preachers always get it right? Of course not.
But here is one vote for hoping that preachers across America don’t stop trying. And here’s one vote for hoping that the current controversy that swirls around Reverend Wright doesn’t forever banish jeremiads from American pulpits.
God forbid that America’s preachers end up sounding like her politicians.
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