Always Right column as published in Star Newspapers, January 14, 2007
by Fran Eaton
By all indications, we are closer this week to Barack Obama’s announcement he is running for president. He and his wife Michelle are featured on Ebony’s February cover. His book “The Audacity of Hope” hit the New York Times’ best seller list and with Democrats winning the U.S. Senate majority, he is highly sought for political talk shows.
Along with all the speculation comes increased curiosity about Obama’s background and influences. The night he won his U.S. Senate seat, Obama thanked his campaign staff generically and immediately recognized his longtime spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Dr. Wright inspired the title of Obama’s second book.
In 1993, Ebony Magazine recognized Dr. Wright as one of the nation’s top fifteen most influential black pastors. Having pastored Trinity since 1972, Wright’s fiery preaching and community outreach has pushed its membership to nearly 10,000. Chicago personalities such as Oprah Winfrey and local news host Cheryl Burton commonly fill the pews. Over ten percent of Trinity’s congregation can be found in the upper level income bracket.
Obama and Wright, now 65, met twenty years ago when Obama began a Chicago community outreach program after graduating from law school. Boosted by the 60s social upheaval, Wright began in the early 70s to weave political themes into his Sunday sermons. His teachings emphasized African heritage pride, a philosophy known as “Afro-centricism.” Wright is now internationally-renowned for his unique brand of “Afro-centrist Christianity.”
Wright guest lectures in universities worldwide about European writers revising history to deny African-Americans deserved pride in their African origins. In an attempt to correct what Black activists consider historical misperception, Wright passionately emphasizes Africa as the heart of human civilization.
"He gives a contemporary, African-American, Afrocentric flavor to the traditional Black shout," one religious scholar said about Wright’s preaching. "A Wright sermon is a four-course meal: spiritual, biblical, cultural, prophetic."
“Afrocentricity” means Africa and persons of African descent must be seen as proactive subjects within history, rather than passive objects of Western history, writes black scholar Cane Hope Felder.
This emphasis on the black community’s societal contribution is an intrinsic part of Wright’s ministry. Trinity is unique among UCC churches in its motto: “Unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian,” and in its promotion of a 12-point church doctrine adopted in 1982 requiring members to donate to black causes and black leaders who uphold “Black Value System” teachings.
On the other hand, Wright doesn’t hesitate to criticize fellow blacks he views as “political go-alongs.” Condemning black conservative pastors who worked with George W. Bush on faith-based initiatives, Wright says “cooperation preachers,” betray black liberation efforts. He calls anyone who voted for Bush “stupid,” and scorns the rise of blacks to national prominence such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Secretary of Education Rodney Paige, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice, simply because they were appointed by Republican administrations.
Recently I questioned whether a man with such close ties to a church and spiritual advisor that teaches Afrocentricity would feel compelled to politically advocate hot button issues such racial quotas and affirmative action while leading America for eight years.
A Trinity member responded, “I am offended by your insinuation that people cannot be proud and embrace their ethnic heritage without being blinded to the needs and concerns of others.”
“For you to suggest that only members of non-denominational/multi-cultural congregations are open-minded enough to be President is highly misguided and inflammatory,” she wrote.
This lady was understandably offended when I visited her church out of curiosity and came away with questions about the church’s teachings. Those questions became the subject of a column in a city known for its racial strife.
Racial division bothers me. As a firm believer in a Creator and His wisdom and creativity, I believe we are all here because the Creator allowed us to be. I revere Him and His Design of each human. Skin color means no more to me than hair color does. God alone determines who our parents are and when we are allowed to be on this earth.
Elevation of any race over another, especially when preached from a pulpit, should disturb us all. We should question the wisdom and sensitivity of anyone – including Barack Obama -- who can sit under angry teaching year after year and still look to the divisive messenger as a spiritual advisor.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. cautioned against racial supremacy teachings. Two months before the historical march on Washington and his famous Dream speech, King told thousands at a Detroit rally, “I can understand from a psychological point of view why some caught up in the clutches of the injustices surrounding them almost respond with bitterness and come to the conclusion that the problem can’t be solved within, and they talk about getting away from it in terms of racial separation. But even though I can understand it psychologically, I must say to you this afternoon that this isn’t the way,” King said. “Black supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy.”
So were the words of a man whose leadership rightfully shamed a nation into birthing dramatic social changes that would ultimately bear racial justice through the passage of civil and voting rights legislation.
As Obama challenged the nation to set aside differences in his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, he, too, should contemplate any of his own blind spots.
With all the challenges facing America in the next decade, racial division shouldn’t be one of them.
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