Posted by
flagwaver on Tuesday, May 06, 2008 7:35:56 PM
After listening to the rants and raves of Jeremiah Wright, his usurping of the power of God to condemn a nation, and his attempts to turn the beat around so that those challenging him were enemies of the "black church" the thing that has bothered me most is his attempts to make himself the avatar of what the black church is. And what has bothered me more is the rush by many liberals, who have probably never stepped foot into a "black" church, to prop up this man's outrageous claims to be representative of the church as a whole. It is not a shock to see them do this, since it allows them to continue to see all blacks as a monolithic entity, but it rankles nonetheless.
What I want to say here is that Jeremiah Wright may bear some striking resemblance to many pastors and ministers that I have known in his style, but he is definitely not the voice of the black church at all. Except for a foray into the Mormon church as a young man, I have been a member of the "black church" for my entire life, and never have I heard such vitriol coming from the pulpit. I have heard ministers level criticisms at the government for programs or initiatives that were seen as promoting a lowering of moral standards in society, but never have I heard the dissemination of crackpot conspiracy theories (the G invented AIDS, the G set up the drug trade) come from the pulpit of any church I ever set foot in. Never.
But I suppose that it comes from the fact that the churches that I have attended have not been aligned with "Black Liberation Theology." The churches I have attended, and I would wager most black churches, do not subscribe to any theology that attempts to bring God down to take part in the petty squabbles of mankind; we never fixated on worshiping a God that was black because we were too busy worshiping a transcendant, omniscient, omnipotent God. We never dwelled on the struggles in our lives as a function of the "oppression of the white man", but we attacked them as obstacles that were to be overcome by our faith in God. And we certainly never spent our time parrotting the Nation of Islam inspired notion of white people as "devils", because we knew full well that there was a real adversary who was actively seeking to devour all those he could, and to decieve even the elect if it were possible.
The problem with "Black Liberation Theology" is that it neither represents blacks, nor does it lead to liberation. Black people are much too diverse to be represented by any one person, institution, or ideology and that is especially true in our spiritual lives. There are blacks who are Christians, some are Muslims, some are NOI, some are atheist, and some are animists. And that is just a short list, so the idea that Black Liberation Theology can represent all of these people, or can give voice to their hopes, dreams, fears, or frustrations is laughable. And it is not liberating, since it binds the believer to past slights and traps him in a place of bitterness and recrimination. It breeds distrust and animosity towards our fellow men and offers no chance of reconciliation or forgiveness. In short, it stands in direct opposition to the true Gospel of Christ which is to set the captives free; free from their baser natures, free from fear, free from anger, and free from sin.
And it is an affront to all members of the "black church" for Jeremiah Wright to wrap himself in the cloth in order to shield himself from the fallout of his own decidedly un-Christian words and actions. He is attempting to use his blackness and the church as bulwark against thise that find his words and actions reprehensible. And by doing this he drags all of us into the gutter with him, especially when other church leaders do not stand up to make it known that he does not represent us. There is no room to circle the wagons for Wright here, because to do so brings dishonor to all God fearing members of the "black church." He does not represent us, he does not speak for us, and the attention beng paid to him is NOT an attack on the "black church".
It is his personal chickens coming home to roost. And as Malcom X so famously said, " Chickens coming home to roost never made me sad, it always made me glad."