The rantings of Barack Obama's pastor sound strange to most Americans, Christian or non-Christian, black or white. Yet to some in the media, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's preaching is in the "mainstream" of Christian doctrine.
Take the Chicago Sun-Times's David Roeder, reporting on Trinity United Church of Christ's (TUCC) Easter Sunday service:
Theirs is a mainstream Christian theology, but shaped by oppression that they feel yields a connection to the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. It's a church they said most Americans could embrace if they only got beyond media sound bites.
Roeder noted that TUCC, as it proudly declares on its Web site, is "Unshamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian." The TUCC Web site also celebrates the church's identity as "an African people" that "remain[s] 'true to our native land,' the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."
Now, of course, there's a wide array of debate among "mainstream" Christians over varying points of Christian doctrine, both between and within denominations, but the notion of ethnocentric identity within the church itself is alien to the preaching and teaching with which most American Christians, black or white, would be familiar:
- "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 3:28)
- "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him." (Rom. 10:12)
- "Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."(Col. 3:11)
- "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Rev. 7:9-10)
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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Its 10am on Sunday Morning...
March 24, 2008 - 13:59 ET by pearlIts 10am on Sunday Morning...
Sound bites?
March 24, 2008 - 14:11 ET by Army Brat"It's a church they said most Americans could embrace if they only got beyond media sound bites."
Rather than sound bites...they seem like full meals to me.
Hatred for America.
9/11 conspiracy insanity.
Aids created by whitey to keep the black man down total insanity.
I'm full already.
Happy Trails...
Black Liberation Theology
March 24, 2008 - 14:22 ET by slpRev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., and his successor, Rev. Otis Moss, III, preach Black Liberaton Theology.
Neither Black Liberation Theology or Liberation Theology are mainstream Christian theology in America.
Roeder is either a liar or uninformed.
Pardon the pun, but
March 24, 2008 - 14:22 ET by mattmPardon the pun, but couldn't the Sun-Times piece be considered a 'whitewash'?
Typical whitewash people
March 24, 2008 - 14:25 ET by pearlThe folks at the Sun-Times are just typical whitewash people
ROFLOL!
March 24, 2008 - 14:28 ET by Gary P JacksonROFLOL!
The Gospel of Judas
March 24, 2008 - 14:25 ET by acumenWhen it comes to the demedia's candidate, their ideology, their policy or beliefs, the end always justifies their means -- At any cost, at any cost...salvation not excluded.
Mainstream Media and Religion
March 24, 2008 - 14:25 ET by Kirk TurnerThe mainstream media wouldn't know mainstream Christian theology if it introduced itself and gave them its card. History shows that, to the dominant media in this country (and Europe), religion is as alien a concept as sex cults were to the Victorian English.
I've been attending church
March 24, 2008 - 15:01 ET by rbosqueI've been attending church all my life and I have never heard any preacher talk like that.
David Roeder's had too many 'shrooms.
"The TUCC Web site also
March 24, 2008 - 15:47 ET by QueenMum"The TUCC Web site also celebrates the church's identity as "an African people" that "remain[s] 'true to our native land,' the mother continent, the cradle of civilization."
I would like to see a survey taken in the Chicago TUCC which asks how many members are first generation immigrants from Africa. Nothing wrong with wanting to embrace one's heritage. But I would guess that the majority of the black members of this church are American citizens; that is, they were born in the U.S.A. Their native land is America. And if they're not willing to pledge allegiance to America, then they can fairly be labeled un/anti-American. And if this is so, then how dare they avail themselves of all the rights of a U.S. citizen - including the right to vote. Let them try to cast a vote in any country in Africa without applying for citizenship. I doubt that their African "identity" qualifies them per se.
To some this all may sound purely racist. But the point I'm trying to make is that the leaders in this church are obviously pushing an anti-American agenda based on perceived "disenfranchisement" of American blacks.
P.S. The naming of Africa as the "cradle of civilization" is questionable. According to what I learned in World History, Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization. I would guess there's confusion re: this label because of the anthropological findings in Africa purported to be the earliest humans. The presence of humans does not a civilization make.
I am the exotic Queen Mum, and I approved this message.
Good point. I've been to
March 24, 2008 - 16:18 ET by rbosqueGood point.
I've been to Africa. Although it's a beatiful continent I wouldn't live there and neither would anyone else (black or white).
QM - I agree with your
March 24, 2008 - 21:21 ET by Cape Conservativeobservations completely! If the members of that "church" truly believe their identity lies within the "mother continent" I highly recommend they form a contingency and head back to their "native land" and put their efforts into bringing it into the 21st century. Just think of all the good they could do - and they would have the best interests of the land in which they dwell rather than waste all their energy on hating the United States of America. If their great-great-(however many it may be) grandfathers hadn't sold their ancestors to the slavers, they'd be living a life without the comforts and standards of living that they choose to put down weekly in TUCC/Chicago.
All of this news has helped me understand what has bothered me for so long...why do so many blacks feel such hatred when they have such a good life compared to many throughout the world. I now find that a major reason is the fact that they are being fed propaganda from the pulpit every week rather than religious messages. I refuse to believe all black churches follow this doctrine! No church I have attended in my lifetime has ever offered such trash to be uttered anywhere within the church, much less from the pulpit! This is sick sick sick
And I do fault BHO for staying a member - this is NOT the quality person we want as president of the United States of America.
Kudos for citing those Scriptures
March 24, 2008 - 16:34 ET by ksimm81I don't take Reverend Jeremiah Wright's racism and American-bashing as 'mainstream Christian theology.' My church never preaches that venom.
Rev. Wright is a racist and a kook for believing that America created AIDS just to wipe out black people.
Only an idiot would vote for Barack Hussein Obama: a man who doesn't think too much about the American flag and a man who has sat under racist teachings for almost twenty years even though he is half-white himself.
And as a black woman, it never ceases to amaze me why white liberals will take all kinds of racism and verbal abuse towards them from black 'leaders' and 'ministers', simply because they are afraid of being labeled racist.
ksim: I believe you've
March 24, 2008 - 16:55 ET by QueenMum"it never ceases to amaze me why white liberals will take all kinds of racism and verbal abuse towards them from black 'leaders' and 'ministers', simply because they are afraid of being labeled racist."
ksim: I believe you've touched on the crux of the matter - the sort of political posing that goes on under the guise of tolerance.
I am the exotic Queen Mum, and I approved this message.
ksimm81, You'd think the
March 24, 2008 - 17:04 ET by Ken Shepherdksimm81,
You'd think the media would know better and could find black churches that preach the Gospel, that are aghast at "preaching" like that of Rev. Wright's, and would gladly give comment for a news story about how Wright is preaching a social "gospel" but not the life-transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ken...just as the msm
March 24, 2008 - 21:27 ET by Cape Conservativeloves to show 200 "rioters" somewhere in the world to demonstrate that the entire country is under siege, I am certain that many black churches across the country held traditional Easter services but since that doesn't fit the "big picture" the msm wishes to project, we will hear nothing about those sermons. After all, that would destroy their image of TUCC as a "typical black church"
Obama's church.
March 24, 2008 - 17:22 ET by R D HelmThe more I read about this church and its teachings, the more convinced I am that this church is not centered on Christ and his teachings, but on the leadership of the church itself and their desire to be needed.
True Christian theology teaches that we need no mortal man in our lives other than Jesus himself, who was both God and man. We do not need pastors, priests reverends or whatever. They seem to have it backward at Obama's church.
I read about the Easter service that took place there on Sunday, and as far as I could tell, Jesus was pretty much left out of the proceedings altogether.
Something is very wrong in that place.
Theme for Election '08: I want my mommy!
and the Taliban
March 24, 2008 - 17:33 ET by wizardjrpreaches a mainstream Islamic theology