[Marxism] Rev. Wright on the Battlefield

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

Rev. Wright on the Battlefield
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/ 
20080318_barack_obamas_treble_trouble/
Posted on Mar 18, 2008

By The Rev. Madison Shockley

Are we really supposed to believe that being black is an advantage  
for a man named Barack Hussein Obama?  First he is accused of being a  
Muslim (as if something would be wrong with that). Then he is accused  
of being the recipient of the support of the leader of the Black  
Muslims, Minister Louis Farrakhan. Now that he has established  
himself as a bona fide Christian it is suddenly revealed that he is,  
oh my—a black Christian. Barack Obama writes revealingly about his  
journey toward blackness in his first book, “Dreams From My Father: A  
Story of Race and Inheritance.” He seemed to finally arrive when he  
not only lived and worked on the south side of Chicago but when he  
found his faith and spiritual home at Trinity United Church of Christ  
(UCC).

However, the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who inspired  
his Christian faith, married him to his wife, and baptized his  
children, has been ‘caught’ preaching a gospel of black liberation  
theology to a congregation of 6,000 mostly black people. And this is  
a problem because ... ? This is a problem because most of white  
America has never set foot in a black church of the liberation  
tradition. And as they are being given the most inflammatory peek (30  
seconds from a likely 2,700 second sermon), they find themselves  
suddenly scared to death at the thought of a black Barack Obama as  
President of the United States. Scared because they are no longer  
sure they want a black Barack Obama answering the White House phone  
at 3 a.m..

Right-wing talk radio hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have taken  
these clips and declared that the faith of Trinity UCC is a racist,  
separatist distortion of Christianity. Never mind the fact that  
Trinity UCC belongs to a denomination that is 94% white! But that  
would contradict their critique, and they, along with the mainstream  
media, consistently omit this fact.

“A Black Theology of Liberation” by James Cone was published in 1970.  
This book chronicled the development of a unique understanding of  
Christianity with its roots in the African American experience. This  
theological tradition took the religion of slave owners  
(Christianity) and translated it into a faith that would inspire  
black self-love, hope, empowerment, humanity and freedom. Some things  
were definitely lost in translation: a white God, a white Jesus and a  
blessed America. Black slaves and black people in the Jim Crow South  
found in a Christianity of black liberation a powerful resource for  
combating the racism of the society, the government (local, state and  
federal), the grinding poverty of their condition and the seeming  
hopelessness of their oppression. To paraphrase an old gospel song,  
the Rev. Dr. Wright is still “on the battlefield for his Lord.”

Obama found a faith that gave him not only spiritual hope and a  
meaningful belief but also the sociocultural connection to the black  
community he never had before. His understanding of his black  
identity was now complete. Ironically, that is what a church like  
Trinity UCC does for all of its members. The difference is that  
Barack Obama’s journey toward blackness began in the ambiguity of his  
biracial family in Hawaii while most black people begin their journey  
in the conflicted self-hatred of a family filled with people that  
look just like them. Some in the family think that black people will  
never get a fair shake until they shake off all of the cultural  
trappings that enhance the obviousness of their blackness and so set  
out to change their speech patterns, social affiliations, addresses  
and educational choices. Others in the family might compensate  
(sometimes overcompensate) for the negation they experience in  
society by emphasizing their blackness. That is why the motto of the  
Trinity UCC church, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically  
Christian,” is appealing to black folks from all kinds of families.  
However harsh this might sound to white people, it must be remembered  
that the alternative position is that a Christianity that could  
endorse slavery, racism and oppression against black people is  
irredeemable and should be forever abandoned. I submit that Black  
Liberation Theology serves as a critical bridge between black and  
white in America. But it is just a bridge, one that allows us to  
cross from one shore to the other—should we choose to make the trip.

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