Sunday, March 23, 2008

Wright-speak lost its place

Recommended article in today's Washington Post, He's Preaching to A Choir I've Left.

One part in particular that really struck me:
That other African Americans and I were able to overcome seemingly insurmountable hurdles is undeniably due, in part, to Wright-like prophetic speech. Like Negro spirituals, it helped us organize, motivate and empower ourselves.

But just as spirituals eventually lost their relevance and potency as an organizing tool against discrimination -- even as they retained their historical importance in the African American cultural narrative -- so, I believe, has Wright-speak lost its place. It's harmful and ultimately can't provide healing. And it's outdated in the 21st century.

Maybe that is the key to this finally ending, when enough people come to that realization that to get to the future, you have to leave the past.

6 comments:

T. F. Stern said...

In my opinion the purpose of church never had a place for such speech; that time is supposed to be for teaching the Gospel, not advancing an agenda, regardless of the social issues. Thanks for posting.

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

Too bad Reverend Wright's church was the focus of this long overdue problem of tax-exempt churches politicizing their sermons to influence political outcomes. The reverend sopke truths, despite how it wrangled the right or the white... but... let's move on to the future...Here that, Hagee? Donohue? Parsley? Peterson? Duke?

Anonymous said...

Gosh Darn America!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stephenwolf/gGBnRB

Scott G said...

I would like to move to a place where "Wright-speak" was no longer true, but we are not there yet. We have come a long way, but not nearly far enough. Whether it is over gender, sexual preference, race, religion, or dozens of other traits, we are still a nation that sees ourselves as separate groups as opposed to pieces of a whole. The number may become less everyday, but it is still large enough that we have to deal with it.

To be fair to Rev Wright, I have said some of the same things before about how our foreign policy has played a role in putting us where we are today with the terrorism threats and even 9/11. I am not blaming us because 9/11 was criminal and evil, but we also can't ignore the whole picture because we don't like some of it.

Scott G said...

This may be an example of why people still listen to Rev Wright.

http://65.36.138.212/publicus/chat/read/index.asp?ThreadID=103260027&AID=&PubDate=&ForumType=Chat

Scott G said...

St Cloud Times