Pastors, Prophets, and Politicians

The Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright has been in the news quite a bit lately. He is the retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, which happens to be the church of presidential candidate Barack Obama. For 2o years Pastor Wright has been a spiritual shepherd for Obama. He officiated the Obamas' wedding. He baptized their two children.

But he caused quite a controversy in the past week when clips from some of his sermons surfaced that included heated comments about Hillary Clinton and comments very critical of the United States immediately after 9/11. Here is one of the early news articles about the controversy. And here is an article about Obama removing Wright from his campaign team.

Yesterday, Obama delivered an incredible speech about race in America, a speech that I can only describe as prophetic, in the sense that he spoke directly and honestly about the realities of racism in our society. He spoke as a man of mixed race, a unique position of having immediate experiences of both white and black communities. He acknowledged that there is enough bitterness and resentment to go around on all sides and spoke sincere words of hope for a better future that actually lives up to the ideals on which our country is founded. Obama's underlying values, it should be noted, are in my opinion decidedly theological ones, founded on faith in the equality of human beings created in the image of God.

If you haven't heard it already, listen to this speech. It may be long, but it is worth the investment. This will go down as one of the great speeches in American history.



In this speech, Obama also distances himself from Wright's most offensive statements, while maintaining his relationship to his pastor. I feel compelled to note that Fourth Church Rising visited Trinity earlier this year, as I wrote about in this post. I've been to Trinity before and both times I found it to be a deeply moving spiritual experience. The preaching and the praise at this church is energetic and phenomenal.

During Obama's campaign, claims have been made that Trinity is racist and prejudiced against white people because it takes such pride in its African heritage. I can honestly say that when I was there, both times with a group of out of place white kids, we never once felt unwelcome. Quite to the contrary, our hosts were most gracious and hospitable. To be sure, there was a distinctly African and African-American flavor to the worship, but not to the point that we in any way felt excluded or marginalized.

I was very impressed by Trinity UCC and will certainly bring youth groups back in the future.

For some good blog posts that have come out today on the controversy and Obama's speech, check out these three from God's Politics, a blog maintained by Jim Wallis of Sojourners:

• It’s Not About Him Now—It’s About Us
• Exorcising Racial Demons: Part I
• How Wrong Was Rev. Wright? I especially like this post because the author points out that Wright is indeed a prophet in the biblical sense, and that biblical prophets were often considered offensive, and that biblical prophets were typically at odds with political leaders and did not mix with them particularly well. Perhaps, then, it is a good thing for Wright to be off Obama's campaign--now he can be free to speak his understanding of God's truth without fear of bringing down a political leader.