You know it's hard to watch yourself become entangled in a media frenzy. Being that this is an election season, I've found myself really relating to others who've experienced this type of scrutiny, like the workers at Terry Shiavo's hospice, and the many gay and lesbian brothers and sisters who found themselves on t.v. and turned into a political issue.
I consider myself a media savvy person, so I understand how sound bites have been used to ruin peoples credibility. But first and foremost I'd like to share what brought me to Trinity UCC and why I won't leave.
Every human being, at some point and time, embarks on a search for 'self'. I began my search in high school where I came across new world views and philosophies. I was exposed to KRS One, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela just to name a few. When I asked my Sunday school teacher about Mandela he told me "Nelson Mandela is a communist and that's why he was put in prison". I vividly remember asking him if Moses were black, the whole youth group laughed, as if what i was asking was preposterous. I believed that I was being lied to! I believed that the Christian community embraced 'white supremacy' so I listened even closer to KRS One and Public Enemy. It wasn't hard to convince me that Christianity was 'The White Man's Religion' or that 'We were Muslims" when we were brought to America as slaves. Christianity to me, started to represent white men in sheets and subdued black people praying for a better after life. So I began to reject Christ.. FOR MANY YEARS!
I visited Trinity at the invitation of my Aunt, whom I admire. She's one of those radical revolutionary sisters that I would read about in my studies in college. A true product of the 60's, educated and world traveled. At one point in her life, she found herself accepting the teachings of the Black Hebrews. I was shocked when i found out THIS woman was now "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian"?!?!?!? So to service I went. What I found still shakes me to the core. This man, Jeremiah Wright, who I'd never heard speak before, showed me who I really am.. THROUGH SCRIPTURE!
Black .. Yes.
Flawed .. Yes.
Bruised... Yes.
Redeemed by Jesus... YES!
All these years of searching.. It was Jeremiah Wright who showed me that Jesus had already set the example for me and my life and could relate to everything I was going through as a Black woman to the teachings of Christ! The man is no lunatic!
I'm proud to say that I'm Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian. This statement is not racist. It's merely an affirmation of what God has made me!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Why I chose Trinity
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12 comments:
Thank you for this blog. It is very helpful.
The fact that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week in America speaks to the need for this blog.
White evangelic churches speak to the sanctity of the unborn life while black liberation churches speak to the injustices of the born. Both churches deliver their messages with emotion.
But we should remember that our faith should be reasoned as well as emotional. By looking at each other we may help each other to better understand the reasoning behind our shared Christian faith.
I like your blog,and I give it a thumbs up! But I could not find your name anywhere in it.
abell
This is excellent, but the average person will not read all of this.
A fact sheet needs to be made with the facts about Wright listed in bullets. The atack is on Wright, and Obama's alleged concurrence with what was seen in video clips.
The blog was really speaking the truth and Rev. Wright truly does help you find yourself through no only through scriptures but through God. I Love Rev. Wright and will always love him no matter what anybody says about him or our church.
Excellent blog. I listened to Rev. Wright over 10 years ago, in Philadelphia. He is a great man of God. What date was the sermon that's being shown on CNN,Fox and the other news outlets, recorded?
By the way, Obama's speech on 3/19/08 was phenomenal.
Thank you and God Bless.
HI, from (panuraj@comcast.net)
Here is the fuller transcript of the 9/11 Sermon. I really do believe its quite a good sermon and could be edited and shortened some, but not too much to illustrate that Wright is teaching the opposite of what is being shown on the media.
Jeremiah Wright’s full 9/11 sermon:
"Every public service of worship I have heard about so far in the wake of the American tragedy has had in its prayers and in its preachments, sympathy and compassion for those who were killed and for their families, and God's guidance upon the selected Presidents and upon our war machine, as they do what they do and what they gotta do -- paybacks.
There's a move in Psalm 137 from thoughts of paying tithes to thoughts of paying back, A move, if you will from worship to war, a move in other words from the worship of th God of creation to war against those whom God Created. And I want you to notice very carefully this next move. One of the reasons this Psalm is rarely read, in its entirety, because it is a move that spotlights the insanity of the cycle of violence and the cycle of hatred.
Look at the verse; Look at the verse; Look at verse nine: [rising voice] "Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rocks."[lower voice] The people of faith are the rivers of Babylon. How shall we sing the Lord's song? If I forget the order ... The people of faith, have moved from the hatred of armed enemies [rising voice]--these soldiers who captured the king; those soldiers who slaughtered his son, that put his eyes out; those soldiers who sacked the city, burned, burned the towns, the burned the temple, burned the towers, they have moved from the hatred of [loudest voice] armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents -- [low voice] the babies, the babies.
Blessed are they who dash your baby’s brains against a rock. And that, my beloved, is a dangerous place to be, yet that is where the people of faith are in the 551BC, and that is where far too many people of faith are in 2001 AD. We have moved from the hatred of armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents. We want revenge, we want paybacks, and we don't care who gets hurt in the process.
Now I asked the Lord, what should our response be in light of such an unthinkable act, but before I share with you what the Lord shared with me I want to give you one of my little faith footnotes.
Visitors, I often give little faith footnotes, so that our members don't lose sight of the big picture, let me give you a faith footnote. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Faith footnote." [Voices: "Faith footnote"]
[Begin faith footnote]
I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see him or hear him, he was on Fox News. This is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, (Did you see him, John?) --a white man-- he pointed out-- an ambassador-- that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true, America's chickens are coming home to roost.
We took this country, by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arrowak (phonetic) the Comanche, the Arapajo, the Navajo. Terrorism--we took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians -- babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with Stealth Bombers and killed unarmed teenagers, and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working father. [fullest voice] We bombed Khadafi, his home and killed his child. Blessed be they who bash your children's head agains the rocks.
[fullest voice] We bombed Iraq, we killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed the plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy -- killed hundreds of hard working people --mothers and fathers, who left home to go that day, not knowing they'd never get back home. [Even fuller voice] We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New
York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school -- civilians not soldiers. People just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and South Africa and now we are indignant? Because the stuff we have done overseas is brought back into our own front yard.
America's chickens are coming home, to roost. Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism.
[lower voice] A White ambassador said that, y'all, not a black militant. Not a Reverend who preaches about racism, an ambassador whose eyes are wide open, and whose trying to get us to wake up, and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said that the people we have wounded don't have the military capability we have, but they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them, and we need to come to grips with that.
Let me stop my faith footnote right there, and ask you to think about that over the next few weeks if God grants us that many days. Turn back to your neighbor, and say, "Footnote is over." [Voices: "Footnote is over."]
[End Faith Footnote]
[Gentle voice] Now, now. C'mon back to my question to the Lord, "What should our response be right now. In light of such an unthinkable act. I asked the Lord that question Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
I was stuck in Newark, New Jersey. No flights were leaving La Guardia, JFK, or Newark Airport. On the day tht the FAA opened up the airports to bring into the desinations of cities those flights that had been diverted because of the hijacking, a scare in New York close all three regional airports and I couldn't even get her for Mr. Radford's father's funeral. And I asked God, "What should our response be?
I saw pictures of the incredible. People jumping from the 110th floor; people jumping from the roof because the stair wells and elevators above the 89th floor were gone-- no more. Black people, jumping to a certain death; people holding hands jumping; people on fire jumping. [plaintiff high voice] And I asked the Lord, "What should our response be?" I read what the people of faith felt in 551BC. But this is a different time, this is a different enemy, a different world, a different terror. This is a different reality. What should our response be, and the Lord showed me three things. Let me share them with you quickly and I'm gonna leave you alone to think about the faith footnote.
Number one: The Lord showed me that this is a time for self-examination. [cheers] As I sat 900 miles away from my family and my community of faith, two months after my own father's death, God showed me that this was a time for me to examine my relationship with God. MY own relationship with God-- personalrelationship with God.
I submit to you that it is the same for you. Folk flocked to the church in New Jersey last week, you know that foxhole-religion syndrome kicked in, that emergency chord religion, you know that little red box you pull in emergency? It showed up in full force. Folk who aint thought about coming to church in years, were in church last week. I heard that mid-week prayer services all over this country which are poorly attended fifty-one week a year were jam packed all over the nation the week of the hijacking the 52nd week. [inaudible]
But the Lord said, this aint the time for you to be examining other folks relationship this is a time of self examination. But the Lord said, "How is "our" relationship doing Jeremiah? How often do you talked to me personally, how often do you let me talk to you privately? How much time do you spend trying to get right with me, or do you spend all your time trying to get other folk right?
This is a time for me to examine my own relationship with God. Is it real or is it fake? Is it forever or is it for show? Is is something that you do for the sake of the public or is it something that you do for the sake of eternity? [voice rising] This is a time for me to examine my own, and a time for you to examine your own relationship with God -- self examination.
[end of video tape.]
It is so refreshing to read some truth about Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. I have been a member of TUCC since 1993. The recent depiction of Rev. Wright in/on the main stream media has been hurtful and incorrect. I KNOW him to be an honorable man who took the time to visited my mother who was not even a member of Trinity church when my father died; he and was a constant supporter of my brother who passed away in 1993. Trinity is a church to been to emulated by others in the admirable work of it ministries and its world-wide outreach. I am a proud Trinitarian who has been well fed by Rev. Wright. I Love Rev. Wright and wouldn't change my church for anything.
I grew up as a black catholic who was introduced to TUCC by a former girlfriend in 1980. I knew next to nothing abouth the culture I was part of. I knew HIS STORY well; but nothing about my history.
Pastor Wright encouaraged us then and now to continue reading to see what WASNT said in ever passage of anything you read.
He showed me that there was NOTHING to be ashamed of for being black and nothing to aplogize for for being Christian. He showed me that God didn't create n*66&@$ and listened when I did the research to show that America created n&66#@$. To this day; it is a word foriegn to my being
It is with hurt, pain and anger that I write this comment. I have been a member of TUCC since 1990 and I have seen more love and compassion from my church than my family. Rev. Wright has fed me with the Word and with knowledge about who and Whose I am. He has visited my mother while she was sick in the hospital, given her his own money to pay for her prescriptions and written countless letters to her when she was very sick and when she has been feeling well. He always asks about her and the few times she was able to make it to church, he acknowledged how glad he was to see her. Not once have I written or e-mailed to Rev. Wright that he has not responded. He is one of the most compassionate people I have ever known and hurts like a knife cutting me all over my body each time I hear someone trying to slander him. The only thing that helps me to hold on is when I remember that they even cricified My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why would I expect anything less to happen to such an annointed man of God who speaks the truth. However, no weapon formed against him shall prosper. He is more than a conquerer through Christ Jesus!
Thank you so much for this blog. This begins the process of turning bitter lemons into lemonade. It reminds me of the days of slavery where white people wanted to determine where I worship, who I worship with and what I hear while I worship. They still do not want free Black people with unchained minds capable of thinking and making rational decisions for ourselves. Well its too bad because there are thousands of us that choose to worship at Trinity, choose to listen to Pastor Wright and have no intention what so ever of leaving Trinity. I have been a member of Trinity for over 20 years. I love my church and my senior pastor Rev. J. Wright Jr. I just want to repeat again that Pastor Wright is one of the most loving, giving, down-to-earth, intelligent and conscious people I have ever known. He has fed my mind, soul and spirit, listening to his teachings and watching him operate at Trinity and in the wider community. He encourgages and inspires bringing out the best in people. you hear about the so called A list people that go there but you don't hear about the countless success stories of young people that have grown up at Trinity and are now very successful in life..always an inspiration. I am an artist specializing in African dance and African music. I cannot thank Pastor Wright enough for being open to me sharing African dance and music at TUCC and constantly reminding the congregation about the importance of appreciating our African culture. Trinity has always been the perfect fit for me because I also love Africa and African culture expressed in music, dance, history and folklore.
I am happy and proud that we are speaking up. I hope that Rev. Wright and Rev. Moss know that they are not in this alone. Contrary to the meek and mild portrait that people paint of Jesus, Jesus spoke truth to power and challenged the status quo of the society he lived in. Why else was He crucified. This cuntry was founded on lies, built on lies, established by lies and is getting rich and killing people all based on lies. The truth is that racism continues to exist, it is entrenched in our society our culture and everyday lives.
No one is quoting Rev. saying 'Everyone your color ain't your kind and everyone not your color is not your enemy'. But we can see this with the uneducated people they are putting on TV. What is too black? These people obviously need a spiritual and a cultural enema. Hopefully this situation can shed some light on the real 'race matters' that exist in our society and maybe some practical solutions can come out of this tangled web the media has weaved.
GOD BLESS YOU... I'm glad I found this website... I'm disturbed by the way Rev. Wright comes across, it sounds terrible... I support Obama... but I have to be honest... this is hard stuff but working on understanding it all... PEACE john
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