Thank you for hearing me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been praising God all morning. Kind of overwhelmed actually but very excited about my new blogosphere friends. Now back to business. You know you can't believe anything coming from Fox News! Here is the full context of the infamous 'hate sermon'
** 9 minutes please here **
you can see many more of his sermons HERE http://www.youtube.com/user/TRINITYCHGO
68 comments:
I like your blog - really a good idea. Does the Obama campaign know about it? Please visit my blog - the most recent posting talks about this issue and provides links to some interesting perspectives on the AIDS virus rumor/issue and the "God Damn America" sermon. Also, you should get listed on the "Cuban for Obama" blog - there is a link to it from my blog - listed under "Election 2008." Good luck with your blog. -Morna
This was a powerful message delivered in a very dynamic way by Rev.Jerimiah Wright. I saw no evidence of racism what-so-ever. This just goes to show you how you can remove part of a message from its context, and make it appear as though the person is implying something totally different.
It is shameful how the media is trying to disparage Obama's name by constantly looping this clip in its truncated form.People seed to see the full video.Unfortunately for some people it will not matter. They will just move on to try to find some more dirt to put out there.
You guys need tell Roland Martin, Boyce Watkins, Sharpton, Jackson, and others to make a direct appeal to the entire country to listen to the entire clips at your youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/trinitychgo
Have them give the web address over the air. But they should first listen to the clips themselves, because they seem uninformed as well. Also get this info out to the radio shows.
Instead of debating how this will affect the campaign, we need to get these clips to as many people as possible. The footage they have been showing is not only out of context, it has been COMPLETELY EDITED by FOXNEWSand others for propaganda.
The media are followers...the person who created the illusion of wrongdoing is one person ...he is Hannity of Fox news...he and his owners are the racists, facists and are busy duping everyone.The main line media need a story to help Hillary and are disingenious by not showing the whole clip. who needs them ..the internet rules and the truth shall set us free!
Keep this up, please.
I'm linking to you at my blog.
I'm shocked to find these sermons. I didn't necessarily disagree with Wright's comments, even out of context, but to now find how totally out of context they were taken is astonishing. I really hope the media catches up to this.
Read this.
As a long standing friend of Trinity I'm asking that you also post some videos about the foreign groups that Trinity has hosted at the church. I can't remember the specific ones, but I remember European groups coming to worship at Trinity.
I have been waiting patiently on your blog and response to this crazy mess!
I am glad that everyone has the opportunity to hear the full contents of Rev. Dr. Wright's sermons. You can see how the media has taken sound bites of these sermons and presented them out of context. Rev. Dr. Wright teaches from the Bible and expresses his views. Whether you agree with him or not, he speaks the truth. All of the things he has done and his legacy will far outlive those souund bites. It is a shame that the someone somewhere is trying to use this in an effort to derail Mr. Obama's bid to become the Democratic nominee for president.
DEAR REV. WRIGHT,
THIS IS YOUR BENCH-WARMER PARISHIONER COMING TO YOU AGAIN. MY CONCERNS ARE WHAT BEEN SPLASHED ALL OVER THE MEDIA CONCERNING A COUPLE OF YOUR SERMONS AND HOW MR. OBAMA HAD TO DEFEND OR SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT ABOUT YOUR POWERFUL WORDS OF TRUTH. I CAN ONLY THINK OF A PASSAGE FROM JESUS STATING "FORGIVE THEM FATHER , FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO."
ITS SADDEN ME TO KNOW HOW HATEFUL OUR COUNTRY REALLY IS. ITS SADDEN ME EVEN MORE THAT SOME OF US JUMP RIGHT ON THE BANDWAGON AND BELIEVE HALF TRUTH. AGAIN I COME TO YOU THANKING YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL MEMORIES OF WORDS. REV. WRIGHT, I DON'T KNOW YOU PERSONALLY, BUT I'M HERE TO SAY TO YOU ON THIS DAY. PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW SATAN AND HIS UMPS TO COME IN BETWEEN YOU AND MR. OBAMA. THAT IS WHAT HE'S TRYING TO DO. BOY, YOU SURE HAVE HELPED SOMEBODY! HOW POWERFUL ARE YOUR WORDS.
MY PRAYER ARE WITH YOU AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL FAMILY, AND MAY JEHOVAH CONTINUE TO KEEP HIS LOVING ANGELS WATCHING OVER YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.
SINCERELY,
CYNTHIA ROBINSON-GORDON
GREAT SITE I AM SO GLAD YOU WERE ABLE TO DO THIS. IT IS SICKENING HOW THEY HAVE TRIED TO DEFAME THIS MAN. BUT EVEN THROUGH THE LIES OF FAUXNEWS, I COULD SEE THIS BROTHER WAS ON POINT AND ANNOINTED. GOD BLESS YOU!!!
Please post the AIDS one. I'm thinking that maybe Fox spliced clips from multiple sermons to make the sentence?
Please, shout form the mountain. I'm going to news sites and linking to your videos. And also, I have to say Wright brings out the religion in me, which I thought I had outgrown. I'm looking to pick up the bible once again, thanks to these videos.
-john
How much better a world we would have now if in 2001 we had had a President who heeded the words of Rev. Wright.
I just knew we weren't getting the real story. Spread the word, get this in the NYT, Drudge, RealClear Politics, and the Washington Post.
I am a white 58 year old woman supporting Obama but I have heard a lot of people say they are rethinking Obama because of the "hate sermons" and they fear "white racism." This will get them back and help inoculate them from the next "swiftboat" attempt. Many many thanks
It seems like the message of self-examination is the most obscene and hateful notion possible to the media and political echo chamber. Somehow, self-examination equals anti-white racism. What?
Does anyone remember how Lynne Cheney's organization collected "anti-American" statements back in 2001 in order to blacklist people on college and university campuses? Some of them were just calls for historical context, like "we need to understand the reasons behind the terrifying hatred directed against the U.S."
See this:
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1213-05.htm
Oh my, oh my, oh my. I had not heard the speech in its entirety, but I supported Rev. Wright wholeheartedly because I knew exactly what the clips were supposed to do. And even though they were snipets aimed at destruction, they were full of truth. A truth I don't mind hearing or having the Reverend speak too.
I am reminded now though of a soldier who served in Iraq speaking at the Winter Solstice of the atrosities that occured in Iraq and speaking truth to Reverand Wright's words and the words of the Bible.
This soldier said that they were not fighting an army they were pulling families - with children from their homes, hurting every day hard working people in the name of war. Promoting racism against the Iraqi war from the top down.
I am so enlightened and will go forward speaking to the truth.
I now know that the outrage is because Americans don't want to talk about what they do to people.
Thank you so much for having this page and defending Reverend Wright. May God bless him and you too!
The past several days have been extremely hard for me; watching the public lynching of my beloved pastor and watching Barack have to defend and (forced to) denounce him on network televison.
I am so excited that we are fighting back! Let's see cable news airing the picture of Dr. Wright with president Johnson!!!
Mister, your website is a startling, thoroughly illuminating, and deeply disturbing lesson to me in how I have been manipulated to think and believe, not merely in this one instance, but my whole life.
I would like to apologize to Rev. Jeremiah Wright for allowing my mind to be manipulated and stolen by the Right Wing Goon Squad that has destroyed the country.
This sight, and the sermon in its context needs is an object lesson in how Americans are cruelly played for chumps by Right Wing Media Scumbags !
Thanks for the great site. I've listened to the 9/11 sermon several times. The Rev's remarks were as moving as anything I've heard regarding 9/11. god bless.
glenn
Elmhurst, IL
Thank you for posting the video.
I really wish you had posted more of the sermon, especially at the end, where he asks everyone to say "I love you" to their loved ones and to those seated next to them.
Audio of the entire sermon on Ronald Martin's blog.
(about 35 minutes)
http://www.rolandsmartin.com/blog/?m=200803
Please post the entire video, and let's hope Keith Olbermann or some else shows the entire 35 minutes video. I was very moved.
I wrote a piece in the Huffington Post about the Rev. Wright being taken out of context. Please help spread the word and Digg and recommend it. They might move the story up to the front page if there are enough comments.
Thanks,
Lonnee
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lonnee-hamilton/placing-reverend-wrights_b_92738.html
Wow. Hearing the comment in context makes all the difference. I agree with the posters, you've got to get this on tv.
Keep up the good work and have a blessed Easter.
Thank you so much for having this blog. I have said over and over that I am ashamed of Fox "News" (if they can call themselves a news organization) for doing this not only to Reverend Wright, but to your entire church. I have now watched 5 of your videos on YouTube and will keep watching. I don't go to church myself, but your Reverend's words have moved me. For that, I am thankful. Even the snippets played on the 24 hour news networks didn't make me believe that he was a bad man (or that Barack Obama was a bad man by extension), but seeing the larger pieces of the sermons really make it clear to me what a good message Rev. Wright was sending to his congregation. I hope that all of America gets to see this and see the real man and the real Trinity church.
You are totally right about FoxNews:
http://www.FoxAttacks.com
They are engaging in a smear campaign. Unfortunately the rest of the media seems to follow their lead.
Rev. Wright is a powerful man of God and an intellectual. Wow, it is very easy to deceive a whole lot of people. May Rev. Wright forgive his enemies.
Remember guys, if you make enough noise, the truth will out! Email all the major news agencies. Phone the radio. Sooner or later they will have to air it.
TAKE IT TO THE STREETS
Great site.
I think the media owes Rev. Wright and the church AN APOLOGY!!!!!
Can Trinity Church sue ABC and Fox?
I think they should bring a lawsuit for defamation and slander.
Rev. Wright continues to be accused of using hate in his sunday morning services. How can he sit back and allow this to happen? Why isn't he defending himself. I find myself shouting at the TV when the knucle heads continue to say this. Barack suffers because of it. Enough is enough! Why doesn't Rev. Wright speak up?
Can someone please print the words of the Rev. sermon so that I can read them? Are you saying that he was quoting this ambassador when he said the chickens were coming home to roost? Why isn't the media getting this?
My family has been active members at Trinity for 32 years. Rev. Wright has nurtured us, loved us, and been an advocate for us. We love him and his family. The media who printed one sided sound bites needs to seriously repent.
You are God Damned Right! Reverend Wright is God Damned Right!
Sorry, that was a miscopy from crooks and liars. I meant to say:
You are God Damned Right! Reverend Wright is God Damned Right!
At the end of the day the media defamed Rev. Wright's good name. They should be held accountable. there was no balance, the truth was taken out of context. Trinity is a light to Chicago and the world.
See this video on youtube as well
Rev. Jeremiah Wright's God Damn America in context
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw
The sermon was great and Rev. Wright is the kind of preacher I would love to listen to every Sunday. He comes from the Bible but connects the sermon in a very you can understand and use it for what's going on today in your life. The 911 sermon was just beautiful, especially the part where he is telling the church that he loves them. God Bless him and your church. I see why Barack could not disown him.
Thank you for standing up and speaking truth to power. It lifts my spirit to see the truth coming out. I am a white man living in Chicago. I understand that the society that we live in is inherently racist. We can only overcome that and change that by working together - ALL races. Bigotry is the opposite of understanding. We will perhaps never be able to reach those who choose to remain ignorant for there is none so blind as those who will not see. Yet, I believe that most people would rather not remain in ignorance and seek understanding. I hope we can all work together to reach out to those people.
Yours in Hope,
Where is Rev. Wright? He needs to sue for defamation of character and slander. This is amazing. I can believe Fox News doing this, but for CNN and the others to follow without confirming the story is just as irresponsable. Where are we going as a country that news organizations are allowed to do such a thing?
This is so sad for America.
PEACE to my brothers and sisters at Trinity United. I am behind Rev.Wright and your Church in the face of this 'high tech lynching' because he is speaking nothing but the facts. From a Muslim on the Northpole of the Chi!
I also would like to visit the Church someday.
MT
It is important for everyone to spread the word about this site and to post and respond on the different news site to stop this misinformation campaign. Unfortunately by defaming Rev, they are attempting to defame Obama as well. We all need to get the word out to intelligent people. Just as Fox will attempt to manipulate over the airwaves, we can manipulate over the internet. Spread the word!!
Brad Howard
Thank you for posting this. I am white, and while I find the truths that Reverend Wright talks about hard to hear, it doesn't make them less true. His message was powerful and uplifting, and I can see why Obama admires this man so much.
What are you guys doing to get this into the mainstream media? Somebody needs to call Oprah or something....
But I have faith. My pastor asked the question, is America ready for a black president and without hesitation he said NO... he then said it does not matter if America is ready... God is ready! And when he says move, the earth quakes.
I am moved by your church and as a chicago native, I plan to visit.
God bless you and your ministry.
I'll bet I can guess who edited this and sent it
to the media. Maybe through her fund raiser buddy Murdoch, hmmmmm?
The "he's a Muslim" e-mail didn't kill him off. Nor did the email describing his church. So I'll bet she had high hopes for this little jobby.
This isn't the republicans. They had nothing to gain by doing it this early. For them this would come early October. But this longer tape has to get out there. I was directed to a little snippet that was "better" but still didn't show the whole truth.
Mercy! She is setting back the standing of female politicians by half a century. And the Ferrarro ditz didn't help. They make it seem like all female politicians are dirty, careless and stupid.
My best wishes to you and your church and my highest respect to your former pastor who is a great man.
Thank you so much for this blog and for the videos.I have been so hurt and upset over how Trinity, Rev. Wright and Sen Obama have been caricatured and distorted by the Fox propaganda machine. They tried this before by disseminating outright lies about Obama attending a "radical madrassa" but at least that time mainsteam media checked it out and showed it absolutely false (though that didn't stop some nuts from believing anyway). This time, with a more complicated partial truth built of soundbites picked from over 30 years of sermons, the mainstream media showed itself uninterested in journalistic integrity and/or incapable of further investigation or attempting to deal with complexity. So they have parroted Fox's melodramatic propaganda and, in combination with radical right blogs, they have scared many white Americans into suspending their critical faculties and believing Obama listened to Rev. Wright preaching sermons full of racial hate and "G-D America" every Sunday for 20 years.
If this leads Americans to run in fear from the possibility of a president who actually talks to us as if we were adults even on the subject of race, it will be a real American tragedy
In reality when I listen to these sermons I don't hear the thing Rev. Wright is most often accused of: "racism". I do hear criticism of the injustices that have been faced by black people -- AND by Native Americans AND by white women. I definitely hear criticism of the government, past and present (some in ways I dont agree with, but it is his right). I hear references to unpleasant truths and I also hear, in the HIV comment (though I have not heard context) something untrue but suspected by almost a third of the black community - -and before easily dismissing that as crazy people should become informed about history to find out the reason for the suspicions. But I dont hear "racism". How is it racist to say that the power elite in this country is white? (If that is not true, then where are all our previous black presidents?)
Anyone who reads this blog or watches the videos you have put on YouTube from Rev. Wrights sermons and hears racism and hatred for all white people, must be sadly unable to listen or think in the first place. But I hope most of our fellow citizens will prove less gullible and more capable of considering complex issues than Fox gives them credit for.
Keep up the good work! More video would be great including the rest of the 9/11 sermon and "The Audacity to Hope" Also it would be really interesting to see Dr.Wright lecturing on theology at divinity schools if there are any videos.
- Ariane, Chicago
Thank you for getting the truth out about TUCC. The MSM should be completely ashamed. I am going to send a link to your blog and youtube videos to everyone I know, and to all the media outlets I can think of. God bless you!
I think you are doing a great service to our nation by posting these longer excerpts of Pastor Wright's sermons.
I would like to know the actual dates of the sermons because that might make the media's juxtaposition of short snippets more of a distortion of the Pastor's words.
This whole incident has sickened me by what I consider an electronic media lynching of Obama and Wright based on dangerously limited analysis of the Pastor's sermons and record.
By the way if it matters I am a white man from a predominantly white state so I can only imagine how I would feel if I were a member of Trinity's congregation.
Please keep posting the sermons with dates your message is getting through! Thank you.
It seems Jeremiah Wright has been taken out of context when you finally hear 9 minutes of his sermon over 7 seconds like fox news did just to get high numbers in thier polls,,Shame on You fox news,,!..To play with this prophet's character and play with the American people,,Shame on you!! .Seminarian Student
Rev. Wright is returning from Africa to begin a long-scheduled series of visits to black churches across the country. (He'll be 35 miles from me for three days next week...I would like to go to hear and support him, and I'm just a "typical white person.")
I hope he minces no words in what will likely be sermons with a lot of media attention. He needs to demand an apology from Hannity, Limbaugh, ABC and Faux News. He needs to press that demand everywhere he goes and to clearly elucidate the justifiable reasons for the demand, perhaps by giving his listeners a brief history lesson on McCarthyism and then decrying the new "patriotic correctness." It may not be popular with the dimwits who have bought into the neo-con slime machine's egregiously out-of-context claims of racism and hate-mongering, but it is the kind of political courage and truth-telling that is badly needed at this point in time.
Rev., I thank God each time I remember you and your family, you have giving so much to the membership, the city, the state and the world. What Fox did not say, the calling of the Lord is upon your life and you will be heard. You have helped us to read and stay the Bible for ourselves and to blend our culture with theology.
I don't normally do this, but I was moved by Rev. Wright's message to write in support of this clip on my blog. I humbly submit this to you:
http://ephphatha3.blogspot.com/2008/03/hellish-saturday.html
I am just a white guy from Connecticut who was spurred by the recent media circus to take a closer look at Dr. Wright. Here is something that I wrote last night.
The Jeremiah Code...
Be afraid... Be prepared to feel very uncomfortable. God Damn America... your chickens have come home to roost.
With these words, played in an endless 30-second loop, our nation has been introduced to a fearsome firebrand, a hate-America mongerer, a fomenter of violent dissent: the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And such words have ignited a national response, reheating a cauldron of 400 years of racial history. Blend in a heaping dose of religion and politics and you have just about the toughest kind of heated conversation to wager through.
Who is this guy? How is it that, in 30 years of preaching this - judged to be - militant racism, he has not come to national attention before? Why is it that we hear about him not from the shattering of some sacred window by a thrown brick, or through the invocations of some riotous crowd? Why is it that he comes to our attention through the aspirations of a man who is oftentimes cerebral, sometimes truly inspirational, as he speak of hope, possibility, and coming together to resolve our differences?
It is as if there has been a murder in the Louvre, and the odd markings of the deceased at once beg my deciphering as they pique my trepidation. Here, a man lies murdered by an instinctive national response - so sure are we that we have heard what we heard, and that we know what it means.
Yet the paradox is that this is a man who not only built, over a 30 year period, one of the most vibrant and successful congregations of a major national church and has done it not in some distant land, but right in the heart of one of our largest cities. This is also a man who has graced the halls of the White House, praying with a President, and has been the a distinguished lecturer at such venerable institutions as the University of Chicago and Union Theological Seminary. All three are pillars for me. All three are seminal, not only in the shaping of my life, but in the shaping of our national identity as well. How could something so clear, so out in the open, go unnoticed?
One thing is for certain: I cannot find the answer in these 30-second loops - they simply spark a pre-disposed response which may tell me more about the person responding than about this man in question. At the very least, I need to hear the sermons in which they are embedded.
Upon further digging, I find that there is, indeed, a context that shapes and shifts their meaning. Even though it has been defended that they spring from the stylistic differences between the "black church" and the "white church", I sense that it goes deeper still.
These are highly charged phrases: God Damn America, and your chickens have come home to roost. When I listen to the sermon that contained the latter phrase, given shortly after September 11th, 2001, I find quite different intent and meaning than has been bandied about in the media.I find that not only were they originally the quote of someone else, but they seem to have been used to make a quite different point. Look inward, consider your relationship with God, don't be so ready to judge, or, more appropriately "let he who is without sin cast the first stone" are my take-aways from this sermon. Before you cast a stone, I encourage you to listen to this sermon.
I also wonder... those were highly charged days. What if someone made a 30 second loop about some phrase lifted out of the context of a much larger conversation that you or I had during those days? Do sound bites pass for knowledge today? Are they the sum of the man?
God Damn America takes me down a different path, especially since it it quickly linked to its following phrase: that's in the Bible. Which Bible? One clue for me is that Dr. Wright is, in fact, Dr. Wright. He holds a masters degree from the University of Chicago, and a doctorate degree from the Union Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He has also been conferred 8 honorary doctorate degrees and has taught courses at seminaries and universities throughout this country. In short, he is a theologian of some note.
Now, there is religion, with its social traditions, its ritual, its syllabi, and there is theology, which I liken to more of a debate. Theologians consider such things as historical context, social subtext, the significance of missing or excluded documents, and the subtleties of translation.
Today, the Bible translation that we are most familiar with came out of 17th century England, which may speak more to the socially acceptable language of that time than to the context of the Middle East of 1 AD and before. To put it simply, it seems plausible to me that the intent of condemning or warning about something in those earlier days is not best conveyed with the phrase "woe unto you". Damn you seems to get to the heart of it a bit better.
More generally, why do we have this need to segregate our church language from our street language? Did Jesus preach from a pulpit? When he tacked toward such a radical view as loving your neighbors, be they prostitutes or thieves, he did it in the streets where prostitutes and thieves were. This was some unsettling stuff for those around him. I wonder what the language was like on those streets?
As for Dr. Wright's sermon, it was given on April 3rd, 2003 and it was titled "Confusing God and Government". The gist of this sermon is, it seems to me, to be wary, with ample justification throughout history, when governments attempt to align themselves with religious convictions. "Bless me, God, while I bomb these people into oblivion." (my phrase) is not a phrase that makes much sense to me. As Dr. Wright says in this same sermon: "War does not make for peace".
Suffice it to say that there is much more in each of these sermons that is thought provoking, and sometimes even quite unsettling. Ironically, I would like to thank Dr. Wright for the unsettling part. He has, in his comprehensive yet unyielding style, stirred me to look more deeply at the way things are presented, to question more about the world around me, and to question more about my relationship with God.
I have always noticed that religion seems most prominent, faith seems strongest, at the extremes of life. When we are in great need, whether through stress, loss, injury or oppression, help me God seems to bubble up. When we are joyous - in love, birth, success, surprise - thank you God seems to bubble up. When times are mundane, God seems to fall into the background. I guess it comes down to this: if you are going to give me religion, give it to me shaken and stirred.
Thank you, Reverend Wright. You have shaken my faith, and made me the richer for it.
Rick Rossi
Essex, CT
860-767-3317
Thank you for this information.
I have tears in my eyes to learn, without a doubt, that all the things I've heard regarding Rev. Wright in the media are lies. I hope the media gives equal time to the truth. We live in sad and toubled times.
God bless you.
Thank you for your time and creating this important blog!
This white man recognized Rev. Wright as a truth-teller even when he was quoted out of context, but thank you for posting his whole message of Jesus' love and forgiveness. This weekend, especially, is a time when Christians celebrate the fact that no one can kill the truth. Bless you and your beautiful church.
I'm a big a fan of context as the next guy, and perhaps the full one here mitigates things in some ways, but I think many are missing the point of why this guy is such a liability to Obama, and why Obama has done everything short of disowning him.
It's not so much the God Damn America thing, or that some white guy agrees with him, but the fact that this guy so forcefully expresses his opinion that America in effect "had it coming".
Most people, myself included, view that as ridiculous and offensive. The fact is that the mass-murder which was 9/11 was not motivated by any kind of rational mind, but by brainwashed insane minds. There's no change in foreign policy short of perhaps completely withdrawing from the world, or domestic policy short of mass conversion to Islam, that would perhaps satisfy the kind of "mind" that did 9/11.
I really don't think it's good advice for this video, full or in part, to get "more exposure". I really doubt Obama would approve of that. Actually, the full context in a way is even more damning, because it makes clear that he thinks we had 9/11 coming. Not a popular notion except with the extreme left or maybe even right in some cases.
Also, I think it's a little unfair to peg this on Foxnews, when pretty much everybody has been playing highly edited clips, as television always does. Wasn't it ABC who really brought this into the national consciousness, and isn't it likely the Clintons who finagled them into doing so? Aren't they the original context violators?
I sent the following message to Sean Hannity of Hannity and Colmes (FOX news):
Good morning Mr. Hannity. I am a thirty four year old African American woman and I have watched several of your broadcasts dealing with my pastor Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. I must say that I am appalled by your and your network's mischaracterization of this man. Furthermore, I must say that although no message can be played in its entirety, the lack of context provided regarding Dr. Wright's "controversial" statements is even more outrageous. Why, out of all the footage aired, are these statements taken and played repeatedly, as if these were the only statements made, out of an entire 20 minute sermon, out of more than 40 years of ministry?
Whether you agree with him or not, which I know you don't, I believe that you are completely missing the point. Historically, the black church was the only institution and medium for which and by which social change could be advanced for blacks. We couldn't vote, were precluded from reading, separated from family, forced to slave in a country that constitutionally recognized us as three-fifths of a person. That's sixty percent. When have you ever lived in a country where the governing laws of your country already defined and confined you, recognizing you as property rather than as a person?
Well let me break it down for you. Let's say that you are at a baseball game. You step up to the plate. You look at the pitcher to try and determine what pitch will be thrown to you. All of a sudden, before you swing, the umpire takes away your helmet, your shoes, and your bat. Your uniform has been stripped away and you are then told you must attempt to hit the ball (still without a bat, mind you) from a crouched position. So even if you attempt to do all of that, you get to first base, and then you are told by the umpire that the rules have changed and now there is no first base but because you didn't get to second base, you are out. So you walk back to the dugout, dirty, disgusted, tired. But the insult doesn't end there because the next batter gets to play with all of the rules and all of the equipment.
You may ask why to the umpire and he says "it's because you have dark hair."
Now clearly, this is unfair. But Mr. Hannity, what I am trying to get you to recognize is that African Americans have been playing this game way too long without bats, without protection, without fair rules, and all because of who we are. So we invent our own rules and try to make some headway in a society that already has the odds stacked against us. Pastor Wright is no more of a racist than you are a lover of the truth. He loves this country but is holding all of us accountable to our choices, our decisions, and our responsibility to live holy, seeing to do justice and love mercy. His sermons are a mirror to us all, so that we fail to flee from what images reflect back to us. Prophetic preaching, as Pastor Wright has done every Sunday, across this country and this globe, is to "comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable." True spirituality does not reside solely in the pulpit, the synagogue, the temple or the mosque. It involves taking what is learned and applying it to everyday life and for the betterment and uplifting of mankind.
The mischaracterization of my pastor is untolerable. In my more than twenty five years at this church, Pastor Wright has shown how I can reconcile as Dr. W.E.B DuBois describes my "twoness", my African ancestry with my American citizenship. Furthermore, Pastor Wright has encouraged me and undergirded me, helping me to celebrate my Africanity with my Christianity. And ANYBODY who says that politics shouldn't belong in the pulpit has never read any of Jesus' sermons or teachings or have only read them in a vacuum and out of context.
I write this email with a disclaimer. I, at the beginning of this email, have never intended to change your mind about how you feel. I just wanted you to know that this modern day lynching of this man cannot go on and I, for one, will do everything in my Godgiven power to stop it. Consider this notice that the tides will turn, seasons will change, and in the not so distant future, you will remember what is said in Romans 8:28. Here's a soundbite: All things work together for good to those who love God and for those called according to His purpose. So when you see Barack Obama become this nation's next President, please remember this conversation because God's goodness is here and now and will be all the more evident in the future.
See you at the Presidential inauguration in 09!
Sincerely,
Natasha Robinson
thanks for setting up this blog. it's extremely patriotic a real credit to your organization that you're saying, "not this time". Just know that there are a lot of us -- including white folks -- who are right there with you.
My girlfriend and I watched in horror as the events on 911 unfolded. The only thing we saw that moved us towards something positive was the coming together of all the races in the United States, we were finally ONE, witnessing so many people helping each other with no regard to race or religion. It took a disaster to get there. Then some few years later we again watched in horror another disaster, Katrina, and we watched our government try hard to destroy race relations in our country by withholding basic life needs to predominantly Black people suffering horribly. I think their intent was to start riots. I am so sorry that Barack Obama has had to put aside his principles in order to stay competitive in the presidential race. He really shouldn't have had to - the Reverend Wright is right. God help us all.
Thank you for posting this whole speach. It never ceases to amaze me how easily lies come to some people. The media rips and tears things apart and then pieces them back together in a way that benefits those who are seeking power and not change for America. Why do people want to keep us fighting with each other? The beauty of the words that Obama spoke were amazing. It's how I have always felt. As a white woman who was raised in Louisiana, I've grown up seeing the racism, even in my own family. Why? Why do white people hate black people? They didn't ask to be torn away from their families and country and brought here to be tormented and beaten and treated as property. It has just never made sense to me! We are all PEOPLE. No matter what our skin color! It is absolutely rediculous to me that this hatred is still in so many hearts. I know that Obama can make a difference, but I fear that with the media's successful manipulations, that we won't get a chance to see what he can do for this country.
What a great blog! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. It is probably impossible to undo all the unjust damage that has been done by the mainstream media to Rev Wright's reputation but I see that everyone your blog and youtube postings is touching is 'seeing the light.' I am so so happy to learn the truth about your church's pastor. Not only to learn the truth, but I have been quite moved by what I have learned and heard here. Thank you and God bless.
Thank you both for posting the Audacity of Hope sermon, and for the full sermon delivered in 2001 by Rev. Jerimiah Wright. How odd that he is being singled out for his words, when the words of other pastors at that time--ones that I can not at all abide, are not addressed.
The joy is that this whole incident allowed me the opportunity to find Rev. Jerimiah Wright and to be led to the vertical path!
Peg
I wasn't supportive of Obama before. I'm more of a Ron Paul/Kucinich/Gravel/Cynthia McKinney/Nader person. But when I heard Rev Wright's sermons I was impressed that Obama belonged to a church that has the audacity to speak the truth. The news will always spin the truth and take it out of context so that the establishment can retain its hold over the gullible public. That is expected of them.
Rev Wright it out of the country at the moment. At least CNN tried to show his speech in context, but hardly devoted anytime to the issue. They didn't seem too sincere in making sure that his words were understood entirely in the context in which they were spoken. I wish they talked about it somemore.
I hope Rev Wright comes on Larry King Live or something after he returns to the country.
FOX's Sean Hannity, who whines night after night after night about "the Black value system", etc., is Confronted Over His Relationship With Neo-Nazi Hal Turner...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/23/sean-hannity-confronted-o_n_92961.html
Hate the hypocrisy, love the hypocrite...I guess.
The best thing would be to send the link for the clip of the full sermon around to anyone you know that bought into Fox and their swiftboating methods. Tell them how horrified you were at the full clip, with all the other awful comments he makes; they'll be anxious to hear and then propigate. As they listen, if they have any intelligence they'll think "this isn't so bad...that makes sense...that was a quote of someone else? that was what he meant?" Then, like the rest of us, they'll get upset, and angry - and we'll have 'swifttruthed' those that tried to highjack what he was saying, crash it into Obama's campaign, and bring it down, with the reputation of Wright and the Trinity United Church as collateral damage. They are as willing to destroy innocents as the 9/11 terrorists, to achieve their ends - they are no different. As the realization spreads that two good people and a 6000-strong christian church were intentionally wrongly defamed in order to damage Obama's campaign, they will have done more to damage themselves and boost Obama than anything Obama himself could have done. If Americans and the rest of the American media do not respond by denouncing and punishing this behavior, then these Rovian methods will continue until they are no longer effective...and then 'god damn America' will be a well and truly deserved curse upon all of us for allowing it to happen.
Gosh Darn America!!
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stephenwolf/gGBnRB
Beautiful! I am proud to live in a country in which we have such strong moral leaders as Rev. Wright. After watching the full sermon I was stunned at how deep the deception that it is being perpetrated against your church and Senator Obama. God's servants are always tested and faith is always hard fought.
I also must admit that I was moved to tears by the honesty and genuine concern that Senator Obama showed during his speech.
Thank you for working to show the truth to the citizen's of the US!
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*Use www.mediamatters.com-great resource that has very detailed, well documented research about Fox, their smears,misinformation, etc...
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He still enforces the stero type that all white people are evil and supress black people. People never give any credit to the millions of white soldiers, like my ancestors, who died to abolish slavery. Why does everything have to be about skin color anyway, aren't we all humans?
Why is this not being blasted across the media. I dont believe it , we fell for it again. Thgere should be a big sink raised about this and it should not be buried by the news media
Really great information.
I think is the time to STOP FOX News Propaganda. It's so bad for american people.
www.angolaxyami.com
Peace and love for a better world
Context is everything. If you take one scripture from the Bible you can make it say what it's not meant to. But more often than not if you read a several verses before, and several verses after you will get the much needed context. That is what this video did. It gave necessary context to the short video clips the news was showing. The one issue I have is that he uses all inclusive words such as "we" and "us" when describing U.S. atrocities. I would also like to see him tie his sermons up with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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