So, I decided to watch a little TV this morning, having taken the day off. Fox News was covering the speech by Mr. Jeremiah Wright. Wright was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. this morning and out of sheer morbid curiosity, I watched to see if he’d adhere to his America-hate speech. Sure enough, the audience was sprinkled with supporters, shouters and other so-called Christian black leaders who were no doubt strategically placed to show support for this man.
Anyway, I watched in horror as he began to ‘define’ the ‘theology’ of the black church, which, by Wright’s estimation, apparently only exists for racial equality, not for the glory of God.
“OK, fine!”, I said. “He’s got a right to his wrong idea, I suppose.” So after several minutes of swooning the stacked crowd with white vs. black rhetoric, the real Jeremiah Wright came out… And I concluded he is not only a racial divider. Not only is he a hater of the very country in which he’s been able to accumulate considerable amount of wealth, with a retirement home of 1.6M. He is a false prophet and a heretic.
Two things stood out to me as red flags with this man:
1.) His definition of the gospel is basically that Jesus (a great prophet) came to teach us how to better live with each other and that God hates war and fighting (Ecclesiastes 3:8 tells us there is a time for war, a time for peace). Never did I hear that the United Church of Christ teaches that THE GOSPEL is that Jesus came to die for sinners, to pay the price for their sin and redeem his people. These words were never uttered from his lips and he clearly had an audience to do so. This false gospel then received applause by the sheeple in the audience.
2.) During the Q&A time at the end, his answers were barbed, evasive and just plain stupid. One answer, however, stood out to me as evidence that this man does NOT understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. When the emcee (obviously, not a Christian or the press- where did they get her???) came to “a church question” for Mr. Wright, he failed miserably to give a sufficient answer:
The press’ question went something like, “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father except through me.‘ How do you explain this exclusivity to those from other religions, like Islam, who don’t believe Jesus is the only way?”
Jeremiah Wright immediately, and with a grin on his face, states, “Jesus also said, ‘Other sheep have I that are not in this fold.’ ” then immediately steps away from the pulpit while receiving yet more applause from the room. Now obviously, this question was meant to corner Wright into saying something against the Muslims (a typical press core tactic to glean soundbits). HOWEVER… Any man professing to be a teacher of scripture, leading a congregation the size of UCC and given a national platform to proclaim Jesus Christ as the ONLY way of salvation had better not screw it up! When Jesus spoke of other sheep who are not in this fold, he was clearly not speaking of those who would get into heaven by other means. This is idiotic and elementary! Had Mr. Wright quoted the entire verse, John 10:16, those in attendance would have seen him for the jackass he is.
John 10:16 says: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” I must…. They will. Jesus was speaking to Jewish people about the Gentiles who would believe in Him, not Muslims getting into heaven on Allah’s coat tail or any other false religion. Jesus’ whole point here (Mr. Wright, are you listening?) is that salvation was not only for Jewish people, but for people all over the world who would believe. I wonder how Mr. Wright would explain the last four words of the scripture he took out of context…”one flock, one shepherd”? Sounds pretty exclusive to me!
As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Wright relishes untruth and out-of-context preaching in order to get rich and to get a rise out of ‘evil white America’. He does not know or proclaim the gospel of my savior, Jesus Christ. Mr. Wright is a false teacher and a heretic and should not be given any platform on which to speak of Jesus publicly again. He knows not the Man.
Livid for the right reasons,
David
April 28, 2008 at 10:16 am
A view from within the United Church of Christ:
http://WWW.UCCTRUTHS.COM
Wright lights the fuse
Monday, April 28, 2008
Trinity United Church of Christ’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, gave an indignant speech this morning before the National Press Club and African-American church leaders. The speech and Wright’s response to questions afterwards will undoubtedly reignite the controversy around his sermons.
In his speech, Wright disowned the controversy by claiming that the media reporting and the public response was not about him, it was about the black church as a whole. Wright also mentioned the call to have a national conversation on race which was first raised by presidential candidate Barack Obama and formalized by the United Church of Christ’s national office.
Throughout the question and answer period of his speech, Wright continually deflected questions about his sermons often answering a question with another question. When asked about his “God damn America” sermon, he asked “Did you hear the sermon?” When asked about his allegation that the U.S. governemnt created the AIDS virus to commit genocide on African-Americans, Wright asked if the questioner had read Horowitz’s book and then claimed that he believed the government was capable of it. When asked about his controversial sermon that appeared to blame the U.S. for 9/11, Wright claimed to be quoting an ambassador although Wright clearly subscribed to the belief in the sermon.
On any level, the speech was a trainwreck. Wright didn’t accept responsibility for his sermons or take ownership of his own words. By deflecting the controversy as commentary against the black church, Wright has also ignited a completely manufactured racial conflict and has unfairly cast a negative view of the black church and the United Church of Christ. Wright has effectively sabatoged the black church, the United Church of Christ and Obama’s candidacy to protect his own ego.
While I personally agree with the spirit of Obama’s call for a national conversation on race, it can not and should not be orchestrated as a defense of Wright’s sermons. The controversy is not about race, it is about Jeremiah Wright. If we are going to have a real national conversation on race, it should be done in the spirit Obama’s unifying optimism that we can overcome our shameful history.
April 28, 2008 at 8:43 pm
AMEN to that brother. I hope you didn’t eat breakfast before watching the broadcast of his “speech”. False teaching and heresy and JUST THAT!!!
April 29, 2008 at 10:36 am
You should be mad. The interesting part to this, is that the more he talks, the more people are steering towards voting for Hillary. Obama mentioned that he doesn’t endorse the Pastors words, but if you go to someone’s church for 20 plus years, you are definitely endorsing HIM. They are shooting themselves in the foot. Somewhere, right now, Hillary and Bill are smiling…..
April 29, 2008 at 2:04 pm
You guys do know there are legitimate reasons to disperage your country, right?? It’s what started OUR country. For 90 years we were legal slavetraders(mainly southern baptists ironically). You know where they say the had the authority to do it? That’s right, everyone’s favorite book of answers, THE BIBLE!!!
Let’s see, then there is the 200 plus year raping of the native american people. Ever wonder whose land you own REALLY belongs to? That was divinty based too. The manifest destiny.
Hmm, lets see we locked up all the jap americans during WWII. Killed millions of innocent japanese CIVILIANS we charred in the same war.
Umm, let’s see right now your right wing buddies are wiping their rears with the bill of Rights………
Killing for oil.
We tell ourselves we’re the good guys, but the closer I look at our own history, I’m not so sure how ‘good’ we are.
Or that we ever really were. But instead of 1 man making those cruel decisions, we do it en masse.
April 29, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Let’s no forget waterboarding!!!! Who coulda come up with THAT concept. Oh, right!! CHRISTIANS!!! Spanish inquisition
April 29, 2008 at 2:26 pm
[...] buddy David, wrote an excellent article on how this whole, Rev. Wright thing, is going over…. like a load of bricks…..Somewhere [...]
April 30, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Joseph,
I hope you aren’t planning a profession in the judiciary as you clearly can only see one side.
May 1, 2008 at 7:49 am
My take on Wright is a little different. Yes, his ego is wrapped up in this mess but one must separate the man from his beliefs. Wright has drunk from the well of Liberation Theology and he is a true believer. He most likely sees himself in the role of a John the Baptist who proclaimed the coming of Christ. Only he is proclaiming Liberation Theology (LT) or rather the racial version of it, Black Liberation Theology (BLT). This is a heresy of Christian beliefs. LT and BLT were constructed to put a Christian face on Marxism.
His rants against America (really white America) and the white race are calculated to induce guilt. The reason for this is that guilt then produces passivity which is essential to the triumph of Cultural Marxism. If an entire country (or any group) can be made to feel guilty and retreat into passivity they will be unable to resist an enslaving ideology. I am sure he has probably read Gramsci.
I don’t know for sure if Wright actually believes all he says. Probably not, since he avoids more questions than he answers when given an opportunity to respond. I think it falls more in the area of political propaganda calculated to advance BLT (really Marxism). If he does believe all that trash then he is a bona fide “Kool Aid Kid.” He also tries to garner respectability for his heresy by wrapping himself in the mantle of black church experience and this all just a matter of being different.
What is needed now is for orthodox black pastors to stand up and critique Wright and show it is heresy. I have seen individual blacks such as Juan Williams and Jesse Peterson do this. I don’t know whether or not will happen. If that does occur will the media then report on it widely.
May 1, 2008 at 9:11 am
Thanks, Theseus. Great response. I believe Wright actually DOES believe what he says. Problem is, he’s wrong on many levels- theologically and socially, to name two. Where did his anger come from? The America he hates so much has enabled him to make a very healthy living. The God he says he worships (that’s debatable) allows him breath each day with which to spew his racist venom.
May 1, 2008 at 9:47 am
Ok, ok, if I only see one side, show me the other. Besides the ‘miracles’ in the bible, show me similar historical refernces where religion made mankind a better race, and the Kingdom of earth a better place.
May 1, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Joe,
One example: Wouldn’t France be speaking German today had America not saved their butts? Who’s the first country to call when in trouble? That’s right- the USA! And who brought us into WW2 by killing our innocent civilians at Pearl Harbor…Oh, yeah… Japan, who we bombed to END THE WAR… Aren’t we the ones who ENDED THAT WAR SINGLE HANDEDLY?? Funny how liberals are critical when we defend ourselves and critical when we take action to END WAR. We can’t win, can we? There never can be a war without losing some innocent lives. That’s an unfortunate fact. However, it seems the whole reason we’re not making a glass lake out of the whole Middle East is because we’re trying NOT to kill innocent Iraqi and Afghan people, many of whom the terrorists use as shields!! Who’s being more sensitive to human life there? Makes you reconsider, doesn’t it?
May 2, 2008 at 8:43 am
I’m just curious, if God were a work of art, the fact that He could be interpreted differently, but still logically and in ways that were an expression of His meaningfulness and beautiful to people, would that not be considered an indicator of a truly advanced and masterful creation?
May 2, 2008 at 9:28 am
Phillip,
Don’t know where you were going with this, but it is interesting that it seems very relativistic. I.e. what works for me is right for me, but maybe not for you, etc. This is what’s wrong with society. As a society, we’ve become so adverse to absolute truth that any interpretation of God is given equal standing with scripture, whether it’s scriptural or not. There is but one God, one way to Heaven and absolute truth is laid out in scripture. Anything less is fabrication. I understand your statement was hypothetical, but God can’t be looked at as something like a work of art. He is THE Creator, sovereign over all things. WE are the work of art- so we should be more concerned how He sees us than how we see him. Thanks for the post.
May 2, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Interesting side-discussion. I would lobby for a new thread to discuss this topic (relativism vs. absolutism.) I have some thoughts to share on that but perhaps here is not the best place to go into detail.
Basically I have serious concern for those who reject any idea of absolute truth outright and currently our world seems to be especially longing to embrace an ‘everything is relative’ mentality.
On the other hand, I’m also growing more concerned with a lot of us conservative Christians…and I have been especially guily of this…who zealously reject the idea of relativism, especially in the context of our theologies. It’s important for us to understand the differences between absolute truth and relative truth in order to be “rightly dividing the word of truth” and to take all scripture in its proper context.
May 2, 2008 at 10:24 pm
David,
First, I haven’t said my name was Philip, and if it were and I wanted that known I’d have used it as a screen name. I assume you figured that out from my email address, which is not supposed to be published.
Second, there’s nothing relativistic about my comment. My remark was meant to point out the problem many have with God being more than just doctrine. If God judges us, and I believe He does, then it should go without saying I am not forwarding the position of “what works for me is right.” Absolute truth does not mean illogical truth.
And I’m certainly not saying God should be looked at as a work of art, but He should be given at least as much “credit” for possessing depth that we give a great work of art. It’s as if we won’t accept a God who has more than a Hallmark greeting card view of life.
I’m not sure I would argue that religion has necessarily made the earth a better place, but I would include in “religion” such things as atheism, capitalism, etc. If the world isn’t a better place because of these things maybe it’s because we haven’t yet figured out how to use the correct religion.