i was in the trucklette an hour ago listening to farai chideya on npr’s news and notes. she was interviewing a man – didn’t catch his name – who is a member of jeremiah wright’s church and also a professor of theology at the university of chicago. i’m not implying anything here but i couldn’t find this particular interview on the web site, though they have mp3’s of the segments before and after it.
it seemed to me he was pretty obviously dancing around farai’s questions about reverend wright’s much publicized statements. he started out with a brief history of how black church came to be and how wright’s “g__ d___ america” statement made sense in that context. the core of reverend wright’s liberation theology is based on jesus’ quote from isaiah 61:
the spirit of the lord god is upon me, because the lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners
he applies this uniquely to blacks in america. they are the ones who are brokenhearted, captive, and prisoners and jesus came so they can be set free.
and, i agree. jesus came to do just what he said. what i can’t say “amen” to is the line of of distinction about who jesus came for. i’ve only watched one of jeremiah wright’s sermons online, and it was apparently a particulary angry one. but it seemed quite clear that the “us” – the ones being set free – are black americans. and the “them” – the ones causing heartbreak and holding blacks prisoner and captive – are white americans.
which is where i believe reverend wright gets it exactly wrong. jesus came to create a new people-group. the new “tribe” has a common ancestor in abraham because, like him, we believe god and god counts our faith as righteousness. the unifying sign of our faith – the way that faith is worked out day by day – is the love we have for each other. the only real distinction jesus’ gospel allowed is “in god’s kingdom” or “out”. any other distinction is, at best, a distraction.
and, speaking of amens; they’re easy to get. just say something your congregation already agrees with. something they’ve heard before. something that makes them comfortable.
but look at biblical prophets or the words of jesus – they made the congregation decidedly uncomfortable. they pointed out sin and pled for righteousness. never do you hear jesus saying “we are good and the other guys; they are bad”. though it would have got him an “amen”.
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