From Anger to Hope: Jeremiah Wright

(This opinion piece writen by Jack Good was published by The Roanoke Times of Roanoke, Virginia on March 28, 2008.)

The recent flap over Barak Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright has personal meaning for me.

For fifteen years before my retirement I served as pastor of a congregation in the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, the conference that includes Trinity United Church of Christ—Obama’s church.  For several years I was an officer of the Conference, giving me ample opportunity to interact with lay members and staff of that remarkable congregation. I continue to correspond with two friends who are members there—one black and one white—both of whom report being spiritually nourished and socially inspired by their affiliation with Trinity.

The accomplishments of Trinity Church under Rev. Wright’s leadership caused the remainder of us in the Conference to react in awe. We at our congregation in Champaign, Illinois tried to learn from them. Our confirmation classes looked forward to a Sunday in Chicago, the highlight of which was attending a service at Trinity. Similar outings were planned for the University of Illinois students who shared in our campus ministry.

Trinity was by far the largest congregation in the Conference. It was also the most involved in eradicating poverty, preventing AIDS, preparing its young people for college, and addressing the special needs of its mostly black members.  Their outreach was (and is) more than local. The church gives more than any other congregation of our denomination to projects aimed at building justice and peace across the globe.

No one denied that Dr. Wright could allow his emotions to overflow. The anger that has been seen in the TV clips over the past week is real. The strong reaction to this anger says more about the white community’s lack of understanding than it does about the black community’s patriotism.

Should we expect members of a predominately black congregation to view American history in the same way as their white neighbors? Blacks have no rose-tinted glasses, as do many whites, designed to block out the dark episodes of our nation’s development.

People of European heritage know that their ancestors came here by choice to flee religious persecution and the growing militarism of Europe. They found new beginnings and new ways to prosper. Most of their white descendants celebrate this history with little sense of ambiguity.

Blacks, by contrast, know that their ancestors were brought here in chains, their spirits beaten down, and many of their families ripped apart, Some blacks who are still living endured water cannon and attack dogs to win the right to vote and the privilege of drinking from a public fountain. The Afro-American community today can celebrate significant progress in racial justice, but a haunting question remains: Why was so much progress necessary?

Most blacks have learned to hide whatever anger they carry concerning these issues, knowing that even their closest white friends will probably not understand.

Given these realities, Jeremiah Wright and other black pastors face a delicate but crucial task: attempting to deal with a justifiable anger without allowing that anger to become destructive. Wright has chosen to validate his people’s anger then move the energy of that anger toward hope. His success is measured in the eleven thousand members that have joined Trinity and in the power of its ministries.

Dr. Martin Marty, one of our generation’s outstanding religious thinkers, has been a friend of Rev. Wright for thirty-five years. He has attended many services at Trinity where he always feels welcome as a white person in a predominately black church. Nicholas Kristof, writer for the New York Times, recently quoted Professor Marty concerning his reaction to worship at Trinity: “You hear ‘hope, hope, hope.’ Lots of ordinary people are there, and they’re there not to blast the whites. They are there to get hope.”

The TV clips that focus on Rev. Wright’s anger and rip that anger out of its context of hope do a disservice to Wright, to Trinity Church, and to Barak Obama.

American citizens will find, over the next months, many legitimate reasons to vote either for or against Obama’s candidacy.  Jeremiah Wright, who has a remarkable, though imperfect, record as a religious leader, should not be one of those reasons—pro or con.