4.29.2008

The Fall of Change

Many people have been outraged at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's comments. On this blog, I have discussed Wright and recent lashing he has received. Senator Obama has sought to create a message that he is different than other politicians and that he will bring change. I have never gotten on the Obama train, but I did somewhat believe he would be somehow different. However, today any trace of that hope was erased. Senator Obama ridiculed and denounced his pastor's recent comments made over the past few ways. Rev. Wright had four very public interviews to defend himself, and Senator Obama further distanced himself from his pastor during this time. Senator Obama said the following regarding Rev. Wright: "What became clear to me is that he was presenting a world view that contradicts who I am and what I stand for."

Rev. Jeremiah Wright has shared many beliefs over the past few days that I find quite invigorating. He rightly sees parallels between the Roman Empire and the United States (in the book of Revelations, John describes this empire as Babylon, the great harlot). Rev. Wright rightly contrasts the difference between the way of Christ and the ways of the empire that crucified him. Rev. Wright rightly wonders what evils our government is capable of doing.

My pastor and I were reflecting on the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament this morning. What astounded us was the similarities between the message of Jeremiah Wright and the message of Jeremiah the prophet. The language, tone, and feeling were very similar.

Senator Obama declares that his worldview is something different than Rev. Jeremiah Wright. This I believe is true. They share very, very different worldviews-- Rev. Wright's is one schooled in scripture. Senator Obama's is one schooled in American imperialism. Thank-you Senator Obama for confirming my belief that you are just like every other politician.

6 comments:

  1. as much as I agree with most of your post...Rev. Wright claims that HIV is an american government plot against the african american community. More accurately that our government is capable of doing something like this. While he rightly points out many of the flaws inherent in our society and country, a belief like this should not be propagated and supported. I think this boarders on fanaticism. So in light of things like this I can understand separation on Obama's part. I also think that it is necessary move because the news media allow folks to properly parse supporting parts of someone's ideals and not buying their whole package. I guess all I am trying to say, is that in light of things like this, I find the Rev. Wright hard to swallow. What do you do with comments like the AIDS one? Does it make him one more fanatical conspiracy theorist? We need to hear most of the words he speaks, but do comments like these really help? I am go track down some of his sources for this claim, but I think there is a fine line between there is systematic injustice and they're all out to get me paranoia.

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  2. the prior comment should read:

    "the news media does NOT allow folks

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  3. I am very aware of Rev. Wright's claim. How ever preposterous such a claim seems to us white folk, we must keep in mind that historically African Americans in this country were experimented on. As well, many AIDS experiments occurred in the 80s and 90s in Africa by American pharmaceutical companies (most probably with some U.S. governmental knowledge). In my opinion, there is no reason to assume that such experiments have been completely discontinued-- some how, some way, and some place on the globe such a thing is probably happening and American dollars are present. Rev. Wright isn't just proclaiming some fanatical opinion. Rather, it is an opinion widely held by African-Americans of his generation in this country.
    Check out the following link: http://www.thebody.com/content/art30946.html
    It's a great article about the Tuskegee experiment.

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  4. Also, check out the following news article from 2005: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33695-2005Jan24.html
    As well as this: http://winterparking.blogspot.com/2008/04/dallas-morning-news-obama-pastor.html

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  5. thanks for pointing me to these things.

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  6. Wow. How in the world did I come upon this??!!

    I google a book, see a familiar name from back in Ft. Wayne pop up on the search, and then find a link to your blog in his list of blogs - now that's random.

    Good to see your doing well!

    -Tiberi

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