By Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds

As a member of the speakers’ committee of the National Press Club, upon the invitation of the Club President Sylvia Smith, I helped organize the press breakfast that featured Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Since my role and my motive have been questioned, I feel I owe my readers an honest answer.

I began suggesting Pastor Jeremiah Wright as a speaker about three years ago when I met him at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference that was convening in Washington , DC . At that conference, Senator Barack Obama was the morning keynote speaker and I was the afternoon keynote speaker. After seeing that Wright and Obama had such powerful, but distinct social justice messages to lift people up, I wondered why the public had not heard more from this Conference of which Wright was the founder.

As a minister, I served as a Commissioner on the Conference Truth and Justice Hearings on Katrina. Senator Hillary Clinton testified at the hearings and attacked the Bush administration for its negligence and Senator Obama also addressed the group in Washington and encouraged its mission. I saw the Conference message as a part of the legacy of the Black Church that was either being drowned out by the conservative evangelicals or the prosperity preachers.

For two years Wright and the Conference took their message to Washington and the National Press Club. Many eloquent and renowned theologians including Pastors Wright, James Forbes, Frederick Haynes IV, Cynthia Hale and others spoke. Unfortunately only one reporter, Hamil Harris of the Washington Post reported it, but there was little other coverage.

Ironically I remember praying that somehow this group directed by Rev. Dr. Iva Carruthers and composed of some of the most dedicated and progressive preachers and theologians in the country would gain more public exposure.

I soon found there is much truth to the old saying, “Be careful what you pray for because God may not come the way you want Him but when He comes He is right on time.” So when the recent controversy around Wright erupted, Sylvia Smith, the president of the press club, asked if I could get Wright as a speaker, the man I had been suggesting even before she became president. I was delighted because the Samuel Proctor Conference was again coming to Washington for its legislative conference and Wright could now bring the social justice message with its promise of equality and inclusion to an international level.

That was my only motivation.

I have been attacked for my role in all this. What is fueling it is because I stated publicly that I voted for Senator Clinton in the primary as my way of thanking her for how she stood up for the poor when she had a chance. Few have written that I also publicly criticized the Senator for not firing Geraldine Ferraro when she insinuated that Senator Obama was an “affirmative action” presidential candidate. Few have written that in lectures and sermons I have spoken highly of Senator Obama and how his message of hope offers a great opportunity to bring a divided nation together.

I believe in the First Amendment, freedom of speech. I believe as Voltaire did that “while I disagree with every word you say I will defend to my death your right to say it.” I believe that people of different views should have a voice as citizens and they do not have to agree with me to have that right.

I believe that pastors, preachers and prophets should NOT go to the rulers and politicians and ask permission from them to speak truth to power or to speak the Word that God places in their heart. If they did that, most of the churches, synagogues and mosques in America would shut down.

I believe those who are spiritual leaders should be asking themselves: What is God saying to us? Could it not be that Pastor Jeremiah Wright who has preached the social Gospel for almost 30 years was sent to the Kingdom for a time like this for revival, renewal and reconciliation? Why are so many being duped by a media whose agenda is white supremacy and following its lead to pick what issues black clergy should raise? Could it not be that the real scheme is to destroy the messenger so America will never have to deal with the messages that Wright is conveying? Should spiritual leaders now retreat further, take the safe road and just get their praise on and follow prosperity theology to please the media and the rulers of this nation?

As an editorial board member at USA TODAY for thirteen years, I helped develop the Opinion Page. I was a door opener to let people in, not a doorkeeper to shut people out. I fought hard to bring upon those pages the views of the marginalized, left out, overlooked and invisible into the mix with the rich, powerful and the establishment figures.

In addition, I constantly fought for the media to hire more blacks as columnists, editors and to also hire more religion writers. I dare say if there were writers and journalists armed with the knowledge of how the black church has provided leadership to this nation-- not by shutting up, but by challenging, rebuking and reconciling-- people of faith would see the mainstream media in a more positive light. Ironically, some of the same black journalists who are criticizing me now as I continue to fight for inclusion and diversity, are there as a result of myself and others fighting the corporate media to hire them.

Shortly before the press club breakfast, I helped organized a press luncheon for Secretary Jackson of HUD and worked very hard to make it a sold out event, as was the Wright event. I am not a Republican.

Two weeks before the Wright event I helped organized a press luncheon for LaRaza, a Hispanic organization. I am not Hispanic.

But nevertheless I read that I am part of some nefarious plot against Obama. Ironically, as I preached and made speeches about the prophetic vision of Obama that will have a longer positive effect on politics in America than these silly arguments, I was accused by some of being an Obama surrogate.

I am neither an Obama surrogate nor a Clinton surrogate. If either one becomes President-- or neither, I will still be challenging the next President to lift up the poor and the powerless as I have challenged presidents for the last four decades.

One thing I learned from Dr. Betty Shabazz, the wife of the late Malcolm X, is to “find the good and praise it.” I think this country would be better served if either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama became president instead of John McCain. And I think this country is better served by an ex-Marine like Pastor Jeremiah Wright standing up for his beliefs and like the Jeremiah in the Bible, standing up for his country in pointing out the nation's past sins and pleading for change and reconciliation, which is the message I heard at the National Press Club.

In his powerful speech before the NAACP on the previous evening, he made the case that we are a nation of differences and different does not mean deficient. Why can’t we accept the different message, style of Wright? Meanwhile, Pastor Wright and his family are receiving death threats and his church bomb threats. This is very sad. I do not believe that tearing down and hating on either Barack or Clinton or Wright is honorable. If this level of hate continues, it will only spell disaster for our nation.

At this writing, Senator Obama appears favored to be the nominee. If he prevails, I will most certainly support him and vote for him in the general election. Then I will have voted-in the primary and in the general election-- for two of the most phenomenal politicians this country has produced. And at the same time, I am proud to stand beside Pastor Jeremiah Wright, one of the most brilliant and courageous preachers I have ever known.

Op-Ed Contributor

by Rev. Graylan Hagler

Senator Barrack Obama severed his ties with Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, and quite possibly with the church, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois. Senator Obama after viewing news coverage and the C-Span broadcast of Rev. Wright’s presentation at the National Press Club, and with mounting media questions, opponent attacks, and topsy-turviness in the polls, Senator Obama presented his perspective, angst, and emotional vulnerability publicly which completely and without a doubt severed his ties with his former Pastor. This all culminated after weeks of video loops where Rev. Wright was seen ‘damning America,’ and proclaiming ‘the chickens have come home to roost’ to a church filled with joyous, ‘amening’ and predominantly Black people. This scene frightened much of White America, giving pause because they were shocked by the statements and wondering whether Obama was like his pastor and the church. Obama’s opponents, seeing an excellent opportunity to whittle away at the Obama campaign did so effectively raising a subtle and modified race card inferring “Is he really one of us?” The sheer will of Obama’s opponents kept the loops televised, as they dug to find new angles to a now old story every reporting day. These questions dogged the Obama campaign for weeks, nearly crippling it and diverting its attention from the campaign and the issues that the campaign needed to articulate.

The tapes of Wright broke just after he began his Sabbatical and had gone away prior to his formal retirement from Trinity United Church of Christ later in 2008. Therefore there was a natural excuse for silence on the part of Rev. Wright that allowed the story to continue on. The 'story' lacked a voice on the other side, and therefore reporters and pundits kept finding sensation with which they could easily feed the public and water the seeds of greater doubts and frame questions that had no satisfying answers.

As the story played, Senator Obama was forced to come out and make a statement. The pundits applauded his speech on ‘Race.’ They praised him for his poise, non-threatening tone, and in-depth analysis of the issues surrounding slavery, Jim Crow, and in general race in America. He assured White America that he understood their resentment because of Affirmative Action, reinforced his mixed heritage by citing his grandmother who sometimes said things that should not be repeated in racially mixed company, according to Obama. He said, “I cannot disown Rev. Wright as I cannot disown my own White grandmother” – which cemented into the public’s consciousness that Wright was indeed a racist along with Obama’s White grandmother. Whereupon one of my Black pastor friends who reside in Chicago asserted, “Wright and Obama’s grandmother were thrown under the bus by Obama!”

The Obama explanation on Wright and race were largely satisfying to his supporter and non-supporters alike. The White community was mostly reassured in that speech. No matter how young, gifted and particularly Black he did not have the edge that many Whites perceive exists in Black people. They also felt that Obama with his refined tones would not come at them with civil rights, preference programs, calls for Reparations, and would not shout out the “R” word when in heated discussions between him and White people. Obama established that he was a new kind of Black person, not a relic from the past, as represented by Rev. Wright, or those other ‘angry’ Black men that we see on the streets everyday. He was safe and many Whites again felt that ‘Maybe he is safe enough.’

However the Wright tapes were still playing in the background. After all Rev. Wright was still out of “sound-bite” and therefore the ‘story’ was unable to be tilted one way or another. The tapes played as conservative talk show hosts and commentators continued to ask whether Obama was sincere or not with his understanding of race and of implied assurances to Whites.

Onto the stage steps Rev. Wright. His appearance on Bill Moyers, a fellow member of the United Church of Christ, Wright was able to offer a reasoned and mellowed response to the questions that the White nation had about his statements. On the Bill Moyers show Rev. Wright appeared calm, intellectual, and relatively reasonable. Two days later Rev. Wright brought the keynote address to the NAACP. His presentation and dramatics were stellar. He preached an old sermon teaching that “Different Does Not Mean Deficiency.” The next morning he was to appear at the National Press Club. The event at the Press Club was sponsored by The Samuel D. Proctor Conference, a preaching and ministry seminar. Rev. Wright had been instrumental in the founding of the Proctor Conference. Indeed, many of the ministers that Rev. Wright had teaching influence over, and those who had come to know Rev. Wright through him preaching in their churches were present. It was a quite a crowd with intellectuals like Dr. Cornell West, and renowned pulpiteers like the Rev. Dr. James Forbes, former Pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City.

Rev. Wright came onto the stage with his family, security and Dr. Barbara Reynolds, commentator, Hillary Clinton supporter and teacher at Howard University School of Divinity. After the consumption of breakfast Rev. Wright rose to speak. It was Rev. Wright’s audience. Predominantly Black preachers and theologians gathered under the conference theme, “The Prophetic Witness in the African American Religious Experience,” and there was no better example in the historical context than Wright. He was welcomed with a standing ovation, and he regaled in the welcome. But who was also in the room were three rows of television cameras, and the balcony ringed with print reporters. They were mostly White, but the seated audience was predominantly Black. Rev. Wright again spoke about “Difference does not mean deficiency,” critiqued the nation’s foreign policy suggesting that terrorists attacks and estranged relationships is because we have not acted in the world justly and he cited the teaching of Jesus who calls that we “do unto others.” He said that Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam is like “E.F. Hutton, when he speaks every Black person listens, even if they disagree.” This was far more than the White reporters could deal with; particularly while a Black church audience cheered and “amen-ed” Rev. Wright on. The media wanted an apology for his perceived attacks on America, a lessening of the prophetic tone in Wright’s speaking, and the expected political fare where Minister Farrakhan is denounced. If this was not frightening enough for a largely White media and television audience, the question and answer engagement was a complete public relations disaster for Wright. Wright irritated with questions became combative with the moderator. The moderator was a White woman reporter from USA Today. Obama stated that Wright had crossed the line in his “performance.” Wright was seen as being hostile and combative with a White woman thereby causing press and commentators to come to the defense of her honor. The nation saw what they perceived as an angry Black man, unbowed, unrepentant, interacting with the church audience in the traditional “call and response” of the Black church. Many who attended the event and I spoke with after the news had played and the newspapers appeared reporting the Press Club event commented, “I was obviously at a different gathering.”

The images from the Press Club illustrated just how far the Black and White communities are separated. It demonstrated the chasm that exists between Black and White perceptions. It showed just how critical and unresolved are the issues of race within the culture and the nation. Whites are afraid of “angry” Black men, and the Black man is mandated to become emasculated in order to be heard and accepted by the White nation.

Later that same day, the Proctor Conference resumed at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Theological students, preachers, and denominational leaders from the historical Black churches came forth to lift up “affirmations” for the long and extensive ministry of Wright. In worship that evening, after a powerful sermon by the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., Father of the current pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Wright was called forward and the preachers formed a prayer circle for Wright that both celebrated his ministry, called upon God to gird him through this storm, and for protection. Though the participants called Wright forward for one purpose, it is now apparent to me that an invisible divine spirit overrode the claims of those prayers, and unbeknown to the participants Wright was being prepared as sacrificial lamb on the altar of race politics.

Wright’s presentation had started a media firestorm, and the talk shows were calling for Obama to do something and to do it firmly and unequivocally. Obama had no choice if he was to remain a viable and considered candidate in the eyes of White America. Obama stood before the cameras and again addressed the Wright controversy, but this time with greater firmness, hurt in his voice, and pain in his eyes declared that the relationship has been seriously changed.

It was about the time that Obama was to make his live televised declaration about the deep schism between him and Wright that Wright, his family, and publicist withdrew into a guarded room at Howard University School of Divinity, where the Proctor Conference had now moved, and in crisis mode huddled, but never returned to the conference after that. The sacrifice had been made and Rev. Wright was now flayed on the altar of race and politics.

The separation of Obama and Wright signaled to White America that Obama was willing to sever relationships with aged concerns and suspicions harbored in the Black community. He therefore was able to declare in clear terms that he was not beholding to the Black community in his Presidency. This allayed fears that Obama would be a “Black” President and demonstrated to White America his trustworthiness to represent their issues. Wright in his response to the controversy surrounding him, by accident and because of unintended reaction to his responses, delivered to Obama a tremendous favor by allowing the candidate to separate himself and truly overcome race in the eyes of White America. Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright was unintentionally but certainly sacrificed on the altar of racial politics making space for Obama to state clearly and fervently ‘I am safe, and I am really one of you.’

After the separation between Obama and Wright there was a new energy to the Obama campaign, sympathy from mainline media was apparent because of his response to the Wright controversy, and there is now a new freshness that surrounds the campaign where White America is willing to hear Obama again. In the aftermath of Rev. Wright it is now apparent, at least me, that Obama’s chances of securing the nomination are greater than ever before, and his election as President is quite likely in the Fall. But this comes at the expense of another authentic leader being sacrificed on the altar of America’s racial deniability. It is a pained process for the Black community to say the least, where hopes and dreams of generations of men and women ride, but also where the price for success is so high that one has to wonder what has really been achieved when the victory is said and done.

Reverend Graylan Scott Hagler,

National President,

Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice of the United Church of Christ and

Senior Minister,

Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ ,

Washington , DC

gshagler@verizon.net   

Op-Ed Contributor

by Pastor Stephen Andrew Tillett

In the movie Cool Hand Luke a very memorable line is uttered during a sequence when things are going very wrong: “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” In the matter of Senator Barack Obama, Dr. Jeremiah Wright and the election of 2008, we have a failure to communicate. Everybody is talking, no one is listening and, in many instances, folks don’t even want to listen to or hear what people who don’t agree with them have to say. As a pastor, I’ve been involved in a number of counseling sessions the past eighteen years. All attempts at conflict resolution, be they family oriented or organizational begin with the same principle: “If you are not at least willing to consider the possibility that the person you disagree with might have a point, there will be no true communication taking place, and so all talking will simply be a waste of time.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” Among the populace, being force-fed by a repetitious media to see and hear the same things over and over and over again, there is some degree of sincere ignorance. But I also see some more ominous forces at work here. Among the media, campaign staff and “talking heads” there is, conscientious, willful mendacity taking place. Rather than taking the spoken word at face value, or asking the speaker for clarification if there is a disconnect, if what is being said is not what we want to hear, there is a concerted effort to reinterpret what has been said in the most damaging light possible to the person speaking. That is cynically dishonest, and it squanders the opportunity for everyone involved to grow and learn from productive, intentional conversation. We, as a nation, are missing the point.

My beloved colleague, Pastor Jeremiah Wright, his flippant behavior during the question and answer portion of the speech at the National Press Club (NPC) notwithstanding, has been trying to speak a word of truth to a media and a nation that does not want to hear it. His interview with Bill Moyers provided us an opportunity to hear from Dr. Wright, directly, without cherry picked sound bites being played incessantly, with bleating talking heads posturing in the background. His thoughtful and well-researched speech at the NAACP event in Detroit was also a teachable moment for anyone willing to listen. Even at the NPC, his prepared remarks were also instructive for anyone open to learning something different from their previously held assumptions and opinions.

But until November 5, 2008, anything Dr. Wright says will be twisted into the most damaging sound bite possible, for the specific purpose of damaging the candidacy of Senator Obama. For instance, and I was present at the NPC and heard it with my own ears, Dr. Wright did not say that the United States government had developed AIDS to infect people of color. When asked the question on that topic, he said, “I don’t put anything past them.” Like most African Americans who know anything about our history in the country and the infamous Tuskegee Experiment (from 1932-1972) I hope that my government wouldn’t do such a thing, but history informs, and self preservation requires that I “look into it” before reaching a conclusion one way or the other. The things he has said about the Interment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the shameful treatment of Native Americans, et al. are historical fact. And no amount of “fair and balanced” (give me a break!) spin is going to change the historical record. So rather than responsibly engage in conversation that will edify and heal our nation, we turn to sound bites and demonize anyone who doesn’t toe our ideological line. That is dishonest, damaging to our Republic and detrimental to public discourse. As Jack Nicholson said in A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth,” and you aren’t even pretending to try! You are missing the point!

I do respectfully disagree with Dr. Wright about his contention that the attack on him is an attack on the Black Church. He said in his own NPC statement that historically, the Black Church has been referred to as the “Church Invisible,” first because of the “unauthorized” worship services slaves held in the fields and later, including modern times, because the majority culture is sincerely ignorant about the Black Church and the Black community and is, frankly, largely disinterested in freeing themselves from their ignorance and misconceptions. So, I contend that the attacks are not on the Black church, but they are, most obviously, attacks on Senator Obama, using Dr. Wright as the weapon of choice. There is no interest in anything Dr. Wright has to say except what can be used to derail the Obama candidacy. This has been a character assassination of one good man and the smearing of another one. I can only hope and pray that once time has passed and the rhetoric subsides that the age old game of divide and conquer will not have permanently claimed two more victims. The two men are brothers with a deeply held regard for each other. Given an opportunity to talk, fuss, cuss, laugh, cry and pray about it, Lord willing, they will be reconciled.

The question thinking people need to ask now is “why is there such a concerted effort to destroy Obama?” I would ague that his candidacy has tapped into something in many people in this nation that concerns those interested in keeping their power and things just as they are. The Obama candidacy has stirred up a hopefulness and optimism in the nation that hasn’t been here since the 1960's. Millions of new or preciously disaffected voters are becoming engaged in the political process. That is a very real threat to those who are prospering with things as they are now. And a president, whose campaign was financed by over 1.3 million donors, who did not need to take any PAC money, whose primary allegiance is only to the people whom he’s elected to serve, is a huge threat! It’s not about inexperience. Obama has ben an elected official for eleven years, Clinton only seven. It’s not about Obama being “elite” or “out of touch.” How can a black man in America, reared by a single mother and extended family, whose family was even on food stamps for a short time on his life be elite? Just because he had the intellectual gifts, rather than family legacy, that earned him admission into some of the finest schools in the land, the assertion that he is now “out of touch” with “regular” people is a calculated, fraudulent insult, calculated to separate Obama from his natural constituency. It’s not even about Dr. Wright or Black Liberation Theology. He’s been a pastor for thirty six years, offering the same type of critique about the shortcomings of the nation that he served for six years in uniform. For all the warped attention being paid to his every utterance right now, on November 5, he probably won’t be able to get a call returned from the NPC about a subsequent appearance. All those distractions miss the point. It’s all about one thing: stopping the Obama candidacy to continue to keep things just as they are, so no monied interest loses any of their profits or influence over the affairs of this nation. If “We The People” are gullible enough to fall for it and don’t even take the time to ask the right questions and research the matter on our own, we will get just the government we deserve. “Four more years.”

In James Chapter one, verse nineteen, the Bible says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” That’s sound counsel and we need to follow it now more than ever. It is past time for us to reconcile as a people, “One nation, under God, indivisible” and truly be a “more perfect union.”

Stephen Andrew Tillett

Senior Pastor, Asbury Broadneck United Methodist Church

Annapolis, MD

http://www.gbgm-umc.org/ab/