The Politician and His Pastor

Let me disclose that a large percentage of my friends and colleagues are what we here in Chicago call "Trinitarians," proud members of Trinity United Church of Christ and devotees of the Rev. Wright. I have visited several times.

Jeremiah Wright encourages critical thinking of his congregation and he attracts great thinkers. He doesn't obfuscate, in case anyone left his or her thinking cap at home. He gives it to you straight--and, like the Jewish rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, he generally uses colorful stories to explain ancient scripture.

Dr. Wright says what he wants to say, and we hear what we want to hear. Listening to the videotape of his sermon from that fateful Sunday, September 16, 2001, I heard something that my journalistic colleagues obviously didn't. The words didn't make me recoil; they made me reflect.

He said that the September 11 attacks were "chickens coming home to roost" for America's own acts of "terrorism" abroad. In case anyone didn't understand his jarring declaration, he broke it down: "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," he said.
You and I don't have to be biblical scholars to know precisely which New Testament scriptures he was illustrating through these examples. We don't even have to be Christian. Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Sufism, Taoism and Yoruba scriptures say precisely what Jesus and Jeremiah Wright said: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (Matthew 7:12)

These words, reportedly spoken by an outspoken Spirit-led man, like Jeremiah Wright, who liked to communicate in terms that plain folks could understand, summarize a previous statement: "Judge not, lest ye be judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." (Matthew 7:1-2)

In today's vernacular, that means: Whatever you do will be done to you. Or, as they say at the far South Side non-denominational Christian church I attend: "You won't be punished for your sins; you'll be punished by your sins." No matter how you say it, the meaning is the same: What goes around comes around. It's one of the Law of Attraction secrets no one wants to talk about.
 
I could be wrong, but I think this is precisely what Dr. Wright was saying post-September 11. Who would argue that it is humane, American, Christian, or politically correct to kill 140,000 civilians in Hiroshima and nuke 80,000 civilians in Nagasaki?
 
What does scripture say is the result of doing to others what we would not want done to us? Jesus was fond of agrarian metaphors. In today's parlance, he might have said: "Chickens will eventually come home to roost."

With a church full of college-educated city slickers, perhaps the Rev. Wright decided to try a more urban phrase to make sure everyone in the sanctuary was focused on the seventh chapter of Matthew: "God damn America," he said. Note, he did not "Goddamn America" or "God, damn America," which is clearly anti-American or a call to God to condemn this country.
 
Only someone who believes that we serve a damning, rather than a seventy-times-seven-forgiving God, would misunderstand what Rev. Wright was saying. In the context in which it was used, "God damn America" is a restatement of spiritual law. America is damning itself through acts that its citizens would consider terrorist, if committed by another country. In my ears, "God damn America" sounds like: "You will be punished by your sins."
 
Americans don't want to hear that. What goes around comes around applies to other people, not us. We don't want to take responsibility for our inhumane acts, such as genocide, slavery and institutional racism; we only want to judge, condemn and murder others for their cruelty. In righteous indignation, we like to point fingers in someone else's direction.

That leads us to Mr. Obama's pew--and, I might add, to another disclaimer: I sat on a volunteer committee of black PR professionals summoned soon after Illinois State Senator Obama announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Our mission: To help raise his name recognition in Chicago's black community. (Yes, black folks outside of his district not only had no clue that Barack Obama had been such a superlative state legislator. Have mercy, they didn't even know that the man had been in the state legislature!)
 
Wherever the good senator attended church this week, I hope the words ministered to what must be a heavy heart. Pressured by media who are flagrantly in violation of "judge not, condemn not" scriptures, he was forced to sacrifice Christian principles for political correctness. That's enough to knock you to your knees.

If Mr. Obama didn't know it before, he is now keenly aware that the job he seeks requires difficult choices around-the-clock, not simply at three o'clock in the morning.  Maybe, under his leadership, it will no longer be politically incorrect to remind Americans that this great country has terrorized and killed human beings, including millions from Obama's father's native land. Maybe, one day it will be permissible to remind us to solve problems in a Christ-like manner, so that it doesn't cycle back to us as hurtful or deadly retribution. Perhaps, under the leadership of a Barack Obama, we can relinquish the fear of being spiritually correct, and embrace, not distance ourselves from a modern religious radical who dares to teach ancient spiritual truth.

Who knows? Maybe, in our lifetime, we can be politically correct and spiritually correct--at the same time.

(Article updated, March 17, 2008, 1:12 p.m., EDT)