Beware the Terrible Simplifiers

I know it's been too long since I've chimed in...however the whole Wright thing has really gotten up in my craw.

I'm a lifelong church goer. Probably have missed fewer than 50 Sundays in my life. That means I've heard (and slept through) a lot of sermons from a lot of preachers. I've talked with them at the potlucks, eaten at their houses, been on mission trips with them, played games and prayed with them.

In fact, I spent my first eighteen years living with a pastor, my father. He was a minister, a man of the cloth, and of course he was my dad.

Which is why it strikes me as ridiculous when people play up the Wright controversy to be a portend of something that Obama is hiding. That he is some, off the hinge, angry black man, who lives and breathes the words of his Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

To me this is an utterly ridiculous thought.

I've spent a lot of my life disagreeing with pastors, including, and especially my dad.

There is so much I admired about my dad but there were also plenty of things I was embarrassed by, disagreed with and would've disowned had I needed too. He was a big fan of Rush Limbaugh (though I don't really hold that against him...I understand why...but that's another post) and, even though he went to great lengths to help the poor, he ultimately believed that the government shouldn't be in the business of helping out poor people (an arguable position but one I whole heartedly disagree with.)

The thing is this though, my dad never told me I had to believe what he believes. In fact, the day I told him that I had decided I wanted to follow Christ, he was pretty much silent, didn't tell me what to do next. I never took my marching orders from him (I mean there were times I kind of had to, since he was my father and all, I wanted to eat you know...) and, most importantly, I learned to think for myself, to find out for myself and to question authority (we're protestants after all.)

I not only heard this from my dad but from just about every pastor I've ever had.

I think this idea of discovering God on one's own terms is especially strong in the protestant tradition, and not as well understood in other faith traditions.

Not only have I disagreed (often to their faces) with pastors, but I've seen pastors make personal mistakes that have cost them their careers. There was always a side of the church that wanted to throw them under the bus but there was also side that had compassion, that understood these men and women were not and are not infallible (another protestant tradition.)

So when people got all up in arms about the things Wright was saying, I was able to shrug my shoulders, and say 'so what? What does that have to do with Obama?' After all, disagreeing with one's pastor was an integral part of the faith experience from my view. I didn't and still don't understand why this is so hard to grasp. Why is the assumption that what Wright spouts is what Obama really believes? Are the people who stayed in the Catholic church all really for child molestation? Aren't we all products of many different people and experiences?

Some, including Clinton, have wondered why he didn't leave if he disagreed. Again, this is a point I fail to understand logically. Maybe if you go to church simply to advance your political career this makes sense (I'm just saying) but if, as Obama writes in his stirring book, one's faith is central to one's being, and when one feels called to a community, they become family, then leaving isn't any easier than the choice to leave one's spouse. People who think it is so easy don't undertand the complexities of faith or of human nature .

Finally, and ultimately this is what it all boils down to, who are we to judge whether or not Obama should have left? We've never walked in his shoes, never known what it is like to be saved by someone then later betrayed by that person. Do politicians really want to play the game of guilt by association?

The answer, unfortunately, is that when political expediency and desparation dictate it, things do get this simplified and suddenly, we are all able to judge another man's heart.

I'm going to let Bill Moyer's take it from here:

"Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettles some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. Politics often exposes us to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this — this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves. All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers"."

I couldn't say it any better.

Which brings us back to my dad. He would've been outraged by what the Reverned Wright said but he also would've have defended him and his right to say it. And most importantly, he never would've thought that Obama believed those things just because he went to Wright's church or condemned him for staying.

In fact, he would've lauded and admired Obama for that choice.

That's something he and I would've agreed on.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Jeremiah?

The simple answer is that you cannot. Barack Obama needs to concede that Reverend Jeremiah Wright will pop up every month or so between now and November 4, 2008. It won't be the Republicans bringing up Reverend Wright either. Reverend Wright will bring up the topic of "Reverend Wright" himself by giving high-profile speeches all across the nation at the most inopportune times for Mr. Obama. Mr. Obama will be forced to work around this unfortunate turn of events for his campaign.

Reverend Wright is analogous to a star athlete or star musician or star actor. Stars receive (and get used to) massive amounts of adulation from their fans. They are constantly reminded how wonderful they are. They rarely encounter people who tell them the word "no." (I imagine when George Lucas was making the first "Star Wars" prequel that everybody he was surrounded by, told him everyday how wonderful Jar Jar Binks was and how audiences around the world were going to love cute ol' Jar Jar.) Reverend Wright is the star of his church. He has achieved great success and visibility in his field of work. He is used to his world being ordered a certain way - with him on top. That world does not exist anymore for him anymore. Sports fans out there all know the stories of washed-up athletes who crack up because the expected adulation is not there anymore. That is Rev. Wright today.

Reverend Wright is playing the classic role of the veteran who doesn't like feeling upstaged by the young protege/upstart. We all know of Barack Obama as a polished and intellectually gifted speaker we see today on television, a man who knows he is good at what he does. But Reverend Wright met Mr. Obama twenty-something years ago when Mr. Obama was probably just as confused as most of us were when we were in our twenties. Reverend Wright might still equate Mr. Obama with the young man he met all those years ago. To see this young guy not give Reverend Wright the respect he thinks he deserves means the gloves are coming off. This is not about Reverend Wright trying to prevent Mr. Obama from becoming president. It is much more personal than that.

I think the "Reverend Wright situation" will continue to be a problem for Senator Obama even as John McCain smartly condemns "Reverend Wright ads." The Republicans won't have to raise a finger to raise Reverend Wright as an issue. They now know Reverend Wright will raise himself as an issue. Reverend Wright will pop up in the media from here on to November. And many people will think, "Sure, Obama says he disowns Reverend Wright. But he is only saying that because he is running for president. Before it was painful for Obama to be associated with Wright, he didn't denounce what Wright was saying." Obama's denouncement of Reverend Wright means less than people think.

Mike Huckabee Stands Up for Barack Obama

Barack Obama has gotten in some trouble due to the comments of his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Video of Reverend Wright emerged last week that showed him making what could be construed as anti-white and anti-American remarks. While I disagree with some of Reverend Wright's sweeping statements, Mike Huckabee has placed Reverend Jeremiah Wright's comments in some historical context. Here is a quote from Huckabee:

And one other thing I think we've gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say "That's a terrible statement!"...I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack -- and I'm gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who's gonna say something like this, but I'm just tellin' you -- we've gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told "you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can't sit out there with everyone else. There's a separate waiting room in the doctor's office. Here's where you sit on the bus..."

And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.