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A Different Kind of Prophetic Voice
Jun 1, 05:36 PM
“When (King) Ahab saw (Prophet) Elijah, Ahab said to him, ‘It is you, you troubler of Israel?’ And Elijah answered, ‘I have not troubled Israel, but you have.’” 1 Kings 18:17
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright is the Senior Pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. For twenty years, Senator Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate attended that church. In recent days, the subject of Obama’s church affiliation has created no small controversy because of the content of Rev. Wright’s sermons which have been deemed as radical, inflammatory, and inappropriate by mainstream media and much of American public opinion. The result is that Senator Obama has distanced himself from the pastor and church and repudiated Rev. Wrights rhetoric. However, America is making a serious mistake if it simply dismisses Rev. Wright and what he represents. The situation itself has uncovered what I believe to be a growing challenge to American life which, if ignored, may potentially erupt into a national inferno. At the very least, it has precipitated a critical need for a renewed discussion of race in this country. Race is our most volatile issue. People may get mad at you over a lot of things but they will kill you over race.
Most of America has little understanding of or contact with the African American community. For the most part, the bulk of the two races live in different parts of town and work in different places. When, as a pastor, I suggested that our white church get more involved in a predominantly black neighborhood, I had to tell them where it was. Amazingly, it was one block off a common thoroughfare along which many of the church members traveled daily. Turning into that challenged community was like crossing a border. Life there is, to say the least, vastly different from what most of the church is accustomed to.
One in every three Americans are non-white minority. Blacks make up about 13% of the population or about 40 million people. The median age for blacks is 30.1 compared to 36.4 for the rest of the country. 31% of the black community is under 18. Whereas the percentage of white people living below the poverty level is roughly 10%, it is over 24% for blacks. The unemployment rate in the black community is 8.6%, over twice that of the rest of the populace. Doing the math would tell us that most are working poor. But this gives only a small glimpse of the total picture. Life for many black Americans is lived from a fundamentally different mindset than most in the white community. As I have interacted with all kinds of people, I have had to come to terms with the fact that a lot of people think, relate, see life, and set goals in a patently different way than me. It would be supremely audacious of me to summarily dismiss their point of view, regardless of how it may seem to my own mind.
Most urban poor exist in a rather tenuous system of survival worked out through the labyrinth of jobs, family, public assistance and a myriad of other means. This delicate balance can be maintained as long as it is relatively undisturbed, but any disruption in the force causes the potential for anarchy. Hurricane Katrina unearthed and thrust into the national view the people that America tries to pretend do not exist. What America refuses to acknowledge is that similar and perhaps growing populations exist in every American city and town.
Along with the alienation from what we deem as mainstream life, there is unrest and animosity. Senator Obama referenced this in his speech entitled, “A More Perfect Union,” in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008. In speaking of the anger in the black community, he said, “That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table.” What America fails to understand is that Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright is not a isolated and obscure religious figure but in fact represents a prevalent mindset in the Afircan American religious community. One’s first reaction might be to simply laugh it off as a ridiculous point of view. To the rest of society it seems irrational and without merit. As with anyone’s position, failure to at least recognize and engage it at some level gives the other person no choice than to force you to hear it – one way or the other. It is the responsibility and calling of the church to make bring light and empowerment to people and to build bridges across racial and economic lines. We are the ones who must listen, learn, and respond to the spiritual, economic, and social challenges of the day.
White and black Christians as a rule do not go to church together. For most white Christians, the black church is a novelty. It is like an occasional side show of raucous worship, rhythmic gospel music, and sermons engaged loudly by “Amen-ing” congregants. In the black community, the church gives voice to the cultural as well as the religious; spiritual concerns are linked to real life challenges. Black pastors hold a different place and execute a different role than in the white community. Like it or not, agree or not, what Jeremiah Wright says gives voice to what many African Americans feel. It was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and demanded that the nation honor the “promissory note” of opportunity, freedom, and justice for black Americans. He was eventually banned from the Lyndon Johnson White House because of his criticism of the Viet Nam war specifically and imperialism, militarism, and capitalism generally. Eventually, he was killed for what he preached. We honor King now, but back then he was vilified by the nation. What some may call inflammatory rhetoric is viewed by others as the prophetic role of the church and preacher: to call the nation to repentance and justice. You don’t have to buy the whole package in order to hear elements of what may be God’s awakening call.