Oh, Jeremiah!

Taking a few quotes from Rev.Jeremiah Wright's sermons, the media created a firestorm for Barack Obama's campaign. I was privileged to hear Obama's speech on race, on his former pastor and on America. Being mixed race himself and being one great speaker, Obama has pushed forward and blessed the national discussion.

Like Obama, I find some of Jeremiah Wright's statements just absurd, wrong, nasty. And I find that he articulates some of the righteous anger of people who have been abused in America; and yes, he sometimes played to the petty prejudices of some in his congregation. He was sometimes inflammatory in the name of God. Many Christians find that kind of challenging, prophetic, even angry preaching to be unpleasant, even unacceptable. Christians don't read Jeremiah much anymore. I don't read Jeremiah very much, because his writings as the word of God are too challenging, too distressing. So part of the problem that a lot of Christians have with Rev. Wright is that there is simply too much Jeremiah in him.

But, of course, the issues of race come at us in a fascinating and frustrating mélange. Amongst those issues swirl our emotions of pain, guilt, shame, joy, pride, despair and hope. The capacity to address conflicting emotions, the ability to speak to some of the deep and abiding issues is a great gift. It is however not just the political candidates who need to step up to address these issues, but it is all of us.

Part of our challenge is to remember the larger story of religion and race. Christianity, like other religions, has been one of the bastions from which the evil armies of racism have sallied forth. Remember the movie Amistad. The priests blessed the slave ships as they set off with their cargo from West Africa. That is but one symbol of the ways in which the church acquiesced in and profited from slavery and racism. A wonderful modern hymn from Africa has a refrain in which the congregation sings about our loving and serving and `we did it all in Jesus name.' Christians have done great evil in Jesus name. Let us remember the truth of that. The truth and only the truth remembered and told and struggled with shall set us free.

The movie Amistad also shows Christians opposed to slavery, fighting for freedom there in the early 19^th century. The film Amazing Grace is not only about the beloved hymn but about William Wilberforce and his lonely, heroic, Jeremiah like struggle to abolish the slave trade in England. The abolitionist movement in 19^th century American and the civil rights movement in the 20^th were fueled by Christians and Jews and people of faith of all colors. Let us remember our story.

When I was in Mississippi for Freedom Summer in 1964, Charles MacLaurin was our project director. He was a 24 year old veteran of the movement, having been jailed and threatened numerous times. Our lives were in his hands. One day, with a teasing twinkle in his eye, he told me to go down to the end of this one road and talk with the bright lady there. I went. Had a pleasant conversation and a glass of cold water. When I returned he asked what I thought of the bright lady. She was very pleasant but like everyone else, I said—I didn't notice that she was especially bright. Charles laughed and explained that he didn't mean bright as in intelligent or well read—he meant bright, light skinned. Since I tan easily I had noticed that, yes, her skin was a lot lighter than mine. So how is she a Negro and I am white—or in an even stranger use of language, how is she black when her skin is white and I am white when my skin is light brown.

If a woman of Irish descent and a man from Kenya marry and have a child, how is that child black, instead of mixed race? Why in New Jersey do we have a Black Minister's Council? I thought we are working for a world in Jesus name where people are judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin? Is the very idea of race not somehow inherently racist? How are we now mixing our racial prejudices and our religious prejudices?

Repent. Repent says Jesus. Remember and repent. And we sing Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus calls us over the tumult of the chaotic seas of the issues of race and racism to follow him, to witness truthfully and hopefully to his vision for a world of honesty and love, of reconciliation and justice.

Eventually, the people of Israel were deeply grateful for the harsh truths spoken by Jeremiah.

 

Brooks Smith