SubscribeNew Pastor: Wright’s Sermons Are Art Form
From the Sacramento Bee:
George E. Curry: Rev. Wright’s replacement defends pastor
By George E. Curry - Friday, March 21, 2008
The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Barack Obama’s former pastor, had his retirement all figured out. His handpicked successor, the Rev. Otis Moss 3d, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., would leave his church, move to Chicago and serve as Wright’s understudy for two years, then assume the mantle this year in a seamless leadership transition.
In the first interview since Obama’s defining speech Tuesday on race, Moss recounted how the controversy over some of Wright’s inflammatory sermons had altered the plan. Holy Week, leading up to Easter, suddenly became holy hell at Trinity United Church of Christ.
“Before, we had been sharing the pulpit,” Moss said. Wright “gave his final sermon (in February), and then we did a three-week celebration. Instead of retiring in May or June, six months ago he said: ‘I want to leave early.’ … Then, BAM — all of this blew up.”
Moss used “this” to refer to fallout from videos of Wright that are being constantly replayed on the Fox News network and the other news outlets. The incendiary sound bites feature Wright changing the words “God bless America” to “God damn America” for treating its citizens as less than human, and pointing out that Hillary Rodham Clinton has never been referred to as the N-word or been accused by members of her race of not being white enough…
Whites unaccustomed to the language and customs of black churches were understandably appalled. Blacks, having heard even stronger language in church over the years, were not surprised…
“We’ve been under Internet attack for a year,” Moss said. “It was either ‘Obama is a Muslim’ or we are a ’separatist church’ because of our motto: ‘Unashamedly black, unapologetically Christian.’ “When Barack won Iowa, that’s when it changed,” he said. The tone of the faxes, e-mails and letters, Moss said, turned uglier.
To understand the frustrations — and language — of Jeremiah Wright, one has to understand the black church, Moss argued.
After the founding of this country, some of the strongest supporters of slavery were white Christian ministers who proclaimed that God wanted slaves to obey their masters. On the other hand, black ministers, such as Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey, led slave rebellions and saw it as part of their religious calling to free those shackled by the inhumanity of slavery.
“The black church brings together not just the religious, it brings together the social, connecting with each other,” Moss explained. “It brings together the political, in terms of how we move together collectively. It brings together the economics because you bring together collective resources. The psychological. Literally, it keeps people from going out of their minds. … So, you got all of these elements that have come together and literally dictate how we’ve been able to survive.” The black minister often speaks from that pain and suffering.
“You have ministers who relate with interesting rhetoric through their personalities and hyperbole to highlight ideas and ideals,” Moss said. “The ideas are the truth, and those are wrapped around metaphors and rhetoric. Sometimes, that’s supposed to make you incredibly uncomfortable; sometimes, it makes you fall out on the floor and crack up laughing. It’s really an art form when it’s done well.” And Wright was one of those who did that exceptionally well.
“We’re going to fight for the voice of the prophetic tradition,” Moss said. “You cannot caricature Rev. Wright. This is an attack on the collective black church.”
Mr. Moss is supposed to represent the flower of black seminary learning.
“We’ve been under Internet attack for a year,” Moss said.
Here he confuses our efforts to get at the truth with an “attack.”
After the founding of this country, some of the strongest supporters of slavery were white Christian ministers who proclaimed that God wanted slaves to obey their masters. On the other hand, black ministers, such as Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey, led slave rebellions and saw it as part of their religious calling to free those shackled by the inhumanity of slavery.
And here he shows that he has no knowledge of American history. For it was the white Christian abolition movement in this country that eventually brought about the end of slavery. (And, of course, Republicans.)
Whereas Messers Turner and Vesey’s “rebellions” only helped prolong the pernicious practice.
“You have ministers who relate with interesting rhetoric through their personalities and hyperbole to highlight ideas and ideals,” Moss said. “The ideas are the truth, and those are wrapped around metaphors and rhetoric. Sometimes, that’s supposed to make you incredibly uncomfortable; sometimes, it makes you fall out on the floor and crack up laughing. It’s really an art form when it’s done well.”
The KKK must have been an art form as well, by this argument.
“We’re going to fight for the voice of the prophetic tradition,” Moss said. “You cannot caricature Rev. Wright. This is an attack on the collective black church.”
“Prophetic tradition”? Is that what they call lying about our country? Lying about history?
Is this the new term for vicious racism?
Mr. Moss is clearly cut from the same cloth as Mr. Wright. Which is not surprising, since he was handpicked by Mr. Wright to be his succession.
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33 Responses to “New Pastor: Wright’s Sermons Are Art Form”
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March 21st, 2008 at 3:57 pm
The radical preachers are crawling out of the woodwork. video.. http://wakeupblackamerica.blogspot.com/
March 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
That is a pretty informative site. Since I wouldn’t have gone looking for such a place does that make me a racist? Will the black, and white, community ever wake up?
Tom
March 21st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
marinetbryant; There are connoisseurs of art and then there are “kinda’ sewers” of art. The crucifix in the jar of urine is an example of the second type our liberal friends eagerly defend as a “freedom of speech” issue. I think Wright and others if his ilk fit in that category, also.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:45 pm
nuthingbettertodo: Thanks for the link. He gets it -> “My name is Tyrone. I’m 33 years old. I grew up and still live in the city of Baltimore; I’m an American of African decent. Baltimore is the 16th most liberal city in America. That would explain why it’s the #1 slum in the state of Maryland and the nation.”
March 21st, 2008 at 6:29 pm
“a ’separatist church’”
Well! Trinity UCC isn’t Catholic, so it is a separatist church.
Liberal Baltimore, the home town of Nancy Pelosi?
March 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Anybody heard from Michelle Obama lately?
Wonder why?
March 21st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Check out the sign on the podium in the picture.
Re. Otis Moss III, Pastor, Trinity UCC
Does this make Him Otis Moss the turd?
March 21st, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Ok, I just have to do this.
http://video.google.com/videop.....;plindex=5
March 21st, 2008 at 10:28 pm
You didn’t have to, DEZ, but I’m glad you did. Still, you haven’t answered my question.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:48 pm
So SG are you saying that he is incorrect in his assertion that it was not White Christian ministers arguing that Blacks needed to obey their White oppressors while using the Bible to back that up? Are you also saying that the slave revolts only prolonged slavery? So should the slaves just delt with theirvtrestment at the hands of their oppressors? Nothing you quoted from Rev Moss is incorrect especiallybhis take on Christians of the day using the Bible to justify slavery. In regards to Rev’s Turner and Vessey it was their calling he did not say they actually had a hand in ending slavery. Let’s be real Lincoln could really care less about Blacks affected by slavery, many of the history buffs on this blog have pointed this out. Other than the HIV comment about this country I and many Black Americans feel this way. I have done well and if I were anywhere else its not likely I would have attained as much as I have, but as a Black man in America i can still see that this country has a way to go and all this talk of get over it is just that talk.
I will say this about the Obama situation he handled it very poorly. I believe he got caught up in his own hype and did not think through his relationship with Rev Wright. We all knew this would be an issue. If he had finished out his term and then announced then Rev Wright would have been long gone and the right would gave lynched him with something else besides TUCC. I have no doubt that the right would have gone after him, much in the same way they attacked Colin Powell when there was talk of him running. Black conservative Black liberal doesn’t matter.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 am
“You didn’t have to, DEZ, but I’m glad you did. Still, you haven’t answered my question.”
I think you know the answer.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:43 am
Seems like life is a one way street huh Doc?
As a doctor I think you know all to well the dangers of picking at a scab.
The wound has a hard time healing, But still it seems most of us still pick away.
I can pick away at my ancestry, And in doing so I find that I am a mutt.
German, Italian, Cherokee Indian and French. Ooops, Almost forgot Irish!
Its a hell of a combination, But man I am fun to be around when the beer, wine and whiskey are abundant.
Thing is I never hold myself to the standards of any of my ancestors, Nor do I assume the guilt of their sins, I will take the credit for what I did today, No more, No less.
My mistakes or misdeeds reflect solely on me, Not my ancestry, What good I do today is of my own accord as well.
You may think we can never understand what its like to be persecuted for the color of our skin.
You would be wrong, Simply being white means a guilt trip is lain at my feet every day by people that I have never wronged.
Hell who ever said life was fair?
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 am
lynched him with something else besides TUCC.
Why do blacks like to throw the word “lynch ” around a lot?
Sounds racist to me.
BTW, still waiting on where MO has been sent to to keep her quiet.
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 am
“BTW, still waiting on where MO has been sent to to keep her quiet.”
She is at home seething.
By the way 1st, I bet you have Irish in your blood as well.;-)
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 am
Moss said:
“You have ministers who relate with interesting rhetoric through their personalities and hyperbole to highlight ideas and ideals,” Moss said. “The ideas are the truth, and those are wrapped around metaphors and rhetoric. Sometimes, that’s supposed to make you incredibly uncomfortable; sometimes, it makes you fall out on the floor and crack up laughing. It’s really an art form when it’s done well.” And Wright was one of those who did that exceptionally well.”
So the methodology is to wrap “rhetoric & hyperboles” around “truth”
This is today’s kind Pastor!!!!???????
Yes of course… a follower of Christ would surly wrap the “truth” around pretentious, empty and insincere words. And what’s wrong with exaggerations when telling the “truth” it’s not really lying…is it?
“It’s really an art form when done well” - ” And Wright was one of those who did that exceptionally well.” These last quote(s) were pretty much self convicting for this blind chap. …and to his predecessor.
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am
Irish AND Scotish.
There is nothing I can’t Drink or Build/Repair. ;)
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am
So Doc obgyn, when DO your race attempt to get over your past issues? That answer would be never, if left in the hands of black leaders like Jeremy Wright, Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, etc. As DEZ said, you keep picking at a scab and it will never heal. What about focusing on the present, and the future you might be able to live, and tell these race baiters to just can it? The left have a mantra, move on, coined to try to get people to move on from Bill Clinton’s misguided deeds in the White House, why don’t you lot try to move on from your past as well, shun the racist liars like Jeremy Wright and live your lives as you might in a world of reality, not steeped in stirred up lies and bitter racial hatred. I have to add, Trinity church and al the other black churches that adhere to promoting racist views, and Islamic mosques with their radical jihad messages have a lot in common.
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am
DGA, Ever notice that the most successful blacks concentrate on the future instead of whining about the past?
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
This is a great read. Pretty much sums it all up
“Faced with political and social structures that embody the assumption of individual impotence, individuals acquire the passive habits and expectations that go with it.”
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/keyes/070902
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
‘Irish AND Scottish.”
1st, You just helped pick out a movie for saturday night.
Braveheart!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Well I will admit I have shown my ass a few times…… and felt bad later.;)
BTW, The Young Marine is going back to Iraq. Leaving next Friday as an employee of Sikorsky.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
God watch over him 1st….
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
…but as a Black man in America i can still see that this country has a way to go and all this talk of get over it is just that talk.
Doc, maybe it would be helpful if you could enlighten us as to precisely what it is you want.
Do you want money ? Is that it ? Do you want every white person in North America to open his or her wallet and fork over some cash and maybe apologize while we’re at it ?
Do you want us to just leave ?
Do you want affirmative action programs where black people will be given preference over whites ?
Do you want people to be better educated over the injustices of the past, like having, say, a black history month ?
Do you want programs specifically designed to help black people succeed, like a United Negro College Fund or something ?
Do you want a country where a little black kid can grow up to be an MD ?
“Paging Doctor Harris…”
Do you want a country where a black man can become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ?
“General Powell, the red phone…”
Is it helpful to have it so that when a vicious crime is committed by blacks against whites, like the Christian/Newsom murders or the Central Park jogger rape, that it is acceptable for the black community to say that “the bitch was asking for it” ?
Do you want it so that black rappers can spread a message of hate and violence and get rich doing it -at the expense of black youths ?
Enlighten us, Please - just what the hell do you WANT ???
You’re an educated man, and a not unreasonable one, I suspect, so explain to this poor, dumb, northern cracker how people like the Reverend Wright, or Al Sharpton are doing anything other than keeping the old animosities alive. Yes, there’s plenty of hard feelings to go around but I think people like those two want it that way. Name one black person that Sharpton’s stood up for that wasn’t a violent criminal asshole. Or, better yet, name one violent criminal asshole -who happened to be black- that Sharpton hasn’t stood up for ?
And that’s supposed to give the black cause (whatever the hell that is) legitimacy ?
Guess what -all it does is alienate and piss-off white people who would ordinarily be sympathetic to disadvantaged blacks. How does that help anyone -black or white ?
It does give people like Sharpton and Wright a nice, lucrative career, though, doesn’t it ?
So I’m all ears, Doc. What’s the solution ?
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
# 1sttofight asks, “Anybody heard from Michelle Obama lately? Wonder why?”
She owns a timeshare of Dick Cheney’s secret undisclosed secure location.
When he’s out and about, in she goes.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
DW I can tell you what they don’t want.
(1)Personal responsibility
(2)Self-reliance
(3)Self determination
(4)Freedom to pursue happiness
(5)Equality among all races
All of these things would mean they would have to do things for themselves without an advantage given by government or liberal policies. This they except because that means they would have to compete on the same playing field with all other Americans. Level or not. And because racists Like Sharpton, Jackson, Wright, Obama, Hillary, Bill, Algore and the whole demonicrat party have told them that they can’t, most won’t even try. Those like Doc who do and succeed, must assuage their guilt for what they perceive as leaving their race behind to get ahead. Isn’t it funny how people from all over the globe, of all races, speaking no English, can come here and in one generation are a assimilated into the culture and live the American dream easier than generations people who have been here and free to do so for at least 150 years. Oh…I forgot…I’m not supposed to point that out either. It’s also telling how people like Colin Powell, Condolezza Rice and Clarence Thomas are considered “House Niggers” and “Uncle Toms” because they succeeded without the help of the NAALCP, Sharpton or the demonicrat party. Don’t you think that’s racist too DOC? I do!!
I’m sick of it and I refuse to be made to feel guilty about their plight because of what happened 400 years ago. My ancestors, and I would venture to guess most Americans ancestors, had nothing to do with slavery or holding any black person back. Ever!! Certainly nobody in my family owned any slaves and if they had it wouldn’t make a dimes worth of difference to me. Like DEZ said, “I never hold myself to the standards of any of my ancestors, nor do I assume the guilt of their sins, I will take the credit for what I did today, No more, No less.” That says it all!
I’m a mutt too DEZ. English, Welsh, Scottish and Cherokee. I suppose I should still be angry with people of Italian descent because the Romans conquered my ancestral home so long ago. Or maybe my Cherokee blood should hate my English, Welsh and Scottish blood for taking part in the “Trail of Tears”. Give me a Break!!!!
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I hear what you’re saying Noyz and also agree wholeheartedly with it, but the fact is, I wasn’t trying to beat up on the Doc.
I probably came off as being pretty sarcastic in that post, and like you, Sharps and everybody else here, I’m heartily sick and tired of being expected to bow, scrape and apologize for sh*t that neither I, nor any of my ancestors, that I’m aware of, had anything to do with.
I really would like to hear what the Doc has to say. Even if he came on and said “What we want is for all you white assholes to die”, I could live with that (so to speak) because at least it’d be honest.
But I doubt that’s what the Doc wishes on us (and in fairness to the man, whatever he says, a dozen people -including me- are going to immediately jump all over his ass), but until he either pees or gets off the pot (in other words, hate us or work with us, Doc -pick one will ya) we’re not going to get anywhere.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Yeah, I don’t want to come off as some a**hole. I’m just tired of the double standard and the guilt trip being hoisted upon us. Also, I don’t think any of us are trying to pick on DOC. He’s just the only one here with which we can debate the issue.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Yeah, I don’t want to come off as some a**hole.
I assure you, you’re not.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Maybe we are all muttholes?
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I know I am! Try this mixture. I am mostly Croatian, (yeah, those guys) then German, Dutch, English, Scots, Irish, and a whole lot of other dabs of this ‘n that. Would’ve made a great house pet and did make a good Marine, but yeah, mostly I’m a mutt. ;-}
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I think we’re on to something here. How about we demand recognition of our “Mutt” race with all the bell and whistles that accompany such recognition. Like say; The Mutt Congressional Caucus.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Hey! I still have my pride, you know!! ;-}
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Thank you DEZ.