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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (13936)	3/17/2008 10:54:26 AM
From: Sr K	Respond to of 149317

online.wsj.com Blunt Sermons Rooted in Black Tradition By SUZANNE SATALINE and DOUGLAS BELKIN March 17, 2008 CHICAGO -- Yesterday morning, 6,000 people streamed into Trinity United Church of Christ here for Palm Sunday services, where blunt, funny and often fiery sermons have made the church popular among African Americans and plunged it and Sen. Barack Obama into controversy in recent days. The Rev. Otis Moss III, the church's new pastor, preached a sermon he called "Why the Black Church Won't Shut Up," describing how Jesus led the poor to Jerusalem, likening their plight to blacks in the Jim Crow South and slaves shipped from Africa. See videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s sermons at Barack Obama's Chicago church. 7:12 here link.brightcove.com "I'm sorry we're a noisy bunch," Mr. Moss told the crowd, many of whom stood and applauded. "But if I shut up, you won't know my story." Some in the pews shouted: "Say it like it is!" Before the service, white-gloved ushers distributed a statement defending their longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. The statement said his "character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached a social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe.…It is an indictment on Dr. Wright's ministerial legacy to present his global ministry within a 15- or 30-second sound bite." While the sermons of Mr. Wright, Sen. Obama's blunt-speaking pastor, who is about to retire, may sound spiteful to some, they are rooted in the history of black protest and a Christian theology shared by some African-American churches. For the past week, the presidential candidate, Mr. Wright and the church he led for 36 years have been criticized after media outlets aired clips from sermons showing Mr. Wright denouncing U.S. government foreign policy and the treatment of blacks. With some voters accusing the pastor of practicing racism, Sen. Obama, a Trinity congregant for two decades, rebutted Mr. Wright's incendiary comments. "I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country," Sen. Obama said Friday. Mr. Wright has said in interviews that his sermons are rooted in "black liberation theology," which he described as a sister of liberation theology, the lay Catholic movement that fueled political activism in Latin America in the 1960s. The approach is more overtly political than that of most black Protestant churches, says Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University and a former member of the Trinity congregation. Mr. Wright, she said, makes Biblical stories relevant by relating them to the frustrations of black Americans, such as subprime mortgages and the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. By merging Bible stories with politics, some black preachers are trying to encourage their listeners to take action, as the prophets did. "The very language is speaking to the oppressed about overcoming their situations," the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Chicago activist, said in an interview. "It's not calling for riots." Mr. Jackson doesn't attend Trinity. The sermons and the church's array of activities and programs draw members who are public servants, University of Chicago professors and suburbanites. The church has been lauded for reaching out to gays and helping people with addictions and HIV/AIDS. The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a white Catholic priest who serves a mostly black parish near Trinity, says outsiders may not understand the language, tone or metaphors that a pastor shares with his parishioners. "America is our country and we love her, yet she has done such awful things," said Ms. Harris-Lacewell. "We have to have a place where we say…'This is not okay. I'm still hurt about this.' " Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com and Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com