I've been sent by Bill Moyers' people excerpts from his interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, which will air tomorrow night on PBS. This is the first major Wright interview since the Obama "controversy" broke last month.
REVEREND WRIGHT:
The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the
communication perfectly.
When something is taken like a sound bite for a political purpose and
put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public,
that's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are
communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some
sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times
called me, a "wackadoodle."
It's to paint me as something: "Something's wrong with me. There's
nothing wrong with this country...for its policies. We're perfect. Our
hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them." That's not a failure
to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound
bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to
communicate.
BILL MOYERS:
What do you think they wanted to communicate?
REVEREND WRIGHT:
I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am
un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at
Trinity United Church of Christ. And by the way, guess who goes to his
church, hint, hint, hint? That's what they wanted to communicate.
They know nothing about the church. They know nothing about our prison
ministry. They know nothing about our food ministry. They know nothing
about our senior citizens home. They know nothing about all we try to
do as a church and have tried to do, and still continue to do as a
church that believes what Martin Marty said, that the two worlds have to
be together. And that the gospel of Jesus Christ has to speak to those
worlds, not only in terms of the preached message on a Sunday morning
but in terms of the lived-out ministry throughout the week.
BILL MOYERS:
What did you think when you began to see those very brief sound bites
circulating as they did?
REVEREND WRIGHT:
I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I
felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very devious
reasons.
Excerpt 2
BILL MOYERS:
Did you ever imagine that you would come to personify the black anger
that so many whites fear?
REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. I did not. I've been preaching since I was ordained 41 years ago.
I pointed out to some of the persons in Chicago who are in all of this,
new to them that the stance I took in standing against apartheid along
with our denomination back in the '70s, and putting a "Free South
Africa" sign in front of the church put me at odds with the government.
Our denomination's defense of the Wilmington Ten and Ben Chavis put me
at odds with the establishment. So, being at odds with policies is
nothing new to me.
The blowup and the blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years
ago and now becoming a media event, not the full sermon, but the
snippets from the sermon and sound bite having made me the target of
hatred, yes, that is something very new and something very, very
unsettling.
Excerpt 3
BILL MOYERS:
Here is a man who came to see you 20 years ago. Wanted to know about
the neighborhood. Barack Obama was a skeptic when it came to religion.
He sought you out because he knew you knew about the community. You led
him to the faith.
You performed his wedding ceremony. You baptized his two children. You
were, for 20 years, his spiritual counsel. He has said that. And, yet,
he, in that speech at Philadelphia, had to say some hard things about
you. How did those words...how did it go down with you when you heard
Barack Obama say those things?
REVEREND WRIGHT:
It went down very simply. He's a politician, I'm a pastor. We speak to
two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a
politician. I say what I have to say as a pastor. But they're two
different worlds.
I do what I do. He does what politicians do. So that what happened in
Philadelphia where he had to respond to the sound bytes, he responded as
a politician.
Excerpt 4
BILL MOYERS:
In the 20 years that you've been his pastor, have you ever heard him
repeat any of your controversial statements as his opinion?
REVEREND WRIGHT:
No. No. No. Absolutely not.
I don't talk to him about politics. And so he had a political event, he
goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I
continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things
of God.
Greg Mitchell's new book So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq, has been hailed by Glenn Greenwald, Bill Moyers, Arianna H and others, and features a preface by Bruce Springsteen. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.
Your fly is open, Puller58.
The Rev. statement about coming home to roost is a quote from MSNBC
http://www.futurepower.org/cia_trained_b...
It has always been rumoured that in 1977 the US Gov was trying to resolve a cure for hemopheliacs. They were testing volunteers in San Fransico, Ca. Most of the poor who came in as test volunteers were poor homosexuals in the area, then soon after you had your first major aid outbreak. The Rev. is not the first to say that to the public. And had this been proven to be true, every aid victum could create a class action lawsuite against the US Gov.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aids_conspi...
Both hosts and all the pundits criticized Wright for characterizing Obama as being a typical politician who disingenuously says things that he "must" say for expediency.
I think this was cynical and unfair. I think it is probable that Wright's intent in using the phrase "has to say" was in terms of the possessive as in "he has something to say".
In fact, later on in the interview, Wright talks about himself saying what he has to say as a pastor. This affirms my interpretation, I think, since it is unlikely he would be characterizing himself as having to be disingenuous as an inherent part of his profession.
Wright has preached for 30 years the need not to just sing kumbaya in church then go out and ignore the Bible teachings like Bush/Cheney and "some" of the hypocrital right wing preachers do with their hatred against gays, women and any race but white.
And hey if nothing else Obama didn't take EXPOSE his two young daughters to predatory PRIESTS in a Catholic Church, who when caught were sent to another parish to continue to abuse kids.
As a Bostonian I was BEYOND disgusted by Bush, media and millions of Catholics in this country taking their children to SWOON over the Pope who was part of the biggest COVERUP of SEXUAL ABUSE. He's a disgusting human being for promoting the CRIMINAL Cardinal LAW was. They whisked him off to cushy Rome instead of standing trial for aiding and abetting abuse.
I can't understand this country sometimes, CHILDREN were abused for decades - and what are they up in arms over, a few loud sermons from a fiery black preacher who NEVER once laid a hand to hurt any child or adult.
Better he take his impressionable young children to a church where a pastor preachers against revenge and teaches VIOLENCE begets VIOLENCE than to
A Catholic Church and have his young kids prey to sexually abusing priests... better he NOT take his kids to swoon over a POPE who aided and abetted the coverup of the sexual abuse and who promoted a CRIMINAL like Cardinal Law...
Sometimes I don't understand this country - all up in arms over a fiery black preacher but cheering a president and masses of Pope who ALLOWED priests to hurt innocent kids in their care.
When you START to question all those who take their kids to see the POPE or take them to CHURCH that hails this POPE, then I'll listen.
There's a reason the Pope didn't DARE visit Boston, the protests would have been UGLY.
Obama needs to issue a clear, concise statement that goes well beyond saying he finds some of Wright's words "objectionable."
He should say something along the lines of, "In light of the fact that Pastor Wright is continuing to make statements that I object to, I have decided to end my association with him."
He could even show major kohonies by saying that he and Michelle have decided to end their membership in Wright's church.
I know both statements/disavowals would likely be very hard for him from an emotional standpoint. But if he doesn't at least dump the good reverend, he'll be paying for it the rest of the way...
He is a prominent sought out minister who should just go hide under a rock!!
He has a 35-40 year career; most of Obama's life but no he should sit down and shut up. He should just end his career.
You people are judging a man you dont know.
If that is what Obama will do for political expediency then I will not support him any longer. Who knows what else he would do if he did that.
If the Reverend wants to keep repeating over and over he believes insanely that our government created AIDs to kill blacks, and wants to keep damning us, why should we muzzle him?
Shouldn't we be reminded on a daily basis that Obama brought his young children to hear this week after week?
I say keep him out front and center in his new $10,000,000 Mansion paid for by donations including $26,000 from Obama himself!.
That must have bought at least a bathroom.
Sheldon Drobny http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheldon-drobny/god-damn-americas-media_b_91773.html gives a long list of people who opposed dropping the bombs, including:
~~~EISENHOWER: "During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives."
~~~ADMIRAL WILLIAM LEAHY (Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman):
"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan..."The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."
It goes on and on, including MacArthur, Herbert Hoover ("The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.") and many military and cabinet officers. It's astounding that we aren't taught this.
How sad, how ignorant, and how despicable a claim that some fearful white people are making of the current mud slinging in American politics. If there were a God, that God would not be proud of many of Humanities actions toward Humanity on this planet.
Is it a new concept that a religious leader would talk about damnation of actions of individuals, a group, or even a Nation from God? No. J Fawell, P. Robertson, R. Parsly, J. Haggy have all made statements about Liberals, gays, Muslims, the ACLU, The NAACP, and women’s right groups that are not founded in any form of reality.
Since his speech, he has been consistent in defending the church as a whole and Rev Wright as a man who still holds unresolved sentiments from the Civil Rights Movement. In Rev Wright's first public interview on PBS, Rev Wright throws Obama under the bus in order to preserve his own legacy. The man is running for president of the United States and Rev Wright dismisses Obama as just a politician telling people what they want to hear.
Obama has no choice but to clear the record once again with another prolific speech.
He needs to cut Wright cut loose, to end his association with him.
It's obvious that Wright isn't a good friend of Obama's or else he wouldn't give any interviews or speechs, let alone continue to make goofy comments...
Its sad.
you going to have trouble
And that is too bad.
Contd.
Is that a serious question?
it's chump change
Yes.
And, it's not a new problem.
You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time. - Abraham Lincoln.