Neil Schori
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adam and eve, barack obama, blame-shifting, campaign, chicago, fault, garden of eden, jeremiah wright, politics, reverend wright, trinity united church of christ
While this blog certainly is not centered around politics, I feel as though to ignore this particular issue would be tantamount to pretending that the emperor actually was wearing clothes.
Reverend Wright certainly has been giving Barack Obama fits recently with his provocative statements, but most recently I heard him say something that will not allow me to keep silent.
While addressing some supporters and the press, Reverend Wright suggested that these attacks on him were really not about him nor Obama, but the central issue was an assault on the Black Church. Really??
And I thought pastors were supposed to be part of the solution. This is such typical blame-shifting that we are all tempted to engage in. Adam did it when God confronted him in the garden when he said: “the woman YOU gave me…,” when referring to why they ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. Adam wasn’t man enough to accept HIS responsibility in the matter and tried to blame God and his wife.
Reverend Wright should be ashamed of himself for suggesting that the repercussions he is facing have anything to do with the Black Church. Now, does the Black Church face difficulties that predominantly Caucasian churches do not? I’m certain of it. However, this is not one of those difficulties. This is a man not knowing when to say no mas…I won’t speak any more.
Let’s choose to take responsibility for what we do in all things and know when to say no more.
Peace,
Neil
1 Comment so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Hi Neil,
Your visit to my blog inspired a return visit and I’m blessed by what I’m reading here. Great stuff!
I had to comment on this post having just completed a diocese-required two-day anti-racism training session. Your post couldn’t be more timely! We seminarians going through the training were struck by how out-of-touch with present-day realities people addressing this issue are.
Case in point: These days many graduates of my school are refused ordination in our own denomination because we are too committed to Scripture to go along with the teachings-du-jour of the church’s upper echelons. As a result, many of my classmates are being ordained by, and hired by, African bishops. This being the case, if we can’t work with — and indeed serve UNDER — people of other races, we’re in serious trouble!
Meanwhile the folks leading our anti-racism training session have much the same mindset as Wright and were unwilling to even discuss our experiences of international interracial cooperation.
I mentioned this to the pastor I work for yesterday, and he and I have come to the same conclusion: what we’re seeing is members of the 60s generation who just aren’t able to get over themselves. The Rev Wright — along with the powers-that-be in the denominational hierarchies (many of whom are incredibly racist under their egalitarian veneer) — are hopelessly stuck in the world they were raised in, a world that existed 40 years ago and has little resemblance to the place the rest of us live in now.
Life is strange.
Anyway, good post, and I’m glad you spoke up about it!
Peg
Comment by Peg May 19, 2008 @ 6:07 am