The View From 1776

In addition to assessing the inflammatory preaching by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in terms of patriotism and decency, let’s also examine it from the viewpoint of Christian love.

Let’s acknowledge at the outset that we in the general public do not know the typical content of Rev. Wright’s sermons, whether his condemnation of the United States and of whites was an aberration or the norm.

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)

But, however humanly understandable may be Rev. Wright’s vitriol reported in the media, it is far removed from the teachings of Jesus.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Just as the Apostle Paul, in loving solicitude, chided the straying members of the church in Corinth, it is not out of order to suggest that the author of blacks’ difficulties in our society is more their own dominant culture than racism.

As commentators endlessly have noted, other oppressed minorities have, by pulling up their own cultural socks, managed to do well in the United States.  Roman Catholics in general and the Irish in particular spring to mind, both as reviled in their time as have been the blacks since Emancipation.

Bill Cosby nailed the problem.

As I wrote in Bill Cosby Collides With the Liberal Establishment:

Bill Cosby’s altogether laudable remonstrance to individuals in the black community to put their own houses in order is a direct challenge to the liberal dogma that social problems can be corrected only by government’s changing the structure of society.

...Black cultural mores, not white society, he says, are responsible for staggeringly high teen-age pregnancies, illegitimate children, and single-parent families.  The high percentage of blacks who fail to complete their schooling and do poorly academically reflects the black community’s cultural preference for sports and entertainment, rather than for the long, hard grind of acquiring knowledge as the road to success.

Cosby’s calls for personal re-examination have generally been greeted with approval by black church leaders.  But many black politicians and leaders of civil-rights groups like the NAACP, as well as white liberals, have attacked Cosby for “blaming the victim.” In a New York Times op-ed article, white liberal Barbara Ehrenreich dismissed Cosby’s plea as “Billionaire bashes poor blacks.”

Returning to the Apostle Paul’s admonitions:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

The fiercely anti-Christian root of blacks’ difficulties is that too many of them and their leaders, such as Jesse jackson and Al Sharpton, have turned away from God and worship the atheistic, materialistic, socialistic political welfare-state.

Senator Obama’s seemingly limitless faith in restructuring society through the collectivist agency of the political state as the solution to what he perceives as racism is a denial of personal responsibility. 

Without free will and personal repentance, without God, our nation is doomed.  Senator Obama and his liberal-progressive supporters heedlessly promote that bitter end.