The ironies of the political season continue to mount with Rev. Wright providing the latest in the series. 

Recent appearances by Rev. Wright appear to be an almost deliberate effort to put a stake in the political heart of Senator Obama. Some combination of being asked not to give the invocation at the Obama champagne kick off,  Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia or the mild stepping away from Rev. Wright’s views by the Senator have apparently infuriated Rev. Wright. 

Much talk about Rev. Wright’s ego being out of control, or his need for an egocentric self-defense. Adding to the storm Rev. Wright’s comments during his speeches and the Question & Answer periods were; dismissive, curt and in no small measure, arrogant. These comments were clearly, on the verge of, if not certifiably extremist. Marines analogous to Roman Centurions, Rev. Farrakhan, who spoke in praise of Hitler, as one of the most important voices of the century and on it went, direct and unapologetic. 

Could this be Senator Obama’s worse case scenario of instant Karma as he tries desperately to get past concerns centered on Rev. Wright and the potential damage it does to the voting block where he is the weakest, white working class voters. Why does Rev. Wright feel the need to engage in this? What, no pride in the first potential Black Presidential candidate? No support for this effort, why, why, why?

The pundits and talking heads have, wait for it, …. gotten it wrong. They choose to focus on symptoms and the “political” aspects of the story when the answer likely goes much deeper and by self-applied media standards deeper is danger.

The answer goes to Rev. Wright’s theological background and Black Liberation Theology. In Rev. Wright’s theology, the speech on race in Philadelphia was unacceptable on a number of levels. The acceptance that white people may have valid points of perspective and frustration would be unacceptable to Rev. Wright’s theology. The idea of a black man serving as president of a racist white nation is, to this theology, nothing more than the most significant sell out of all time. On Monday Rev. Wright found it necessary to reveal that he told Obama that if Obama won the election “on November 6^th “I’ll be coming after you”.   

Quoting Rev. James Cone, as Rev. Wright frequently does;  “ To be Christian is to be one of those whom God has chosen. God has chosen black people”. More from Dr. Cone….”It is too easy to say Racism is not my fault….insofar as white do-gooders tolerate and sponsor racism in their educational institutions, their political, economic ands social structures, their churches and in every other aspect of American life, they are directly responsible for racism.” And another “The white structure of this American society, personified in every racist, must be at least part of what the New Testament meant by demonic forces.” There appears to be no consideration of progress and no room for anything other than an empirical reading of current conditions. Any racism is endemic racism although black racism is forgiven in this theology because blacks have not been in the position to apply racist force and cultural superiority. A broad view of white racism coupled with a very narrow view of black racism. One forgiven one not.

By extension, this theology insists that if you are white in America you are a demonic force, no matter your personal struggles or sensitivities to racism.  Back to Rev. Cone, “There is no use for a God who loves white oppressors the same as oppressed blacks……What we need is the divine love as expressed in black power, which is the power of blacks to destroy their oppressors, here and now, by any means at their disposal. Unless god is participating in this holy activity, we must reject God’s love”. This point of view is strangely familiar to Islamic Jihadist rhetoric, destroy all those that do not accept God’s word as we have interpreted it or who reject the God of our faith! 

This view has seen a significant number of supporters and apologists for Rev. Wright within the black church community. In fact, prior to yesterday afternoon clear criticism and renunciation of this view was hard to find on your early evening news programming. However, the justifications still outnumbered the recriminations with one black minister referring to Rev. Wright as a prophet in the prophetic traditions of the Old Testament.

In all honesty, a reasonably well educated, aware person simply cannot deny the presence of racism in America. However, that same person will, typically, also be capable of identifying progress. It’s not 1785 anymore. The question may be whether or not white racism is best fought by theologically supported black racism?         

Rev. Wright’s comments are expressions within a context. The context is his commitment to Black Liberation Theology and the expressions are a representation of that belief system. In Rev. Wright’s world, what Obama is attempting to do is not a positive it’s a negative, because Obama has opted for the requirements of politics over the tenants of theology.