The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was recently back in the news. The president of an organization wanted Wright’s help in obtaining government funding for African relief and earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Wright wrote back saying that he finds himself “toxic,” being “thrown under the bus.” He further stated: “No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them.”
Following 9/11 2001, Wright told his congregation:
We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
And then his incendiary words:
“The government gives (our children) the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ God bless America? No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people.”
This comment, repeated and repeated on TV in his passionate way, led Obama cut Jeremiah loose and ‘toss him under the bus.’
What was unfortunate, and probably intentional, given its use for political purposes, was that only half of Wright’s sentence was used. The full spoken sentence: “No, no, no, God damn America—that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people.”
As a Christian preacher, Jeremiah Wright was ‘preaching the Bible.’ Of course, America is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, but ancient Israel is, and it takes little imagination to substitute the God-blessed-and-righteous-America for the God-blessed-and-righteous-Israel. Preachers do that all the time with the Bible, or other readings from the past. Listen to the words of the ancient Hebrew prophet, Amos, preaching at a national and religious holiday—a day having the import similar to merging July Fourth and Easter—in the capital city, Bethel. [The following Bible passages are taken from Contemporary English Version, published by the American Bible Society]
The Lord said: “I will punish Israel for countless crimes, and I won’t change my mind. They sell honest people for money, and the needy are sold for the price of sandals. They smear the poor in the dirt and push aside those who are helpless. (2:6-7a).
Like us, the ancient Israelites also believed themselves special, perhaps their politicians were saying to them ‘we’re the greatest nation on the earth.’
People of Israel, … of all the nations on earth, you are the only one I have chosen. That’s why I will punish you because of your sins. (3:1-2)
To those self-satisfied religious folk who deliriously desire the Second Coming and the Rapture in which, of course, they will participate, while the rest of us wallow in agonizing deaths, have a different fate under Amos’s God.
You look foreword to the day when the Lord comes to judge. But you are in for trouble! It won’t be a time of sunshine, all will be darkness. You will run from a lion only to be met by a bear. You will escape to your house, rest your hand on the wall, and be bitten by a snake. The day when the Lord judges will be dark, very dark without a ray of light. (5:18-20)
Here comes the ‘hate’ word.
I, the Lord, hate and despise your religious celebrations and your times of worship. I won’t accept your offerings or animal sacrifices—not even your very best. No more of your noisy songs! But let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like an every flowing stream [KJV]. (5:21-24)
Can’t you hear a modern-day Amos (named Jeremiah) saying, “I hate and despise your pressing the poor into the dirt and killing the innocent with your drones. All this self-congratulatory chest-pounding and preening you do as a church and as a nation is worthless. Let justice and righteousness be your every-present companions.
What do you suppose was the official reaction to Amos’s preaching? Actually, it was not much different from what Jeremiah Wright received.
Amaziah, the priest of Bethel sent this message to King Jeroboam of Israel, Amos is plotting against you in the very heart of Israel; ou, nation cannot put up with his message for very long. Here is what he is saying,
(King) Jeroboam will be put to death, and the people will be taken to a foreign country.
Then Amaziah told me, ‘Amos, take your visions and get [the hell out of town]! Go back to Judah and earn your living there as a prophet. Don’t do any more preaching at Bethel. The king worships here at our national temple. (7:10-13)
Governmental and public reaction, then as now, to such words in rooted in religion being a cheerleader for the nation.
Reading Jeremiah Wright, side-by-side with the Prophet Amos, it is easy to see that, from a biblical point of view, ‘Wright was right.’
What was important, though, to Amos and to Wright, was not condemnation but the message: let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like an every flowing stream.
