Parallel Houses of Worship

I didn’t watch Barack Obama’s speech regarding race, his former preacher and contemporary politics. Frankly, I really don’t need to. Any attempt on his part to distance himself from the Rev. Wright’s volatile comments will be met with suspicion and doubt by many whites and resentment and mistrust by persons of color.

Sunday remains one of the most segregated days in America. The vast majority of African Americans and whites continue to go their separate ways for their religious observances.

In era when many Americans spend more time watching Oprah Winfrey than having conversations with their spouses or children, we still go to different places to find God.

At a time when most Americans are filling out their office pools eagerly anticipating a basketball competition that is overwhelmingly led by African American athletes, we cannot sit in the same pews to hear about the beatitudes or sing hymns.

For the first time in our nation’s history, many of us are seriously considering electing someone who is not white for our highest office. Yet, few of Obama’s white supporters have ever been inside an African American house of worship.

For all our progress, most African Americans and whites worship and pray in parallel universes.

I will not defend Rev. Wright’s most disturbing comments. However, I will defend his right to interpret Jesus’ gospel through the challenges and struggles of his congregation. Since the time Africans were brought to America as slaves, the black church has been a sanctuary. A safe place that permitted people of color to gather, sing and worship without fear of reprisal and prejudice. It was the early black preachers that started the civil rights movement through their sermons and calls for social justice. I can only imagine how whites would have reacted to the black preachers of an earlier era demanding equal rights and the end of segregation. We didn’t have Fox News scouring YouTube for the most incendiary comments 50 years ago!

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is a person defined by his life experience. Over his seventies years he has witnessed the worst forms of racism and its debilatating affects on African Americans. I never lived in the Southside of Chicago. I never suffered the affects of grinding poverty, racism, or violence that continues to plague much of the poorest neighborhoods of Chicago or Cincinnati. I don’t believe his comments are intended to be political statements. His sermons are his attempt to help his congregants find a way to transcend a culture of hopelessness and despair. Did he cross the line at times? Perhaps. But I will not judge him by the excerpts on YouTube. I will take a measure of his life in all the good works he has done to lift his people up.

Barack Obama will repudiate Rev. Wright’s most volatile comments; just as he did when pundits asked if him he appreciated Louis Farrakhan’s support. Obama’s candidacy is a watershed moment in American politics. He isn’t asking the electorate to vote for him because he is solely a person of color. Both whites and blacks are drawn to his candidacy because he understands that we no longer can worship in separate pews. Our common humanity will determine our success in responding to the enormous challenges facing this country right now. Rev. Wright was a leader during a period of religious isolation. Barack Obama’s inclusive politics is moving beyond the racial divisions of the past.

Yes, he was a member of Rev. Wright’s church. But he can’t be held responsible for Rev. Wright’s worldview. Barack’s message emphasizes reconciliation and cooperation. He clearly has move beyond Rev. Wright’s rhetoric. Do we have the courage to join Barack Obama in the same pew? For a few of us, it may never happen. Being an optimist, I believe in the good judgment of my fellow Americans. We have the capacity to join Barack in forming a new body politic.