{"id":134,"date":"2008-03-25T10:43:34","date_gmt":"2008-03-25T10:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html"},"modified":"2008-03-25T10:43:34","modified_gmt":"2008-03-25T10:43:34","slug":"renita-weems-defending-obama-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html","title":{"rendered":"Defending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, but you wouldn’t know it from all the times I\u2019ve had to come to the defense of Barack Obama over these past few weeks.
\nI like to think of myself as a loyal <\/em>Clinton supporter. But American politics and the history of race relations in this country being what they are, I\u2019ve not had the luxury of sitting on the sidelines and gleefully watching as Obama scrambles to explain his relationship to the fiery radical preaching of his black pastor back in Chicago to an aghast white America.
\nAs a black ordained clergywoman with a doctorate in Old Testament studies who happens to support Hillary Clinton for president, it pains me to stand by and watch Rev. Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ become collateral damage in the right wing media campaign discredit Barack Obama.
\nIn the spirit of full disclosure, I should admit that I have been a guest in the pulpit at Trinity UCC many times over the years and know Jeremiah Wright, the minister and the man, very well. Trinity has long been a standard bearer for what it means for a church to combine charismatic worship, prophetic preaching, and social justice outreach. The ministry of Wright and Trinity have been demonized and caricatured in recent weeks by the media. To present Dr. Wright\u2019s ministerial legacy within a 15- or 30-second sound bite is an injustice to Dr. Wright\u2019s global ministry as a biblical scholar, theologian and pastor who has intentionally worked as a follower of Jesus Christ to heal broken lives in America and around the globe for almost four decades.
\nAdmittedly, Dr. Wright has a way of saying things that are uniquely his. We\u2019ve all sat there cringing sometimes at the things he\u2019s said or the way he\u2019s said them. But we\u2019ve also admired and respected his courage and honesty.
\nIf the conversation on my own blog about Dr. Wright and Senator Obama\u2019s race speech is any indication, it seems that there are whites who are now defecting in droves from the Obama camp. They can\u2019t believe blacks feel the way that Wright describes. The logic goes something like this: If Obama listened to Wright for 20 years, then he must feel that way, too. Wright is wrong about white people, about me, about America the beautiful, and since Obama listened to that radical preacher, he is likely to be a black radical at heart. The assumption is that Jeremiah Wright probably has some Svengali-type control over Obama.
\nHere\u2019s what white American doesn\u2019t get because they don\u2019t know, and have never bothered to find out, anything about the black religious experience beyond \u201cthose wonderfully moving Negro songs of you people.\u201d The fiery, liberation theology laced preaching of Jeremiah Wright has been around a long time, going all the way back to slavery times. The God blacks worshipped has been different from the God whites have worshipped.<\/p>\n


\nBlack liberation preaching is not meant to make black people love or hate white people. Black liberation preaching is about trying to explain to a deeply wounded and disappointed race of people the meaning of the suffering, pain, humiliation, injustice, evil, etc. that they witness and experience daily in this society. Black people get it, even if white people don\u2019t. We get it so much that we leave church on Sunday and get up on Monday and go to work for and with white Americans prayerful and hopeful that this week will be better.
\nWhite America hears Jeremiah Wright talking about race (white people vs. black people). Black people hear Jeremiah Wright talking about power (privilege vs. powerlessness).
\nWhite America hears Jeremiah Wright railing against whites. Black people hear Jeremiah Wright railing against white\/Western privilege.
\nWhite America hears Jeremiah Wright and thinks possibly of \u201ca collective hatred in black churches of white society\u201d as one white commenter said on my blog. My response: Black people hear Jeremiah Wright and hear someone saying, \u201cDon\u2019t even bother hating white people. Get up. Get involved. Be the change agents you want to see in the world.\u201d
\nHere\u2019s what else America doesn\u2019t get: The genius and mystery of the black church. That it\u2019s possible for fiery, rambunctious, hard-hitting preaching like that of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright to give birth to calm, gentle, reasoned, inclusive thinking souls like Barack Obama. The black church does it Sunday after Sunday. The black woman who hands you a receipt with a smile at the store and the black man who shines your shoes at the airport and plies his trade with jokes and commentary are likely products of black churches like that of Trinity UCC, where once or twice a year there\u2019s a fiery message about God judging the rich and the arrogant and being on the side of the poor and overlooked. We don\u2019t hear hate, we hear God\u2019s call for us to do our part here on earth in helping to build the Beloved Community.
\nWith the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a week away, it seems a slap in the face to black America to hear white America dare questioning whether the black church can be trusted to produce bridge-building leaders. The black church has been the feeder institution to America when it comes to producing black leaders who\u2019ve served admirably in recalling to America its earliest moral vision and its lofty promises to its citizens.
\nIt seems to me that the question is not whether white people can trust the black church, or whether white people can trust a black church like Trinity UCC to have shaped a black leader white people can follow. The question is what role the white church will play in building bridges between the races in light of this presidential race.
\nWe\u2019ve seen what the divisive, xenophobic, hate-mongering, rabidly right wing conservative teachings of white preachers Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and John Hagee, have wrought on our society. If our current leader is the best the white church has to offer as a bridge building president, then the white church has failed miserably and owes an apology to this nation\u2019s racially diverse citizenry.
\nFinally, even though Barack Obama is not the presidential candidate I\u2019m rooting for in this election, I will not sit idly by while a son of the black church and its historic prophetic concern for social justice are called into question. I find myself wondering whether my former white divinity students who are now pastors–those who learned from me and other black professors about black religion and liberation hermeneutics\u2014will step up like prophets to use the Obama\/Wright controversy as an opportunity to educate their congregations about black religion and to get them to explore their own prejudices in light of the gospel of Jesus. God, I pray so.
\nRenita J. Weems, a minister and teacher is author of Just A Sister Away<\/a>. She earned her Ph.D. in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University and publishes an online newsletter, Something Within: For Women Seeking Balance and Wholeness<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, but you wouldn’t know it from all the times I\u2019ve had to come to the defense of Barack Obama over these past few weeks. I like to think of myself as a loyal Clinton supporter. But American politics and the history of race relations in this country being…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDefending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems) - Casting Stones<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems) - Casting Stones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, but you wouldn’t know it from all the times I\u2019ve had to come to the defense of Barack Obama over these past few weeks. I like to think of myself as a loyal Clinton supporter. But American politics and the history of race relations in this country being…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casting Stones\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-25T10:43:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Renita Weems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Defending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems) - Casting Stones","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Defending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems) - Casting Stones","og_description":"I\u2019m a supporter of Senator Hillary Clinton, but you wouldn’t know it from all the times I\u2019ve had to come to the defense of Barack Obama over these past few weeks. I like to think of myself as a loyal Clinton supporter. But American politics and the history of race relations in this country being…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html","og_site_name":"Casting Stones","article_published_time":"2008-03-25T10:43:34+00:00","author":"Renita Weems","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html","name":"Defending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems) - Casting Stones","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-03-25T10:43:34+00:00","dateModified":"2008-03-25T10:43:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#\/schema\/person\/971d22d0a220f240768193967e46b8eb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/03\/renita-weems-defending-obama-w.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Defending Obama, Wright, and the Black Church (By Renita Weems)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/","name":"Casting Stones","description":"Casting Stones","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#\/schema\/person\/971d22d0a220f240768193967e46b8eb","name":"Renita Weems","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/3dd\/3ddb8763f611167523ce54f26e9c94a0x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/3dd\/3ddb8763f611167523ce54f26e9c94a0x96.jpg","caption":"Renita Weems"},"description":"Dr. Renita J. Weems is a nationally-renowned theologian and an ordained elder in the African Methodist Church whose scholarly insights into modern faith, biblical texts, and the role of spirituality in everyday lives have made her a much sought after author and speaker. Dr. Weems, formerly a member of the faculty of Vanderbilt Univeristy and Spelman College, has been celebrated by Ebony Magazine as one of America's top 15 preachers. She is founder of Something Within, a consulting service providing guidance for women of faith interested in connecting with their inner wisdom as well as interested in balancing faith and work, and their values with their vocation. Dr. Weems is a popular radio and television personality, regularly providing expert commentary on religion, gender, race, and sexuality. A guest speaker for numerous national gatherings of religious, civic, and sorority organizations, local churches, community wide events, and radio and television programs, Dr. Weems is in much demand as a speaker, preacher, and workshop leader. Ebony Magazine named her one of America's top 15 Her work as a scholar and a religious thinker has led to invitations to serve as a panelist for Bill Moyer's 1995 PBS award-winning Genesis Project, for various A&E, BBC, National Public Radio, the Michael Baisden radio show, and Hallmark cable programs on topics as wide ranging as miracles in the Bible, women, violence, and spirituality, and male-female relationships. She appeared on \"FlashPoints\" with Bryant Gumbel and Gwen Ifill to discuss matters related to religion and public life. Dr. Renita Weems is the author of several widely acclaimed books on women's spirituality and wholeness: Just A Sister Away (1987) and I Asked for Intimacy (1993), Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God (2003), and, more recently, What Matters Most: Ten Passionate Lessons from the Song of Solomon (2004). Her special talent is in drawing life inspirational wisdom from stories in the Bible about the triumphs and failures of ordinary people. A former contributing writer to Essence Magazine back in the late 80's, she has recently renewed her relationship with Essence with an article appearing in the December 2004 issue entitled \"Sanctified and Suffering.\" Dr. Weems writes a popularly bi-monthly e-column for www.beliefnet.org which focuses on matters of love and relationships. She has been particularly active lately speaking to professional women's organizations about women's spiritual values and support systems, juggling family and work, work and love, and women finding a balance between their spiritual values and their professional aspirations. She taught from 1987-2004 on the divinity faculty at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN as a professor of Hebrew Bible. She served in 2003-2005 as the William and Camille Cosby Professor of Humanities at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Ordained an elder in the AME tradition, Dr. Weems has written about the waxing and waning of faith all believers endure on the spiritual journey. Her 1999 book Listening for God: A Minister's Journey through Silence and Doubt (Simon & Schuster) won the Religious Communicators' Council's prestigious 1999 Wilbur Award for excellence in communicating spiritual values to the secular media. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and her Master and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Finally, Dr. Renita Weems lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and daughter. Her readers can keep up with Dr. Weems by visiting her her blog, SomethingWithin.com, which allows her to keep in touch with readers interested in exploring women's values and interested in conversations about faith, love, values, and inner wisdom, and other topics of interest to what Dr. Weems likes to call \"thinking women of faith.\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/author\/rweems"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}