I'm a firm believer in getting the facts. When someone tells me someone else said something, and only quotes a small piece of it, I want to know all of what that person said. So, I found a site where I could hear all of Rev. Wright's sermon - the one all the fuss is about. And I will provide a link at the end of what will be a long post.

First, the sermon is long - about 40 minutes. And fiery, very much in the tradition of Black churches. The title of the sermon is "Confusing God and Government".

The sermon begins with reference to the verse, "Jesus wept." Rev. Wright reminds us that almost all of us weep when confronted with death. He reminds us that Jesus wept when going to the tomb where Lazarus lay, and that Jesus wept again over the city of Jerusalem. He then swings briefly into stating that you cannot achieve peace from violence. And notes that some Moslems (not all, he reminds us) are led by Jihad to believe that they must kill to promote their faith - and states clearly that jihad is wrong. He says that anyone who believes that violence can bring peace is wrong, and specifically says that invading another country to bring about a change that might be peace is wrong, because peace cannot come from violence.

The sermon then moves to Palm Sunday (I believe it may have been delivered on Palm Sunday), where the people following Jesus into Jerusalem were calling him King, and the Pharisees were castigating Jesus for allowing the people to call Him King. Rev. Wright then speaks of the political times - that the people following Jesus were suffering under the Roman oppressors, that they wanted Jesus to deliver them from their oppressors, from the oppressive Roman government. He says that these people were wrong in that they were confusing the power behind the miracles Jesus performed with a power to rid them of the oppressor, but that the power behind the miracles was at the same time greater than and different from any earthly power.
Rev. Wright goes on to speak of governments. He first mentions Egypt, which at one time ruled most of Africa and large parts of the Mediterranean, and points out that governments change - look at what happened to Egypt. He lists some of the governments in the Bible that conquered or oppressed the Jews - Babylonia and the Persians, among them, and notes that governments change - those governments are gone. He swings to the empiracal powers of the last few centuries - Russia, England, Germany and other European nations that built empires, referring in detail to the empires built by European nations in Africa, the edges of China, parts of Asia, and the Carribean. He notes again that governments change.
He moves on to America, and the way Europeans treated the Native Americans. He notes that the U.S. government, in our early declarations said that all men are created equal, but at the same time counted a Black man as only 2/3 of a White man- and noting that White women also didn't have rights, couldn't own property or vote and were considered to be the property of a man in most ways. He refers to the infamous Plessy decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that no Black person anywhere had any rights. He affirms that Abraham Lincoln changed that and freed the slaves. He further notes that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments gave Black men rights that made them in many ways the equal of White men, and that it took another Amendment to give women the right to vote. He notes that Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. military in the 1940s, and in the 1960s and 1970s laws were finally passed overturning the Jim Crow laws of segregation in schools and housing. He goes through a litany of the ways in which the U.S. has mistreated people of color, including Native Americans, the whole history of slavery and segregation, the often violent prejudice against Asians and the internment of the Japanese in WWII. He does refer to the infamous Tuskugee experiment, in which Black men infected with syphilis were not treated, even though treatment was readily avaiilable, so that science could learn of the full course of the disease. He does say, incorrectly, that AIDS is a disease created as part of a plan of Black genocide.
He lists many highly visible and highly successful Black men and women, and contrasts them with the high levels of Black poverty, and the extremely disproportionately high percentage of Black men in prison.

He notes that governments, and specifically our government, lies. He points out that the U.S. government and/or the people leading the government have lied to us many times, referring specifically to such incidents as knowing the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor (and history shows that at least some parts of our government knew or had very strong reason to believe such an attack was going to take place); that the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was based on a lie (and it was) and that took us into the War in Viet Nam; that Nixon lied when he said the U.S. wasn't bombing Cambodia (it was); that people in the Reagan administration lied about the arms for drugs deals in Central America (and they did). He calls the reasons for invading Iraq, most specifically WMDs, a lie.
He then refers to some of the things that he believes the U.S. government has done in arrogance and often based on lies, such as Viet Nam, invading Haiti and Panama, and, of course, Iraq. He says that those actions were taken out of arrogance (a feeling with which I personally agree). He says that those actions were undertaken in a mistaken belief that the U.S. was carrying out "God's plan", in bringing freedom or democracy or some kind of greater good to the places we were invading, and again says that violence does not bring peace, and armies cannot bring peace. They can put a temporary lid on violence, but peace cannot be brought about by violent actions.
He then says (this is not an exact quote but as well as I can remember it) - we are told to say "God bless America" but I say God •••• America - God •••• America as long as she thinks she is God.

From my perception, the whole point of this sermon is that people often commit the sin of idolatry towards their governments, substituting a faith in their governments for faith in God. But, as he concludes, governments lie, governments change, and governments fail. But that God never lies, God never changes, and God never fails.

Here is a site where you can hear the entire sermon: sermon

Here is another site, where you can read his "Audacity of Hope" sermon, which concludes "And that's why I say to you, hope is what saves us. Keep on hoping; keep on praying. God does hear and answer prayer." Hope

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, March 29, 2008 - 11:07 pm:

Bumping

By Ginny~moderator on Monday, March 31, 2008 - 09:37 am:

I spent a lot of time listening and summarizing, so I am bumping this up one more time.

By Kaye on Monday, March 31, 2008 - 03:44 pm:

I read it Ginny and listened. I think you did a good job of summarizing. Honestly I am just not that offended by this.

Someone mentioned in another post about mccain and him having endorsments by people who have said wrong things. Well I do think endorsements are different that your pastor. I have a personal relationship with mine.

But again, I just don't see the wrong in what he said. It might be hard to hear, but things are better than they used to be, but we are not all equal.

By Ginny~moderator on Monday, March 31, 2008 - 05:01 pm:

Thanks, Kaye. That's how I feel. What I find interesting is that Jeremiah Wright has been preaching for over 20 years - say, 1,000 plus sermons - but out-takes of only 2 of his sermons are all over the internet as "proof" that he is racist and that therefore Obama must be racist.

I am still not an Obama supporter, but I do believe in fairness.