Reverend Wright interviewed by Bill Moyers

[NickCole]

This evening Bill Moyers' interview with Reverend Wright will be broadcast on PBS. Every Republican strategist will be watching, and every Democratic voter --maybe especially superdelegates-- should watch too.

Previews have been released and they show Wright does even more damage to candidate Obama.

For instance, this (seen in the YouTube below):

"He's a politician and I'm a pastor. We speak to two different audiences. And he says what he has to say as a politician and I say what I have to say as a pastor, those are two different worlds. I do what I do, he does what politicians do so what happened in Philadelphia, where he had to respond to the sound bites, he responded as a politician."

Considering the whole message and rationale of his candidacy is that he's not politics as usual, he's going to change politics, he's not the same old kind of politician -- Wright saying flat out that Obama's Great Speech was nothing more than "what politicians do" is about as damning as possible from someone who's known him intimately for 20 years. Implying that Obama wasn't sincere in his criticism of Wright and Wright's words, maybe even when he said he'd never been in church when Wright said those words, Wright is saying Obama's Great Speech was nothing more than doing what politicians do. The same old deceptions.

Wright is supposed to speak in DC at the National Press Club on Monday. Wonder if Jesse Jackson Jr will "convince" him to cancel.

 

[NickCole]

It may not matter to you but you're wrong that it matters to no one.

The people I've known who attend church regularly, and are as committed to their pastor as Obama has said he's been to Wright for 20 years, are influenced by that relationship.

This is an especially relevant issue in this particular race because it speaks directly to Obama's electability against McCain. With superdelegates making a decisive choice based at least partly on Obama's electability, this interview and all the tapes --and how they might be used by Republicans in a general election-- should be given serious consideration.

 

[jackoroe]

Wright is the gift that keeps on giving!

 

[SoulSearcher]

Thats what one gets for speaking truth to power.....sad, pretty sad.

 

[Supernature]

^^What's even sadder is that when one bothers to actually listen to the complete sermons of Wright, where the widely circulated comments have a context, it quickly becomes clear there is nothing hateful or even anti-American about the Pastor. Dean Snyder Hillary Clinton's ex-Pastor said it best:

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times," Snyder wrote. "He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize."

Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/25/pastor-of-clintons-forme_n_93418.html

 

[iman]

Like I want to know what he will do to fix our country when he becomes president? What exactly are your policies?

Hope & Change. You haven't heard?

 

[Sammie13]

I thought Wright came across pretty well in the Moyer interview. He kinda indicated Obama was "politics as usual" in denouncing Wright's inflammatory comments.

But Wright kept talking about these "snippets" and "sound bites" and how they are out of context. I'm not sure most ministers say anything that could be taken out of context...much less as much as Wright has said. I wonder about his "god damn america" comments in as much as there are so many children sitting in the church. If my 4-year old nephew heard that in church, he would be quoting the Rev all day. Yeah, the adults might understand the context in which he was speaking, but all the little kids heard was the Lord's name apparently being used in vein and a church cheering those words. Not exactly a family-friendly church!!!

 

[Shafted]

Some ministers do say things that can be taken out of context and they shouldn't. I am uncomfortable with any pastor or reverend making such condemning statements like that of any kind.

If I were injected with syphillis and the government turned a blind eye, I'd likely be saying, "God damn America" too.

Calling your government and ruling principalities on their hateful bullshit doesn't mean you hate your country. Reverend Wright chose to serve his country when his age-mates, Cheney and Bush, were looking for new ways to avoid military service.

But, as I've said before, I don't go to my pastor for political advice. But, he's a citizen as well as a pastor, and he's free to voice his opinion as he chooses. The pulpit may be the wrong place to do it, but he wouldn't be the first pastor, white or black, to have done it.

 

[noah617]

I wonder about his "god damn america" comments in as much as there are so many children sitting in the church. If my 4-year old nephew heard that in church, he would be quoting the Rev all day. Yeah, the adults might understand the context in which he was speaking, but all the little kids heard was the Lord's name apparently being used in vein and a church cheering those words. Not exactly a family-friendly church!!!

Are there any children in the church during his sermon? I haven't seen any in the videos. My understanding is that children go to sunday school or something like that while the parents go to church. He even mentioned something along those lines during the interview.

 

[byro]

I was astonished, having seen only the snippets of his God damn America sermon and the complete sermon itself, at how soft spoken, learned and just plain brilliant he is. I especially was grateful -- in sharp contrast to watching the crystal meth-style hyperactive hysteria of cable "news" shows -- for the format of the interview itself; Bill Moyers asked a question and let him talk without interruption, either from commercials or Moyers himself. The more Wright talked the more I respected him as a man of God who's done extraordinary -- mind boggling -- things on behalf of his ministry.

NickCole breathlessly predicted that Wright would do Obama even more damage with this interview, but I think it's just the opposite. The damage has already long since been done and Wright's intelligence and articulateness may lead some (not many, granted) to re-examine their hairtrigger reflex response to the soundbites.

 

[byro]

Implying that Obama wasn't sincere in his criticism of Wright and Wright's words, maybe even when he said he'd never been in church when Wright said those words, Wright is saying Obama's Great Speech was nothing more than doing what politicians do.

You posted this four hours before the interview aired in its entirety. Can you quote anything that Wright said that would indicate that Obama lied about being in the pews during the incendiary sermons in question? I just watched the entire interview and your panting-with-excitement prediction of something you hadn't yet watched has borne no incriminating fruit.

 

[noah617]

Controversy aside, how Forest Gump-ian was that picture of Wright and Moyers at President Johnson's hospital bed side. Pretty cool how lives can intertwine.

 

[Sammie13]

You posted this four hours before the interview aired in its entirety. Can you quote anything that Wright said that would indicate that Obama lied about being in the pews during the incendiary sermons in question? I just watched the entire interview and your panting-with-excitement prediction of something you hadn't yet watched has borne no incriminating fruit.

One of the major news organizations...I can't recall, but I think it was CBS....said that it has been verified through checking Obama's travel schedules that he could not have been in attendance when most of the inflammatory comments were made.

 

[smelter]

Examining only the worst moments in our lives is a test that few, if any, among us would pass. If you can read the article below and still feel the urge to cast stones at him, then fire away!!

Factor military duty into criticism
By Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss
April 3, 2008

In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.

In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)

The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation.

What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.

While this young man was serving six years on Active Duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on Active Duty through family connections.

Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?

After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America's biggest cities.

This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades.

Since these comments became public we have heard criticisms, condemnations, denouncements and rejections of his comments and him.

We've seen on television, in a seemingly endless loop, sound bites of a select few of Rev. Wright's many sermons.

Some of the Wright's comments are inexcusable and inappropriate and should be condemned, but in calling him "unpatriotic," let us not forget that this is a man who gave up six of the most productive years of his life to serve his country.

How many of Wright's detractors, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to name but a few, volunteered for service, and did so under the often tumultuous circumstances of a newly integrated armed forces and a society in the midst of a civil rights struggle? Not many.

While words do count, so do actions.

Let us not forget that, for whatever Rev. Wright may have said over the last 30 years, he has demonstrated his patriotism.

-----
Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss are, respectively, Navy and Marine Corps veterans. They work at The Center For American Progress. Korb served as assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-oped0404wrightapr03,0,92000.story

 

[iman]

I listened to the sermon he preached following 9/11 and certainly found nothing redeeming in it. I would venture to say that if that sermon were preached in 99% of churches the congregation would chased the pastor out of the pulpit.

To Wright America is "white" and defined by every sin the country has ever committed and tells the congregation that 9/11 was "the chickens coming home to roost". The implication is that the black congregation has no responsibility for America and are not really part of the country, but rather just more victims of America. The entire Afro-Centrism of the church is intended to separate the congregation from the rest of society. It is a gospel of victimization. All ofwhich is designed to benefit the Church and it's pastor, not the congregation.

Wright objects to the defining of Farrakhan by a few statements and objects to himself being defined by some of his sermons, but he has no problem defining the larger society, America and the West, only by it's sins.

He is a bright man and has certainly done good in his community, but his attitude toward Obama's distancing himself is telling. He says Obama is just doing what politicians do and he is doing what pastors do. He seems to be saying that they are both con men and deceivers, but they deceive for a higher cause. Just what we need - well intentioned con men.

 

[NickCole]

Examining only the worst moments in our lives is a test that few, if any, among us would pass. If you can read the article below and still feel the urge to cast stones at him, then fire away!!

I have said before and I'll repeat now that I respect Reverend Wright for his forthright honesty and courageous principled integrity.

My criticism is of Obama. Some of what Wright has said is damaging to a Presidential candidate who claims to be setting a new positive tone and bringing together people of all races, and the way Obama's dealt with that is one of the things that shows his disingenuousness. Obama is dishonest. He's a trickster. He says one thing while behind the curtain he's been doing something else. Bush was like that, I saw it in 2000 and that's why I knew his Presidency would be destructive even when 92% of Americans adored him; I see the same in Obama and I'm speaking out about it as I spoke out about Bush.

Obama's relationship with Wright for 20 years, the way he tried to hide it by disinviting Wright from leading an invocation at Obama's official candidacy announcement, and his speech where he did a political dance around what he embraced and what he disowned of Wright while throwing his grandmother under the bus as a "typical white person" is very revealing about Obama. That's the reason it interests me. But there's something else to consider: how Republicans would use these videos in a general election should be a part of determining Obama's electability.

One more thing. I've been studing human nature a long time and have noticed that oppressed people generally respond one of two ways: either they become genuinely compassionate and generous about other human beings or they become hard and abusive. The ugly things Obama supporters have said about Hillary Clinton, from calling her a bitch, a cunt, a fucking whore, to Olberman's suggestion the other night that a man "take [Hillary] into a room and only he comes out" shows that Obama is attracting the latter. It's reasonable to consider what of Wright's harsh sermons Obama has internalized and is inspiring others to act upon. Obama is an inspiring speaker; some inspiring speakers bring out positive stuff from followers, some bring out negative -- Obama is the latter. It's reasonable to ask if that's what we want in a President.

 

[smelter]

^ IMO Nick, the bar that you and Iman set for Obama is one that no human being is capable of clearing. Two particular heroes of mine were John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. It was the inspirational messages and lofty goals they conveyed that attracted me to them. Both were personally flawed but their hope for the future of America was not. While I'm certainly not ready to place Barack Obama in their company just yet, I am willing to give him that chance. One thing that is certain, whoever is the Democratic party's nominee, the Republicans will not pull any punches in their efforts to derail them.

 

[Lv99Slacker]

The full interview (divided into two parts): Link

 

[Kurn]

I really like Obama.
But I'm just afraid of what innovation he might try. Now's a good time for a lot of innovatin'. But just a little bit of the wrong kind would not be in the interest of countering the wrong that GWB has done to our country. It's not the Jeremiah Wright thing that makes me so hesitant. In fact, what Pastor Wright talks about in his sermon is part of the reason I'm afraid the USA isn't ready right now for Obama. It SHOULD be ready. But is it?

 

[Sbaraglia]

Call me a cynic, but I'm as unseduced by Wright's calm, reasoned demeanor as I have been by Obama's "we are the change we've been waiting for" bs. I like Obama, and I think he might turn out to be a good president. In fact, I voted for him in the California primary, although that was more a reaction against the Clintons' race-baiting in South Carolina. But I'm not sure I trust him. The fact that he's been going to Wright's church for 20 years, where Wright regularly preaches the black-centric and "America is fucked up" gospel...yet Obama presents himself as post-racial and unencumbered by the anger that he says Wright is subject to. Michelle Obama's comments about being proud of America for the first time in her adult life offers a clue that she buys into the Wright gospel regarding America. Hm, his longtime pastor and his wife...but not Obama?

I don't have a problem with harsh criticism of America's sins, or of demanding justice for its sins against blacks and others. I do feel uncomfortable when I feel that a politician is pretending to be something he's not. I voted for Jesse Jackson for president twice, in 1984 and in 1988. I get the feeling that whereas Jackson was completely honest about his feelings and opinions, Obama is hiding or shading his.

Back to Wright: he never directly dealt with his "God Damn America" comment, and the fuller context of the quote didn't help any. Moyers was extremely unctuous and he pampered Wright, so Wright wasn't forced to respond to anything he didn't want to respond to. (Where are Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos when you need them!) And the line that Farrakhan keeps black men off drugs, working, and taking care of their families is beside the point - could one defend a KKK church by pointing out that it keeps white men off drugs, working, and taking care of their families? Every hatemonger throughout history can be defended by his - or her - good works.

Sidebar re Hillary: good lord, no. Snipergate is waaaay beyond anything Obama has committed as far as misrepresenting himself; it feels absolutely psychotic to me. "Oh, I forgot, I wasn't ducking sniper fire..." Excuse me?? So I am not out to destroy Obama in order to build up Hillary. At this point I much prefer him. (I never forget what Nixon said about her: "she reminds me of Madame Mao.") I suspect that either one will beat McCain, although he does a good job of presenting himself as a straight shooter, a regular joe who speaks the truth and consequences be damned, and both Hillary and Obama have severe problems in that regard. Of the two, I suspect Hillary would be the stronger candidate, because she will do anything to win and has no scruples, while Obama looks more and more like another Adlai Stevenson, too high-minded to get elected.

One last comment re Wright: he seems to have done a good job of teaching Obama, since both men avoid directly addressing the things that bother people about their connection. Nothing either one has said will make anyone who is troubled feel any better, unless they are so besotted by Obama that a warm smile and a professorial air will make them sigh with relief. Just remember, many of the worst folks in history were able to twinkle and seduce; don't be a sheep. Keep your guard up. Just because the other side is bad doesn't mean you have to claim that your side is - well, "the change we've been waiting for."

[P.S. Regarding the "oh this whole thing is such a petty distraction" argument - when Nixon ran in 1968, his campaign tactics of the 1940s and 1950s were ancient history, and we had a war in Vietnam to worry about; but if people had looked at the kind of man he was, they might have deduced that he had character flaws that would severely undermine his presidency. Same might be said of Bill Clinton's "troopergate" / Gennifer Flowers past. If you reward politicians for lying and hiding, you get more of the same. The fact that no one is perfect doesn't mean that you have to shrug and go with liars and psychos. There are some decent folks out there, like Al Gore for instance...]