Dr Wright: Why The Right Could Stop Worrying And Love The Reverend

Update 4/26: Here is the Moyers/Wright interview. It's a bit more to digest than 30 seconds of YouTube.

Thursday morning I decided I’d attempt this post. Thursday night I learned Reverend Jeremiah Wright had a sit down with Bill Moyers for an interview that will be televised this evening. I'd like to point out I was defending Dr Wright (see comments) before defending Dr Wright was cool.

"Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem." – Ronald Reagan. Is the Rev Dr Jeremiah Wright a Regan Republican?

In perhaps the most famously excerpted sermon since the One on the Mount the Rev Jeremiah Wright argues (too effectively for most people’s tastes) that the American government ought not to be relied upon. It is God who should be relied upon.

In a more complete sermon excerpt (July 2003) than YouTube, published by the Chicago Tribune at the end of March, Rev Wright begins with Lincoln era thinking that Africans are property, continues with Truman era thinking that Africans should be separate. He includes more favorable Clinton era thinking of "the first black president", and ends with Bush era uhh…thinking(?).

Then he turns to the Italian prophet Malachi (3:6) to demonstrate that God does not change. "Where governments lie, God does not lie. Where governments change, God does not change.”

The message is clear. Do not rely on governments. Rely on God. I think he means one person’s bootstraps are another person’s faith in God.

To further cement his argument, to drive it home better than any white 70-year-old president could, he points to the failures of the Roman, British, Russian, Japanese, and German governments. Finally, he points to the United States’ genocide of Native Americans, the internment of Japanese Americans, and the slavery of Africans.

I think Jeremiah Wright might agree with Ronald Reagan.