aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Friday, March 21, 2008

Jeremiah Wright - in Macon; on Gays

Wright’s in the news in Macon for a planned October church* visit just days before the November election:

“I’m sort of echoing what Barack Obama said, I’m not going to disown him, no more than I would disown America,” [St. Paul AME Church Pastor Ronald] Slaughter said.

During Macon Mayor Robert Reichert’s inauguration, he credited Wright for giving him vision for moving the city forward during an earlier visit to Macon.

Mayor Reichert is white:

“He may say some provocative and insensitive things,” Reichert said Thursday. “But overall his message is wonderful!”

Some accuse Wright of making racially inflammatory and unpatriotic remarks, but both these men will tell you people are missing the bigger message.

“I think we need to focus on the body of work that this man has accomplished, not on 30 second sound bites,” said Slaughter.

“It’s bad enough to take 30 seconds out of 1 sermon and concentrate on it,” Reichert said. “What do you mean? What did you say before that? What did you say after that? How does it all fit in? It’s even worse when you select this out of 20 years worth of sermons.”

Meanwhile, Chris Crain points to Newsweek to find that Wright has been more accepting of gay parishioners than many in the black church, especially those who preach ”black liberation theology:”

As a leader, Wright defied convention at every turn. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last year, he recalled a time during the 1970s when the UCC decided to ordain gay and lesbian clergy. At its annual meeting, sensitive to the historic discomfort some blacks have with homosexuality, gay leaders reached out to black pastors.

At that session, Wright heard the testimony of a gay Christian and, he said, he had a conversion experience on gay rights. He started one of the first AIDS ministries on the South Side and a singles group for Trinity gays and lesbians-a subject that still rankles some of the more conservative Trinity members, says Dwight Hopkins, a theology professor at the University of Chicago and a church member.

* I posted about that church - “A Church Known for its Faith” - in October of 2006 critical that it was more proud of its faith than its love or its good work. It’s still a mission I just don’t get.