After reading an article written in the opinion column of today's U.S. News & World Report, I decided to write the author a letter giving a more balanced perspective on the ongoing Rev. Wright controversy. The article didn't give the option of commenting, so I had to send a letter thru the 'Contact Us' link. Hopefully he'll get it and read it. In the meantime, I thought I'd share. Sorry it's long, but I think it's worth the read.
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Hi - this letter is to Mortimer Zuckerman. I just finished reading the article published today "Obama's Double Standard on Reverend Wright" and although it is a very well written piece, I have concerns about some of the pointed and inflammatory descriptions included.
You mentioned that Rev. Wright's sermons were "hate-filled, paranoid, and anti-American." May I offer you a different perspective to ponder? The bible tells us in Hebrews 12:6 that "...whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." What good is a father who never corrects his son or never points out the things that the child is doing wrong so that they can be corrected? We have to be frank and admit that America has done some despicable things in the name of democracy. Many nations and people have suffered at our hands, yet we take a stand of arrogance as if America has been the shining example of honesty and integrity in the world. We all know that is just not so. Because Rev. Wright or anyone else is honest about our country's sins, does that make them anti-American? Open rebuke is actually a greater form of love that one who sits by and says nothing.
Jesus was not a popular man in his country. He used incendiary and inflammatory speech. He was divisive and was probably accused of being hate-filled, paranoid, and anti-Jerusalem. Yet, last week our nation celebrated his death, burial, and resurrection as Holy Week. He is the one most of us follow as our example of living a perfect life. He was hated and subsequently executed because they accused him of being a heretic and a blasphemer. Consequently, he was the greatest lover of his country. He loved Jerusalem, but spoke out against it because they were doing wrong things and wanted to correct the error of their ways.
I'm not in any way suggesting that Rev. Wright is Jesus. I'm not intimately familiar with the doctrine of his church. That's not the point. The point is, is it possible that Rev. Wright loves America?
Yes, he is a flawed man just like the rest of us, but just because he speaks publicly about the injustices that America has committed, does that really make him anti-American? In any of his sermons, did he ever tell his congregation not to love their fellow American or to commit violence towards someone who wronged them, or to hold grudges and refuse to forgive? Did he ever tell them to hate the government, white people, Asians, Latinos, etc.? Is it fair to call him paranoid? Didn't American settlers nearly wipe out the Native American population for the sole purpose of taking their land? Didn't the American government allow black men to be unknowingly injected with syphilis as an experiment? Didn't America take black slaves, strip them of their names, dignity, and heritage all in the name of free enterprise? Based on history, is it really so far fetched to suggest that the government invented AIDS? I'm not saying that it's true, but even Pat Buchanan suggested that HIV/AIDS was punishment for homosexuality. Both positions sound very plausible or very ignorant depending on your life experience and which side of the ditch you stand.
When people say things that hurt us, we often interpret that as them hating us. I can remember being scorned or chastised as a child and feeling like my parents hated me. As I matured, I understood that they didn't hate me at all. Actually, they loved me so much more than the people who said nothing while I did the wrong thing. The fact of the matter is, the truth hurts. If we all had to justify our lives and relationships based on a few :30 second sound bites taken out of context, we all would be cut off from society and banished into solitude. You and I both have said stupid things over the course of our lives, but that doesn't make us hate mongers, or paranoid, or anti-American. It makes us human beings who at any given point in time may say something that we believe is true, but others strongly take issue with.
If Sen. Obama's judgement is to be questioned based on his 20 year relationship with Rev. Wright (whom we know of solely from those clips which only represent snapshots in time as opposed to the totality of his 40 year career in ministry), then can't we also question Sen. Clinton's judgement for remaining married to her husband for over 30 years? And we all saw the clips on the news of his lapse in judgement. She could have chosen to divorce him and the whole world would have backed her up, just like Sen. Obama could have made the choice to leave his church, but neither of them chose that option. I submit to you that Sen. Clinton made a choice of her own free will to remain committed to her husband based on her historical knowledge and understanding of who he really is and not based on his moments of reprehensible, sinful, bad judgement. Why is it incomprehensible and unacceptable that Sen. Obama made the same choice?
I hope that someone in the media will be have enough backbone to look past emotions and knee-jerk reactions and really examine what Rev. Wright has said in context. This whole business of mass marketing fear and profiting off of half-truths is getting old. America is better than that.
"Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." - Proverbs 27:5-6
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