by Karen D. Bota

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, or “Barack Obama’s pastor” as we now know him, was in Detroit on April 27. He addressed 10,000 people at the annual Freedom Fund dinner of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP, then followed that appearance with one at the National Press Club the following day. He is back in the news and commentators are asking why.

Wright has served as pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side since 1972. He’s preached a lot of sermons in that time, many of them containing language that has been called inflammatory and divisive.  One might ask why suddenly now the media is taking notice of Wright’s sermons, and passing them on in various sound bites taken out of context.

Some people label Wright a racist for his remarks; others say the uproar this has caused simply confirms the racism in our society, as well as a misunderstanding of the Black Church, which frequently uses preaching to address social issues. Think back to Martin Luther King, Jr.  A few have said Wright is crazy, like Maureen Dowd from The New York Times, who called him a “whack-a-doodle.”

Admittedly, what Wright has said makes many of us uncomfortable or angry. It’s hard to hear, and it would be easier to simply dismiss him outright rather than to acknowledge his personal truth, which is one of racism, discrimination, and segregation.  To silence anyone, or to dismiss anyone’s experience, is a mistake. The Quakers have a saying: God gives every person a measure of the truth. It is by living fully into that truth that God will give us a greater measure.

The reading from the Gospel of John during the week of Wright’s appearances spoke of Jesus preparing to leave his disciples, whom must have felt pretty panicked at the thought. Jesus reassures them that he will ask God to send them another advocate. In many translations, the word used instead of advocate is “paraclete,” which means “called to the side of.” It is someone you call to stand with you by your side and give you strength. We think of an advocate as someone who speaks on behalf of another, and Jesus himself, as an advocate, did both. This advocate Jesus mentions will stay with the disciples forever, to help them do the hard work that is ahead of them here on earth, as he continues to advocate in heaven.

We don’t know what kind of advocate God will send us, and you don’t always get the advocate you ask for or expect. The media has worked hard to sell us on Jeremiah Wright as an angry racist and a dangerous person.

Curious isn’t it, given that throughout his ministry, the Chicago pastor and his church addressed poverty, health care, AIDS awareness and urban education. Trinity Church’s outreach programs continue to include ministry to those dealing with drug-and-alcohol recovery, domestic violence, career development, and people who are in prison. Another ministry provides Christian role models and mentors for elementary school children each week.

Wright welcomed gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people to his church before he retired in February, and caused a significant stir in doing so, causing a number of his members to leave. But Wright stood his ground and behind the Gospel message. Wright’s sermons blend his observations on politics and other real-world issues with Scripture, and he encourages his members to become actively involved with these issues.

I do not personally know Jeremiah Wright. I can’t speak to his character as a human being beyond what I have read. I can’t speak to the quality of his entire sermon collection, because like most of those commenting on him, I have only seen and heard the sound bites. But of one thing I am certain. When an African American man who is pastor to one of the presidential candidates is demonized during an election year for being critical of the system, there’s more to the story than the media puts out there.

Throughout the Bible, and throughout our time, God speaks through the prophets who proclaim the truth. They speak against the system, against lies and deceptions. They speak on behalf of people engaged in a struggle against oppression; they speak for justice.  Instead of the media caricature, one might see Wright as someone who is speaking on behalf of marginalized groups without a voice, who speaks truth to power. This would make him a prophet. Wright is also someone who has been called to the side of those he ministers to, over and over, to provide strength. This would make him an advocate.

In my confirmation class, the priest used to tell us that it was the church’s job to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.  That sounds like a job description for the advocate. Whether or not you agree with Jeremiah Wright, whether or not you agree with the media’s portrayal of him, the recent firestorm around him has opened up a window for conversations about racism, as uncomfortable as those conversations might be. It’s also what Jesus did, that in-your-face, tell-it-like-I-see-it tactic. It’s what he wanted his disciples to do, and why he asked God to send another advocate— the Spirit of Truth—to be with them.

That same advocate is still with us 2,000 years later. We still confront the same issues Jesus did in his time—of domination and powerlessness, of oppression and marginalization. Look around and witness evidence of it everywhere. In our communities, people out of work, troubled school systems, houses being foreclosed on, oil companies making billions in profits. In the world, people living on as little as $1 a day, religious persecution in Tibet, an ongoing civil war in Sudan, collateral human damage in Iraq.

As uncomfortable as we feel about confronting those issues, as followers of Christ—as his advocates—we are commanded to do just that. 

We must ask ourselves, how can we be that advocate? How might we speak on behalf of someone who is voiceless, or stand at the side of someone who needs strength in their struggle against racism or another form of oppression?  How might we speak truth to power? It can be scary, but the system will not change until we change it.

[Karen D. Bota formerly served on The Record Editorial Board.]

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