Moyers is brilliant as usual.
I was disappointed on several fronts with all this stuff. I was disappointed that Wright’s comment to Moyers, about Obama “doing what politicians do” , which was not something I initially took as a negative (because I agreed with him on that) was something at which Obama took great offense, feeling that would call into question his sincerity. But Obama does have a problem here as a politician. It is impermissible for anyone who wants to win a presidential election to have his “patriotism questioned”, and so any and all “slurs on America” have to be rejected, and so it would place great doubt in the “minds of the electorate” if a candidate were to attempt to “defend” or “explain” such “blasphemy” against the Republic.
Then Wright went on from Moyers and “acted out” for audiences in two subsequent appearances.
The whole thing makes me sick about the idolatry of nation in this country, and among the people of the church in America, and also the impossibility of the task of avoiding the “guilt by association”, or even less possible, any understanding/acceptance of how church trumps politics, and nation. I’m not even so sure that it does for Obama either, if he were being “other” than a politician.
I am not a “believer” in Obama bringing any “change I can believe in”. I just want some change from the carrying out of nationhood that does NOT believe in what present administration has tried or wants to try. They’ve clearly sidetracked this country in disastrous ways, in just about every area onto which they have put their grubby, elite, money sucking paws.
I think we’re in agreement with the problem of nationalism, and that Wright really is n’t that controversial. I’m not so sure that Obama would have avoided all this by not publically rejecting/repudiating/condemning the remarks , since anything that denigrates “America” (or seems to) is the unforgivable sin in American politics. This is precisely why I think Obama’s lates outrage about Wright’s “he’s doing what politicians do” statement sttikes me as hypocritical, since his “rejections” seem to be doing just that (“doing what politicians do”). Of course, what Obama is defending is the idea that he is doing “different kind of politics”, but as far as nationalism goes, he seems just as apt to unfurl some rather idolatrous nationalist ideas, like his “America is the last best hope of the world” thing on Letterman (Shane Claiborne points this out a lot on his “Jesus for President” tour and interviews)
Hey, good to hear from ya, man. Don’t be a stranger.
I think it’s really interesting that the difference between Wright and Obama is one that really highlights these issues of nationalism/idolatry. Mainly, I think this would have been a non-issue if Obama didn’t vehemently disagree and whatever with Wright. What Wright is saying really isn’t that controversial at all.