As it turns out, you don’t need YouTube to view Jeremiah Wright’s wild-eyed radicalism on an “endless loop.” You only need to join his congregation. At this point, the “context” excuse for Jeremiah Wright’s infamous rants is dead. For the frightening theological and historical context of those outbreaks, check out my piece in the current issue of National Review. For the toe-curling context of Wright’s own thought, see my new piece, “Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet.’” It would have been impossible to be a member of Wright’s congregation for twenty years and not be completely familiar with the full extent of his radicalism.
I’m going to offer a couple tidbits from Trumpet Newsmagazine.’” Some of these are passages I discussed in ”Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet,’” but couldn’t quote at length. But first, I’ll offer a passage that I haven’t yet mentioned.
I do not believe that Wright’s main motivations are financial, and so I haven’t focused on that issue. But some folks have noted the discrepancy between his attacks on “middle-classness” and his comfortable retirement. They will be interested in the following passage, in which Wright explicitly disavows an interest in luxury. Wright also notes (quite accurately, as I argue in NR) that far from being a symbol of the black church, his political theology has been widely criticized and rejected. I think Wright’s disastrous “tour” and his claim that an attack on him was an attack on the black church was in part an attempt to move black liberation theology from the margins to the center of the African-American religion. Anyway, here’s the first tidbit from Trumpet. It comes from the March 2006 issue, and Wright’s essay, “What Are We Teaching Our Children?”
I have been criticized by ministers of every stripe and in every denomination across the spectrum because I have chosen to listen to the Word of God and not follow the fads of the culture! I do not preach prosperity.
I am not trying to drive a Bentley or have my own jet. I am determined to teach our children the truth about being Black, being Christian and being faithful to a God who came into history on the side of the oppressed.
More tidbits to follow.