“I am therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth” (Paul, Galatians 4-16)
Open Letter to Barack Obama
What if Rev. Jeremiah Wright had been G. W. Bush’s Spiritual Mentor?
Charles E. Carlson
Barack Obama has been criticized for the words of outspoken Dr. Wright, his one time friend, spiritual tutor, and pastor. Obama is embarrassed because his campaign plan does not call for discussing the issues Wright keeps raising. Mr. Obama has done everything but discuss them.
After seeing and listening to Pastor Wright, it appears to us that the whole world would be much better off had President Bush had Pastor Wright for his spiritual adviser. Reverend Wright made it clear he is opposed to war on Iraq, and he was already opposed to it right after Day911 when hatred and vengeance were in the air.
Moreover, Reverend Wright knew the scriptural reasons for opposing the bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan: “Thou shall not take a human life!” he said in his speech, and he seems to apply this to all people including Muslims, not just black people.
George W. Bush’s spiritual model, if he has one, would be a Christian Zionist, perhaps the late Jerry Falwell, John MacArthur, or the likes of radical John Hagee. All of these believe deep down that we are in a war against Islam. To them, killing Muslims does not defy God’s plan. Some, like Hagee, are dissatisfied with the wars we have and want a preemptive bombing of Iran. All ignore the voice for peace in the statements of Jesus Christ.
Here is a short list of words and concepts that would be absent from Americans’ vocabularies today, had President Bush taken spiritual counsel from Reverend Wright (and heeded it).
Weapons of mass destruction
Shock and Awe
Guantanamo
Abu Ghraib
Water-boarding
Sadr City
4,057 American dead
25,000 American wounded and crippled
100,000 (or many more) Iraqi dead
Homeland Security
The Patriot Act
The Green Zone
Blackwater Industries
$3.50 per gallon gasoline (pre-war $1.00)
$4.00 per loaf bread
$5.00 per gallon milk
One trillion dollar plus federal budgets
Each is a new word and idea we have learned since Day911. We might not need them if George W. Bush had gone to church in Chicago where Barack Obama was attending at the time!
The press’s condemnation of Jeremiah A Wright is not about his patriotism or black racism, and I may not agree with every social issue he talked about.Wright wants to talk now that he has a world podium.The press attack is about hurting Senator Obama. Wright was a six-year Marine; compare his service to those who criticize him.Maybe it’s time Mr. Obama talked about the issues Wright has uncovered rather than their relationship.
The Zionist-friendly press can see that Reverend Wright is not fooled by phony wars, especially those in the name of Israel. Zionists are petrified that some of Reverend Wright’s thinking might have rubbed off on the young politician, Obama. I, for one, would like to see it rub off on our current President who is bent on bombing Iran, or getting Israel to do it for him with our bombs and money.
Reverend Wright’s interview with Bill Moyers last week revealed that he knows Jesus Christ’s words and takes them seriously. Is that not the purpose of pastors? Jesus shouts what God expects from us: warmaking, no; peacemaking, yes.
Moyers did us the service of playing the emotion-packed sermon Pastor Wright delivered to his church on the Sunday following 911. It demanded peace as God does, not vengeance as do John McCain, Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush.Wright said:“America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
We Hold These Truths entitled our own 911 response six years ago “Americans Pay the Price.” It was posted painfully two days after 911, and here is what I wrote:
“The cause of the Day911 destruction is the bullying, war-making tactics of those who control our own government toward multiple small and frail independent Arab states, including Palestine and Iraq.”
My own local church Pastor’s response was a terse note telling me not to send any more letters to him…they made him too angry! It seems he was just too angry to distinguish Jesus’ call for peace from the call of the lynch mob to bomb the people of Afghanistan and Iraq in revenge. My former pastor Phil is one of thousands who follow Christ, except when his words command us to stand against the tide and control our own anger.
We Hold These Truths received dozens of angry responses, including an almost instant call from the FBI. The agent politely asked me to let them know if we hear of any terrorists! Had I been preaching to a white evangelical church I might have been stoned!
Day911 did not demand vengeance in Jesus’ eyes. But politicians demanded it for purposes of their own! The outrage from Christian Zionists over our words convinced me we needed a project to intervene between these very Pastors and those who make the mistake of listening to them. We now have Project Strait Gate to rescue others from Christian Zionism, to which we invite participation.
Barack Obama has thus far dodged discussing the substance of Reverend Wright’s speech. The press has him dodging and they love it. Maybe it would serve Obama better if he confronted these issues; what is our government’s responsibility for keeping peace; what are the bitter fruits of vengeance?
Among the some 65 churches where we have held our interventions were two black churches, not so different from the one where Reverend Wright preaches. The reaction was interesting. Many who attended seemed to think we had singled them out; they asked our volunteers why we don’t go to white churches, saying “we are not for war.” I might not be comfortable in an all black church, but I am not comfortable with Pastor Phil either! We all have a right to our own idea of race, even race jokes. Reverend Wright was not joking when he said in his sermon after 911. “God bless America… “No, God Damn America,” and then Wright provided a long list of ungodly actsthat God could condemn America for,from slavery, to Hiroshima, to Iraq, to US support of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.
Wright is right! It should be plain to everyone that our chickens have indeed come home to roost, bringing with them disease and corruption as well as the visible and invisible human costs of war.
We do not know who God calls to be prophets in our time. A prophet is one who tells the truth when it is not easy to do so. Reverend Wright’s facts were 20-20 six years ago. He did not miss much in describing America’s decline into moral and financial suicide in the speech I heard. He stood up and said it when there was pressure, even from his friends, to stay silent.
I do not care a whit what Wright says about race or how he expresses himself in his hometown black church. He is not oppressing me, and he is uplifting me by his courage. He did not once deviate from Jesus’ central message of love and forgiveness. His 911 message began: “God wants wholeness, not revenge.” Amen, Brother Wright!
We now live with the fruits of revenge that we sowed in such abundance. Let’s not be afraid to talk about them, whatever the consequences. Perhaps Barack Obama should stand up and argue the issues Jeremiah Wright has raised each time the hostile press plays the Wright card. They would soon stop playing it!
Here are a few issues he could talk about, all caused by War: the gasoline price explosion, the Wall Street collapse, run-away food prices, the human cost of serial wars, and the dreadful slide to immorality that comes from war, all issues that were voted for by our present administration and by Obama’s opposition.
Wright is right. God says the God of the Old Testament damns nations who turn from his law. He damned the Israelites of old – why not the U.S.? It would be well for every pastor and church lay-leader to watch Bill Moyers’ full interview of Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright aired on PBS television on April 25. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04252008/watch.html
Here is our own Day911 story, consistent, as you can see, with the 911 sermon of Pastor Wright.
Day 911 – Americans Pay the Price,
By Charles E. Carlson, September 13, 2001
The people who died and were injured on 9/11/2001 (Day911) were of every race and religion, including Jews and Arabs. Who could be without sympathy for the victims and their families? We are already learning of acts of heroism, courage and sacrifice similar to those that took place on the Titanic. We salute the many brave firemen and other rescue workers who must have known how great the risk was when they entered the damaged structures, putting their duty ahead of their lives.
Our purpose at We Hold These Truths is to place the guilt squarely on the guilty. Only if we do that can we prevent a recurrence in some other place and some other way. The only alternative to our proposal is a police state in which all must surrender freedom in exchange for protection from an ever-larger government. We will need an armed guard on every plane and a metal detector at every door, and still we will not be safe.
“The cause of the Day911 destruction is the bullying, war-making tactics of those who control our own government toward multiple small and frail independent Arab states, including Palestine and Iraq.”
Read the rest here: “Day 911 – Americans Pay The Price“
