Moyers' Interview of Rev. Wright Proves Again That He Is An Extraordinary American
A posting I wrote in March contained this, "Meanwhile, Scout Finch over at Daily Kos points out the hypocrisy surrounding the Pastor Wright kerfuffle. As SF writes, "We have now seen more sermons from Barack Obama's minister in 48 hours than we ever did of Mike Huckabee ---- and Mike Huckabee was a presidential candidate for 14 long months. Why is it acceptable to scour every last sermon given by Wright, but only weeks ago we weren't allowed to see or read Mike Huckabee's sermons? In fact, not only was it totally ignored by the traditional media, but the few times the question of Huckabee's sermons was raised, it was brushed aside as inappropriate."
"While I've only seen a few of the sermons, and Wright's choice of words might have been imprudent and leaning towards the fiery, those snippets I heard addressed some realities about social and economic injustice in the US, especially under the Bush administration.
"Wright also never called the Catholic Church the "great whore" or Hurricane Katrina God's revenge on gays as one of McCain's supporters and endorsers, Rev. James Hagee did. Nor did Wright call on Christians to wage war against the 'false religion' Islam as McCain's other spiritual adviser, Rod Parsley, has done.John McCain McBush is proud of both their endorsements."
Having watched Bill Moyer's interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Friday night, I agree with Dave Winer over at Huffington Post.
Winer writes, "Watching Wright gave me pride in being an American, and shame at the same time, for coming from a country so willing to objectify and villify this person before checking out whether the characterization was accurate. Even the supposedly courageous and thorough NY Times calls his oratory "racist" in an editorial in today's paper. Based on what? I've watched the sermons that have been excerpted; if these are racist, then every other preacher in the US is racist too.
"The most I could find was this post on Protein Wisdom saying that Moyers didn't play hardball with Wright. It's true, he didn't. Instead he did what I wish more journalists would, he interviewed him in a way that helped us get to know the person. He let him speak his piece, so we could listen.
"There's so much to admire about Rev Wright, but first, the shame of the professional media, who hounded not only Wright, but members of his congregation, incluing a woman in a hospice, to try to uncover more dirt about Wright and thereby embarass Barack Obama.
"Wright says the religion of the people on the deck of a slave ship must be different from the religion from the people under the deck. On the deck, god is justifying the practice of slavery, and below -- god gives them hope that someday they will be free.
"I think the silence comes from the fact that there still is some humanity in the press and in the blogosphere, and those who watched Moyers and really listened to Wright, realized that he's not a liability to Obama, he's an asset..."
Amen. Go read Winer's piece.
"While I've only seen a few of the sermons, and Wright's choice of words might have been imprudent and leaning towards the fiery, those snippets I heard addressed some realities about social and economic injustice in the US, especially under the Bush administration.
"Wright also never called the Catholic Church the "great whore" or Hurricane Katrina God's revenge on gays as one of McCain's supporters and endorsers, Rev. James Hagee did. Nor did Wright call on Christians to wage war against the 'false religion' Islam as McCain's other spiritual adviser, Rod Parsley, has done.John McCain McBush is proud of both their endorsements."
Having watched Bill Moyer's interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Friday night, I agree with Dave Winer over at Huffington Post.
Winer writes, "Watching Wright gave me pride in being an American, and shame at the same time, for coming from a country so willing to objectify and villify this person before checking out whether the characterization was accurate. Even the supposedly courageous and thorough NY Times calls his oratory "racist" in an editorial in today's paper. Based on what? I've watched the sermons that have been excerpted; if these are racist, then every other preacher in the US is racist too.
"The most I could find was this post on Protein Wisdom saying that Moyers didn't play hardball with Wright. It's true, he didn't. Instead he did what I wish more journalists would, he interviewed him in a way that helped us get to know the person. He let him speak his piece, so we could listen.
"There's so much to admire about Rev Wright, but first, the shame of the professional media, who hounded not only Wright, but members of his congregation, incluing a woman in a hospice, to try to uncover more dirt about Wright and thereby embarass Barack Obama.
"Wright says the religion of the people on the deck of a slave ship must be different from the religion from the people under the deck. On the deck, god is justifying the practice of slavery, and below -- god gives them hope that someday they will be free.
"I think the silence comes from the fact that there still is some humanity in the press and in the blogosphere, and those who watched Moyers and really listened to Wright, realized that he's not a liability to Obama, he's an asset..."
Amen. Go read Winer's piece.
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