Jeremiah Wright's The Preacher And The Politician

Improved Essays
In the introduction and first chapter of their book, The Preacher and the Politician: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, and Race in America, Clarence E. Walker and Gregory D. Smithers discuss the controversy surrounding Barack Obama’s ties to Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Snippets from one of Wright’s sermon were blasted in the media, leading to public outcry against the preacher, and against Obama for attending his church. While this outcry against Wright painted him as a radical extremist, Walker and Smithers argue Wright’s preaching fits in the religious and social context of the Puritan tradition Wright’s UCC comes out of, as well as black church tradition and preaching. Walker and Smithers identify Wright’s message as being threatening to white Americans …show more content…
In The Origins of Proslavery Christianity, Charles Irons’ emphasizes this point with particular attention to the Nat Turner rebellion. Irons argues that after the Turner rebellion, slaveowners “primary goal was to wrench the veil from the dangerous invisible church and to bring tens of thousands of unchurched blacks to Sunday services.” Irons’ point shows how the specter of black activity and unrest haunted white slaveowners, and this point can be seen similarly in Walker and Smith’s work. They state: “black America remains a frightening mystery to some white Americans.” Just as antebellum slaveowners feared what was going on behind the “veil” of the invisible church, today white Americans fear what they imagine is said and radicalized behind the walls of black congregations. Of course, knowing what is said or pulling back the curtain would not necessarily assuage white fears—black churches have often been primary places where American white supremacy is critiqued and condemned. An awareness of black Christianity would come into conflict with the chosen amnesia white Americans

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