Fiery Rhetoric

What a preacher does is save souls. I hear fiery stuff indeed. It often is silly, too. I go to a white church. And sometimes I laugh at things I hear there.

As pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for 36 years (he recently retired), the Rev. Wright has a record of good works. From services for the homeless and the elderly to the poor and those in prison, his church has practiced the most giving and generous teachings of Christianity. But with the good came charged rhetoric that has come back to haunt him and Mr. Obama. Most famously, in a 2003 sermon, the Rev. Wright said, "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, not God bless America. God damn America, that's in The the Bible, for killing innocent people."

Yesterday, the Rev. Wright was unrepentant. He refused to disavow his oft-repeated belief in the sinister myth that the AIDS epidemic is a genocidal government plot to exterminate African Americans. He stood by his blame-America-for-Sept. 11 stance, saying, "You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back to you."

None of this is helpful to Mr. Obama, who could face more calls not only to denounce such inflammatory comments but also to renounce his longtime pastor. We will not join in that chorus. In his address on race in Philadelphia last month after video of the Rev. Wright's fiery sermons burst onto the national scene, Mr. Obama condemned, "in unequivocal terms, the statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy."

I have stood against execution, and I have pointed out that 16 men in Dallas alone have been released, after being condemned, on DNA evidence that showed they were convicted wrongly.

The Bible has in it 10 commandments, and one of them is "Thou Shalt Not Kill". If you damn people who kill, and sometimes do it for wrongful reasons, you are breaking God's commandments. If you preach, you condemn them.

Killing is wrong, and if you believe in keeping the 10 commandments, making war on people is wrong too. Either you accept that or you don't. But when you accept ordination as a pastor you accept the word of God in the Bible, and you preach it.

I don't accept the Bible as God's word. I also don't preach. I listen to those who do and judge for myself. I know some who think 9-11 was a plot, and some who are sure that the Oklahoma City bombing was secretly done by al Quaeda, too. I grew up hearing stuff like that from respected members of the community. Stuff like black people are inferior. I have been told black men can't grow beards. I listen. Sometimes I laugh. But I am not going to shut them up for silly beliefs, either. Heck, I think red meat is probably not good for you. Want to fight about it?

Obama listens to preaching, and some of that is downright wrong. I think that listening to people saying things that are wrong is hardly a big deal. I read WaPo editorials, but I still don't believe in war.