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Tempest in a pulpit
One last time: Obama and Reverend Wright
Dan Rottenberg
Since Barack Obama is unlikely to run again for the presidency, this may be my last chance to point out two essential flaws in one of the more bizarre allegations leveled against him during his past two campaigns: his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
To refresh your memory:
— Wright was for many years Obama's pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. (True.)
— For much of that time, Obama looked up to Wright as a spiritual mentor. (True.)
— Some— perhaps many— of Wright's Sunday sermons spoke less than fondly of America's treatment of African Americans, Native Americans and other minority groups. (True.)
"'God damn America'
— In March 2008, after reviewing dozens of Wright's sermons, ABC News aired excerpts from three of the most inflammatory. For instance:
"The government gives them (black people) 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 Bible— for killing innocent people. God damn America, for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she tries to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."
— These excerpts were then further truncated and circulated on the Internet, with special emphasis on the "God damn America" part.
— On the basis of this information, many of Obama's critics— in 2008 and again this year— contended that Wright hates America and white people and that therefore Obama must hate them too.
What's wrong with this illogical syllogism? Let me suggest two flaws.
When Arlen tarred Lynn
First, do you agree with everything your pastor, priest or rabbi tells you? If you do, then your minister isn't doing his or her job. The best clergy are not those who preach to the choir, but those who tell their congregants what they'd rather not hear.
Something similar occurred in 1992 when Pennsylvania's U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, struggling for re-election against the Democratic challenger Lynn Yeakel, hit upon the idea of tarring Yeakel as an anti-Zionist.
How? Why? Well, Yeakel was a vice president of the board of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. And three years earlier, two of that church's seven pastors visited Israel. On their return, one pastor, Eugene Bey, conveyed his impressions, which included criticism of Israel's Palestinian policies.
"'Anti-Zionist dogma'
His remarks were hardly inflammatory. For instance: "Israel's passion for security is understandable. She sees herself surrounded by enemies, but her fear seems exaggerated to me, and her greed for the land indefensible." And: "Israel needs a Lincoln— someone with the grace to admit that neither side is blameless, with the wisdom to see that ancient feuds can be forgotten, and with the courage to believe that old enemies can be reconciled."
Bey stressed that his remarks— tepid as they may have been— represented his personal views only. No matter: Specter's campaign accused Bryn Mawr Presbyterian of imposing anti-Zionist dogma on its congregants, and Yeakel was held responsible for every word uttered from the church's pulpits. And on that basis Specter won enough of Pennsylvania's normally Democratic Jewish vote to narrowly win the election.
Who does the splicing?
Flaw Number Two: Reverend Wright's incendiary comments aired by ABC News were taken from three sermons: one each in 2001, 2003 and 2007. Yet when played repeatedly on the Internet, they created the impression that Wright was saying much the same thing week after week, year in and year out.
As my rabbi at Philadelphia's Society Hill Synagogue, Avi Winokur, put it in a 2008 letter to the Wall Street Journal:
"I shudder to think how I would appear in print if someone with an ax to grind decided to take three quotations of mine out of context on almost any given topic over a decade-and-a-half. With skillful and tendentious excerpting, I could appear to be a wild-eyed right-winger on Israel, or an anti-Zionist, depending on who is doing the splicing."
To put this controversy behind him, Obama denounced Wright's remarks in 2008 and then quit the congregation altogether. But of course he failed to put the controversy behind him at all. Which is a shame. All of us could benefit from being told things we'd rather not hear, especially if the beneficiary is the world's most powerful man, surrounded from morning to night by sycophants and yes-men.
My angry rabbi
For more than 30 years I was a faithful congregant of Rabbi Ivan Caine at Society Hill Synagogue. I found Ivan a towering Jewish scholar but also a man who took a dim view of the world beyond his study. (He preferred opera to pop culture, thought of Arabs and the Inquirer as our people's enemies, and couldn't forgive the Philadelphia Orchestra for hiring a Wehrmacht draftee— Wolfgang Sawallisch— as its music director.)
Nevertheless, my fellow congregants and I listened faithfully to Ivan. His pessimism never shook my optimism, but it did provide a useful reality check. It was my good fortune to have known Rabbi Caine. Of course, if I ever run for president I will denounce him and deny I ever knew him.♦
To read responses, click here.
To refresh your memory:
— Wright was for many years Obama's pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. (True.)
— For much of that time, Obama looked up to Wright as a spiritual mentor. (True.)
— Some— perhaps many— of Wright's Sunday sermons spoke less than fondly of America's treatment of African Americans, Native Americans and other minority groups. (True.)
"'God damn America'
— In March 2008, after reviewing dozens of Wright's sermons, ABC News aired excerpts from three of the most inflammatory. For instance:
"The government gives them (black people) 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 Bible— for killing innocent people. God damn America, for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America, as long as she tries to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent."
— These excerpts were then further truncated and circulated on the Internet, with special emphasis on the "God damn America" part.
— On the basis of this information, many of Obama's critics— in 2008 and again this year— contended that Wright hates America and white people and that therefore Obama must hate them too.
What's wrong with this illogical syllogism? Let me suggest two flaws.
When Arlen tarred Lynn
First, do you agree with everything your pastor, priest or rabbi tells you? If you do, then your minister isn't doing his or her job. The best clergy are not those who preach to the choir, but those who tell their congregants what they'd rather not hear.
Something similar occurred in 1992 when Pennsylvania's U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, struggling for re-election against the Democratic challenger Lynn Yeakel, hit upon the idea of tarring Yeakel as an anti-Zionist.
How? Why? Well, Yeakel was a vice president of the board of Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. And three years earlier, two of that church's seven pastors visited Israel. On their return, one pastor, Eugene Bey, conveyed his impressions, which included criticism of Israel's Palestinian policies.
"'Anti-Zionist dogma'
His remarks were hardly inflammatory. For instance: "Israel's passion for security is understandable. She sees herself surrounded by enemies, but her fear seems exaggerated to me, and her greed for the land indefensible." And: "Israel needs a Lincoln— someone with the grace to admit that neither side is blameless, with the wisdom to see that ancient feuds can be forgotten, and with the courage to believe that old enemies can be reconciled."
Bey stressed that his remarks— tepid as they may have been— represented his personal views only. No matter: Specter's campaign accused Bryn Mawr Presbyterian of imposing anti-Zionist dogma on its congregants, and Yeakel was held responsible for every word uttered from the church's pulpits. And on that basis Specter won enough of Pennsylvania's normally Democratic Jewish vote to narrowly win the election.
Who does the splicing?
Flaw Number Two: Reverend Wright's incendiary comments aired by ABC News were taken from three sermons: one each in 2001, 2003 and 2007. Yet when played repeatedly on the Internet, they created the impression that Wright was saying much the same thing week after week, year in and year out.
As my rabbi at Philadelphia's Society Hill Synagogue, Avi Winokur, put it in a 2008 letter to the Wall Street Journal:
"I shudder to think how I would appear in print if someone with an ax to grind decided to take three quotations of mine out of context on almost any given topic over a decade-and-a-half. With skillful and tendentious excerpting, I could appear to be a wild-eyed right-winger on Israel, or an anti-Zionist, depending on who is doing the splicing."
To put this controversy behind him, Obama denounced Wright's remarks in 2008 and then quit the congregation altogether. But of course he failed to put the controversy behind him at all. Which is a shame. All of us could benefit from being told things we'd rather not hear, especially if the beneficiary is the world's most powerful man, surrounded from morning to night by sycophants and yes-men.
My angry rabbi
For more than 30 years I was a faithful congregant of Rabbi Ivan Caine at Society Hill Synagogue. I found Ivan a towering Jewish scholar but also a man who took a dim view of the world beyond his study. (He preferred opera to pop culture, thought of Arabs and the Inquirer as our people's enemies, and couldn't forgive the Philadelphia Orchestra for hiring a Wehrmacht draftee— Wolfgang Sawallisch— as its music director.)
Nevertheless, my fellow congregants and I listened faithfully to Ivan. His pessimism never shook my optimism, but it did provide a useful reality check. It was my good fortune to have known Rabbi Caine. Of course, if I ever run for president I will denounce him and deny I ever knew him.♦
To read responses, click here.
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