The Politics of the Rev. Wright Controversy: A Debate with Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Adolph Reed,

2 Comments

1. 

   idredit on May 2, 2008 at 8:37 pm

   We need to put this Rev. Wright silliness to bed.

   Yglesias provides us a link to one of E.J Dionne’s best;

   Fair Play for False Prophets

   Do white right-wing preachers have it easier than black left-wing preachers? Is there a double standard?

   After Wright’s bizarre and narcissistic performance at the National Press Club on Monday, Obama would have looked weak and irresolute had he not denounced him. But if there was a moment of courage in this drama, it was not Obama’s condemnation of Wright but his earlier and now much-criticized effort to avoid a complete break with his unapologetic pastor.[.]

   <In light of this racial gap, it’s worth pondering why white, right-wing preachers who make ridiculous and sometimes shameful statements usually emerge with their influence intact.

   The catalogue goes back to Bailey Smith, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Speaking at a 1980 religious convention that was also addressed by Ronald Reagan, Smith declared that “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.”[.]

   Two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Jerry Falwell, appearing on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club,” declared: “I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.'[.]

   What’s telling is that neither preacher lost sway in Republican circles. Before Falwell’s death last year, John McCain actively courted his support, and Rudy Giuliani, one of the heroes of Sept. 11, welcomed Robertson’s endorsement of his own candidacy. “His advice is invaluable,” Giuliani said.

   And, of course, there is the endorsement of McCain by the Rev. John Hagee, founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, who has called the Catholic Church “the great whore of Babylon” and “the anti-Christ.”

   Yglesias’ comment:

   Is there a double standard?” I think there is a double standard, but it’s a double for politicians not for preachers. After all, all those right-wing nutters attracted their fair share of condemnation. The difference is that a white politician is presumptively assumed to be “one of us” so if some religious figures he has a relationship with has wacked-out views, those are seen as his views and not necessarily a problem for the politician. A black politician, however, is expected to constantly prove that he’s “one of us” rather than “one of them.”

   (emphasis added)

   EJ nailed it. There’s a double standard that the media choose to overlook.

   we have a long walk ahead, many miles to go before MLK’s dream is played in rainbow colors.

   • 

     Archangel M on May 5, 2008 at 3:03 pm

     As much as I admire Dionne, this was just plain lame.

     After Wright’s bizarre and narcissistic performance at the National Press Club on Monday, Obama would have looked weak and irresolute had he not denounced him.

     How was the speech bizarre, or narcissistic?  I watched the whole thing, and listened to the Q&A session afterward.  Wright was not out of control, or behaving weirdly, or in an egotistical manner.  I’m not the only one who witnessed the NPC speech and its following question and answer period to make this assessment.  Most of the attacks I’ve read or heard since that weekend have struck me as being written by those who viewed only the broadcast sound bites on the news channels, and not the entire spectacle.  Obama was under no obligation to treat the man who presided over his wedding and baptized his children as though he was some kind of pariah, to be thrown under the proverbial bus a second time.