i’ve wanted to write for more than a week. so many things going on personally and beyond…but a friend of mine sent me this video and i finally got the chance to sit down and watch it…take 11 minutes and do the same. it isn’t the cause of my internal struggle but it does represent one aspect of it.

how did rev. wright become the issue? how do i separate what he says (in all its rightness) and his right to say it from the damage he clearly knows he is reigning down on obama?

and some would argue it isn’t his concern…it doesn’t have to be. only i know that although neither man is wrong…i am saddened by rev. wright.

i do believe that he was probably taken out of context. i do believe that “liberation theology” is worthy and important and relevant in the church (and has been since martin luther posted on the church doors and on to when martin luther king posited about utopian mountaintops he dreamed about. i believe that american foreign policy is responsible for a lot of the ill will we face in the world. and i’m pretty sure that the tuskegee syphilis experiment is probably at the forefront of rev. wright’s mind when he says america created aids and infected blacks.

but i also know that obama couldn’t win the rev. wright argument no matter what stance he took. in reality…it shouldn’t be an argument or test for him to pass. his options were to argue the details of a sermon he wasn’t even present for or shun the man that brought him to God. he did neither. instead he dug deep and spoke earnestly about the complexities of love, and relationships, race and misunderstanding.

and it wasn’t enough…not for the media and all us consumers eager for drama and pat answers…and maybe not for supporters of rev. wright who saw anything but complete agreement a betrayal.

only rev. wright isn’t the point.

and when i think about him…when i hear him on the news now, i cringe at the damage he’s done, he continues to do. i cringe and have to remind myself that his unwillingness to sit quietly for a moment is his prerogative. i don’t like it…i think it is short sighted…i think is approach is a little unfair…but it is his right. i can see that.

this video reinforces what i already know…what rev. wright has to say isn’t the problem…our inability to realize that all this fervor isn’t about him is…

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