Washington, D.C. (Rightcommentary.com): Tonight, I want to provide readers with some of my thoughts and commentary about Rev. Wright’s speech today before the National Press Club here in Washington, D.C. I have been watching the coverage on the “drive bys” (as Rush likes to call them) and, as usual, they missed a great deal of the subtlety and nuanced messages that Wright delivered. Although he was not jumping up and down saying “God Damn America,” and the ‘US of KKA,” what he said today was clearly in that vein - disguised in scholarly prose and smiles.

On YouTube, the member CSPAN junkie has broken up the video into several parts. This will be useful for me since it’s hard to digest it all at once in a big 1-hour chunk. Instead, I ask readers to watch the part of the speech, and perhaps look back and forth at my comments, while listening. It should help many of you to decode what he actually said, and you’ll find, as I did, that Rev. Wright is clearly a radical racist bigot who hates deeply “Whites” and who blames America for the social ills of the black community. I will write on each part - probably not all tonight - but each day - until I’ve gotten through all five parts. When I’m done - you’ll see - why this man is perhaps so important to understand, as it gives some indication of the types of mentors Sen. Obama, by his own admission, believe to be formative of his ideology and his policies.

The First Part:

A couple of points on this part:

First of all, I like how he basically receives a standing ovation from the audience. For those of you not familiar with the National Press Club, its membership is limited to those who are credentialed press, and specific journalists who are associated with national press agencies. It is an exclusive club whose membership is essentially invite only. While you can join the press club online - the reality is that your membership is reviewed and only Press are allowed.

Thus, my friends, those people jumping up and down and cheering Rev. Wright - they are the members of your “main stream media.” Remember that…

Second point that struck me was all of Rev. Wright’s insults of the audience. Spouting off things like “we can’t begin to understand in a two day symposium…” and all the people who will have to apply the full focus of their academic talents to understand the mysteries of why Rev. Wright preaches as he does and the spirtuality of the “black community.”

No offense - but what a load of nonsense. My particular favorite was his call for a study by hermeneuticists. I doubt that many of you outside the academy - and exceptionally over educated in the academy in Philosphy or Semiotics I might add - will have ever heard of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics, in its most broad sense, is the study of meaning of language and texts. In the case that Rev. Wright was using it in, I presume he meant the study of exegesis. Now - just to keep your heads from exploding - put most simply, exegesis is the study of holy texts and the primary texts of religions. People who study theology and study primary texts of religions are hermeneuticists.

Such an obscure reference - quite frankly - that probably only one in 100,000 people who saw this speech would have caught. The only people who would have even had a basic understanding of hermeneutics would have been philosophy majors (perhaps) and some theologians. This told me two things tonight - one, Rev. Wright is quite well educated. At first, I just figured he was a racist crazed loon. But in fact - he’s quite calculating and strategic in his rhetoric and clearly well educated. Two, as a result - we should be quite skeptical of any claims by Rev. Wright that he was taken out of context or that he didn’t appreciate the meaning of things he was saying. Rev. Wright just plucked from obscurity a concept that 97% of America would have never understood… and I’m arguing he did so on purpose because he KNEW you wouldn’t understand - thereby sounding legitimate without having to actually demonstrate it.

It’s also nonsense, btw, the whole thing that no one can understand the mystery that is Rev. Wright and the black church. Part of his obligations as pastor and as a theologian is to make the texts of the Bible accessible to his parishioners. I guess he couldn’t do that before the National Press Club.

Next was his reference to “Black Religious Experience.” This is a theme that comes up over and over. Since Rev. Wright likes hermeneutics so much - let’s do some. The real meaning of the phrase “Black Religious Experience” is to essentially devoid Rev. Wright from any accountability for the things he’s said in the past. The whole history lesson about slaves, hiding while praying, etc., is all to lay a foundational text for claiming - as he ultimately does in this part - that the criticism that has been made against him is actually an attack on the spirituality of the black church, just as occurred during the period of Slavery in America.

Bollocks.

Finally, we get to the most serious, is the message of “Liberation theology” and “Black Liberation.”

First of all, Liberation Theology is essentially an offshoot of Christianity that specifically adapted in Latin America as a result of both religious and political oppression. It’s roots are largely Socialist and Marxist in nature. It is often “hand in hand” with anti-capitalism, as capitalism is often viewed by Liberation theology as part of the oppressive mechanism.

Rev. Wright thinks all that is okie dokie with him. Marxism, Socialism, anti-capitalism… that’s all fine and dandy. He’s a big believer in Liberation Theology.

Moreover, as applied to the “Black experience,” we get, Black Liberation Theology. The sentiments behind Black Liberation Theology have manifested themselves in lots of ways in US history - the Black Panthers, for example, are in their own way an expression of this view that “Whites” are oppressive.

What got me most out of joint, was Rev. Wright smiling and talking about James Cone - and the shots of the adoring Press club, so moronic they don’t even know who the heck he is talking about - or remember him with some fond revisionists history…

Here’s some of Cone’s thoughts (which of course, Rev. Wright agrees with totally):

“Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community … Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.”

And watch this video… its an indepth interview of James Cone… remind you of anyone?

Put simply - Black Liberation Theology is the fusing of “black power” with “Christianity.”

…. these are the values that have informed Barrack Obama’s views and spirituality… by his own admission.

“Most importantly, Rev. Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life. In other words, he has never been my political advisor; he’s been my pastor. And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor, and to seek justice at every turn.”

Okay - he’s been your pastor, and those are the values that have informed his beliefs.

… more tomorrow…

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