>Please pass on to your circles of influence.
>
>
>
>Subject: Rev.. Wright in a different light
>
>
>chicagotribune.com
>Rev. Wright in a different light
>
>
>By William A. Von Hoene Jr.
>
>
>March 26, 2008
>
>
>
>By William A. Von Hoene Jr.
>
>During the last two weeks, excerpts from sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah
>Wright Jr., pastor for more than 35 years at Trinity United Church of
>Christ on Chicago's South Side, have flooded the airwaves and dominated
>our discourse about the presidential campaign and race. Wright has been
>depicted as a racial extremist, or just a plain racist. A number of
>political figures and news commentators have attempted to use Sen.
>Barack Obama's association with him to call into question Obama's
>judgment and the sincerity of his commitment to unity.
>
>I have been a member of Trinity, a church with an almost entirely
>African-American congregation, for more than 25 years. I am, however, a
>white male. From a decidedly different perspective than most
>Trinitarians, I have heard Wright preach about racial inequality many
>times, in unvarnished and passionate terms.
>
>In Obama's recent speech in Philadelphia on racial issues confronting
>our nation, the senator eloquently observed that Rev. Wright's sermons
>reflect the difficult experiences and frustrations of a generation.
>
>It is important that we understand the dynamic Obama spoke about.
>
>It also is important that we not let media coverage and political
>gamesmanship isolate selected remarks by Wright to the exclusion of
>anything else that might define him more accurately and completely.
>
>I find it very troubling that we have distilled Wright's 35-year
>ministry to a few phrases; no context whatsoever has been offered or
>explored.
>
>I do have a bit of personal context. About 26 years ago, I became
>engaged to my wife, an African-American. She was at that time and
>remains a member of Trinity. Somewhere between the ring and the altar,
>my wife had second thoughts and broke off the engagement. Her decision
>was grounded in race: So committed to black causes, the daughter of
>parents subjected to unthinkable prejudice over the years, an
>"up-and-coming" leader in the young black community, how could she
>marry a white man?
>
>Rev. Wright, whom I had met only in passing at the time and who was
>equally if not more outspoken about "black" issues than he is today,
>somehow found out about my wife's decision. He called and asked her to
>"drop everything" and meet with him at Trinity. He spent four hours
>explaining his reaction to her decision. Racial divisions were
>unacceptable, he said, no matter how great or prolonged the pain that
>caused them. God would not want us to assess or make decisions about
>people based on race. The world could make progress on issues of race
>only if people were prepared to break down barriers that were much
>easier to let stand.
>
>Rev. Wright was pretty persuasive; he presided over our wedding a few
>months later. In the years since, I have watched in utter awe as Wright
>has overseen and constructed a support system for thousands in need on
>the South Side that is far more impressive and effective than any
>governmental program possibly could approach. And never in my life have
>I been welcomed more warmly and sincerely than at Trinity. Never.
>
>I hope that as a nation, we take advantage of the opportunity the
>recent focus on Rev. Wright presents-to advance our dialogue on race in
>a meaningful and unprecedented way. To do so, however, we need to
>appreciate that passion born of difficulty does not always manifest
>itself in the kind of words with which we are most comfortable. We also
>need to recognize that the basic goodness of people like Jeremiah
>Wright is not always packaged conventionally.
>
>The problems of race confronting us are immense. But if we
>sensationalize isolated words for political advantage, casting aside
>the depth of feeling, circumstances and context which inform them,
>those problems not only will remain immense, they will be insoluble.
>
>William A. Von Hoene Jr. of Chicago is a member of Trinity United
>Church of Christ.