Race and religion can ruffle campaign

Barack Obama’s minister has been in the news lately. Actually, he has been the news lately. Every time I turn on the television, I find some pundit pontificating about Jeremiah Wright’s sound bites. Most of these pundits are in some stage of outrage, which makes sense because, after all, they get paid to be outraged.

The masses have responded with outrage of their own. Everyone’s so outraged that Obama has had to respond. He did so by delivering a great speech, which the news networks have turned into a series of sound bites so that the masses can pretend to have listened to his speech without having to actually, you know, listen to his speech. He also gave some radio interviews, which too have been reduced entirely to sound bites.

Now the pundits are busy discussing Obama’s sound bites in reference to Wright’s sound bites. The masses have chosen their sides, listening only to the sound bites that reinforce their preformed opinions.

My opinion is that all of this is intensely stupid. It is a false controversy promoted by news networks to boost ratings, made possible because of America’s complete inability to discuss race and religion in any sort of intelligent manner.

Most of Wright’s comments aren’t really all that outrageous in the first place. They have been made to sound outrageous through careful editing, but when taken in context, many of the sound bites make perfect sense. The “God damn America” line, for example, was the climax of a sermon (the entirety of which can be found on YouTube, by the way) about putting one’s faith not in government, but in God, for governments change, while God does not.

In context, it is clear that when Wright said, “God damn America,” what Wright meant was, “God damn this particular administration.” His sermon was explicitly political, which depending on one’s view may or may not be proper in a church setting, but, considering his praise of other administrations, was certainly not treasonous. It was, in fact, not a whole lot different from the sermon I listened to on Easter Sunday, during which our pastor informed us that, while a certain Democratic candidate is promising to bring hope, real hope is never found in government, but rather in Jesus. Different style, different political bias, same point.

That said, some of Wright’s comments are indefensible. For example, AIDS is most certainly not the result of a government conspiracy against African-Americans, and to believe such a theory, Wright must be coming from a pretty angry place. And if there’s one thing that makes the “typical white person” uncomfortable, it’s angry black people, not because the “typical white person” is racist, but because nobody likes being yelled at for things that aren’t explicitly his or her fault.

Obama has come under fire for his “typical white person” line, but really he was just describing a prevalent and divisive cultural state of mind, just as Wright’s comments represent a prevalent and divisive cultural state of mind. The point of Obama’s speech is that people need to move beyond these typical attitudes. To do so we must denounce the attitudes, while at the same time empathizing with the people who hold them. Such as when, in his speech, Obama strongly repudiated Wright’s comments, but refused to disown him, urging people to try to understand the anger that gave rise to Wright’s words.

Considering the very Christian nature of this argument, I was pleased to see Mike Huckabee, who is much more conservative in both his theology and his politics than Obama, corroborate his point. In an interview on MSNBC, the day after the speech, Huckabee said, “As easy as it is for those of us who are white to look back and say, ‘That’s a terrible statement,’ I grew up in a very segregated South, and I think that you have to cut some slack … to people who grew up being called names, being told, ‘You have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus.’ And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too.” Between Obama and Huckabee, it turns out that there are still politicians with valuable things to say, after all.

In the end, though, what Wright says has hardly anything to do with what Obama thinks anyway. As Huckabee said a little earlier in that same interview, “You can’t hold the candidate responsible for everything that people around him may say or do.”

Nobody agrees with his or her pastor all the time. Anyone who nods in agreement throughout an entire sermon probably isn’t engaging too heavily with what’s being said. Personally, I agree with some of the stuff my pastor says, and I disagree with some of the stuff he says. I even find some of his opinions borderline offensive. But I also like the guy. I feel similarly about all the other pastors I’ve listened too, including the pastor that officiated my wedding. I respect them all, but I am not responsible for what they say, and they do not dictate what I think. Obama may love the Rev. Wright like a family member, but that doesn’t mean he shares Wright’s views.

Additionally, people don’t choose their church based merely on their opinion of the pastor. I attend the church I attend because my wife is comfortable there, because her family goes there, and because the other people who go there are friendly. Church is not just about sermons, politics, or even beliefs. It’s about congregation. It’s about coming together as a community. It’s about being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Those who believe that religion is more about politics than congregation have a cynical misunderstanding as to what exactly religion is for. When Obama chose to attend Trinity United, he was joining a community, not pledging his allegiance to a reverend’s ideology.

Wright’s statements and the controversy over them are largely the result of people’s inability to get past their biases and misunderstandings regarding race and religion. If Obama loses the primary because of these sound bites, it will be just another case of typical American politics. It would be nice to think we can get beyond the typical, and the reasonably successful, if not victorious, campaigns of candidates like Obama and Huckabee seem to be an indication that perhaps we can.

The media are not going to help, though. Seeing through nonsense like this is the responsibility of the voters, who for once should take a clue from their candidates (the non-Clintonian ones, anyway) and start focusing on issues that actually matter.

Justin Fowler is a student at University College of Bangor. He may be reached at justin.fowler@verizon.net. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.