Excerpt from a round-table discussion at the Diane Rehm show today:
"Tiffany," listener, in a comment emailed to the show: As an African-American woman who've native to the south side of Chicago and who grew up in the shadow of Trinity United Church of Christ and the ministry of Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, I must attest that the characterizations of Rev. Wright as a racist and hate-monger and the labeling of Trinity UCC as some type of cult church are totally and utterly false.
Clarence Page, syndicated columnist at the Chicago Tribune: I can speak to that. I've been at Trinity Church. I have not talked to Rev. Wright. Before all this flap occurred -- before I even knew it was Barack Obama's church -- I was there first for a wedding of friends of the family, and then later on just because he was just a fascinating preacher. And I can understand, just at a personal level, why Barack Obama was surprised at this backlash. Because the kinds of things I'm seeing in these videos is not the guy I saw up there.
Diane Rehm: Really!
Clarence Page: No! This is a very scholarly gentleman and an ex-Marine at the same time, a guy who's worked in and out of the Muslim community. Knows how to speak to the underclass in Chicago. That's what drew me to the place. For one thing, Diane, it's an American tragedy that we have so few young, black fathers in church. You go to your average black church and you're going to find a lot of women, you're going to find old folk, you're going to find children. You're not going to find that many younger men. At that church you do. Rev. Wright -- well, it's called "signifying" in the community -- he knows how to combine some more ethereal theology and the history of Christianity with Africa and African Americans in an appealing way, to lure young black folks away from the Nation of Islam, to lure them over to Christ. The same way that he brought Barack Obama who was more of a studier of religion than a religious person himself till he met Wright. Barack was a community organizer. Wright, like other south-side ministers, was important to that network of effort. They told him, "You need to have a church home, Barack. You can't go and just talk to ministers and not go to church yourself...
Diane Rehm: Is there some indication that, as the Rev. Wright neared retirement, his rhetoric became more and more outspoken?
Clarence Page: I think it was the other way. These videos are mostly old -- I mean 9/11? That was seven years ago? And who the heck wasn't talking crazy in the week after 9/11! I'd give him a break! This is why you've got this OJ-like divide between blacks and whites. Wright is not just a Chicago figure. I've been surprised about how many folks around the country, especially in black intellectual circles, know him. He's about to speak down in Fort Worth and they've already called for extra security, and they've moved the location of it, and all that. ...
