Here is a more complete version of the sermon Reverend Wright delivered that included the “God damn America” phrase. While its still inexcusable (I’m still not enjoying the word choice) its a bit clearer in relation to where its coming from.
Thought: Rev. Wright – The Full Video
March 25, 2008 · 14 Comments
Categories: Barack Obama · Democrat · Hillary Clinton · Primaries · democratic · democrats · election · obama · politics · primary
Tagged: Barack Obama, church, controversy, elections, god damn america, jeremiah wright, obama, Primaries, reverend wright, sermon, trinity, united, wright
14 responses so far ↓
gasdocpol // March 25, 2008 at 3:41 pm
IF A PRIEST HAS ENGAGED IN PEDOPHILIA
DOES THAT REFLECT UPON THOSE WHO ARE IN HIS PARISH?
Does that make all members of his church suspect of having those proclivities themselves? Does every person need to be reassessed . Can we trust someone who goes to his church to be a babysitter?
Somehow this situation is very analogous to what has been done to Obama in the first big swiftboating attack of the season.
geber22 // March 27, 2008 at 4:16 am
So you defend slavery, Jim Crow, and the treatment of the native Americans? Why would you respect a country that engaged in such activities. Do you respect Germany? What about Iran, Cuba, the former USSR?
darrenk121 // March 27, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Not sure who that’s aimed at but if you go down in my blog you’ll see my opinion on the whole thing. If that was directed at me, you jumped the gun a little bit
geber22 // March 27, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Well that was aimed at whoever criticized the man for saying “God Damn America”? I believe it was you that said it was inexcusable to say God Damn America, and I guess what you are saying is that Reverend Wright has no grounds to say that?
Would it be alright with you if I said God Damn Germany? God Damn the USSR? God Damn South Africa? All of these countries have engaged in egregious violations of human rights, so why must I respect any of them?
darrenk121 // March 28, 2008 at 3:21 am
A criticism is different to a damnation. If you’re not going to read my actual opinion on the issue, don’t bother arguing with me over it because you’ll find that you’re arguing with someone who understands where you’re coming from and who argues from the same viewpoint as you. Read my article on the actual Wright incident and you will see that I am not criticizing Wright for what he said, I’m questioning the manner in which he said it. If you read my actual opinion you will understand that I put this video up as a clarification to people to understand the mentality of the man and the viewpoints he is representing. Don’t be so quick to the trigger…
darrenk121 // March 28, 2008 at 3:25 am
Its times like these you can understand why communication on issues turns into misunderstanding and becomes inflamed. You’re failing to see the bigger picture because you’re defensive. Is it so difficult to find why its offensive that someone would “damn” a nation even if you can understand where his feelings come from? You’re turning something small into something massive, which is exactly what you’re criticizing me for even though I’m arguing the same point as you!
geber22 // March 29, 2008 at 2:47 am
I think I understand your position fairly well sir. You don’t think Rev. Wright is a great man, well let me tell you sir, he is a truly great man. He is in the top 1% of greatness you mark my words on that one.
The audacity of you to call Rev. Wright a tool for criticizing that nation that hated him from the day he was born to his adulthood, for nothing more than the color of his skin. For criticizing the nation that STOLE his GOD GIVEN freedom from him for 18 years, that stole it from his mother for even longer, and had his grandparents live their entire lives in oppression.
You find it offensive that he says God Damn America, but dont’ understand why he would be offended by the way America treated his mother, his grandmother, or him. Unbelievable!!! Something small, this is not something small, why don’t you give up your right to vote, your right to eat where you choose, your right to an education, your right to a job, your civil rights … then we’ll see how small, JIM CROW really was!
Finally perhaps you should go brush up on your GOD DAMN AMERICAN history, as even the GOD DAMN forefathers knew that FREEDOM is a GOD GIVEN right, they were just too racist too understand that it applied to all of god’s children!!!
darrenk121 // March 29, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I do understand the offense taken by a man whose people have been oppressed by a nation, but why damn that nation if Jim Crow ‘was’ and no longer ‘is’? To damn a country that allows you to have a position as a senior pastor in one of the biggest churches of the nation (Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama in the pews) and behind your pulpit to spill your heart and mind out each and every time you conduct a service, that’s misguided. His frustrations and his opinions are fine and understood. You said my ‘audacity to call Rev. Wright a tool for CRITICIZING that nation’ but if you actually read what I said to you before is that there is a difference between damnation and criticism. Criticism states a complaint, and suggests a re-thought on the status quo. Damnation states a wish for doom. The difference lies there. To wish doom on a country is very different to standing up for your people and the way they have been treated.
geber22 // March 30, 2008 at 4:21 pm
You keep saying this country allows him to do things, as if America gives the man the right to preach. This is indeed, misguided, America does not give this man that right, that right is his, given by God!
Why should he not wish doom on America? Who are you to suggest that he must forgive America for what it did to him and his family? Do most Americans not wish Osama Bin Laden be damned? What about the murderers who are put to death?
darrenk121 // March 30, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Well, at least I keep saying one thing. You and your contradictory statements do nothing for your case and if you’re going to use divine right as an argument, well then clearly I’m not going to change your mind and you’re as delusional as your writings suggest. Have a nice life, thanks for this enlightening conversation.
geber22 // April 1, 2008 at 12:41 am
Ha, I’m delusional to think that a man is entitled to freedom at birth? That this right is bestowed upon him by a power greater than any man.
Even an atheist, not saying that’s what you are, would have no argument for another man having rights over Reverend Wright. If rights are not bestowed by god, than by who, men with guns.
Mandela
darrenk121 // April 1, 2008 at 1:10 am
This ideal sentiment doesn’t apply in a modern world where men with guns and wigs bigger than yours dictate what and to whom you may speak. Reverend Wright would not be so lucky to live in a nation where people are not allowed, yes allowed, to preach. To damn a country that has ultimately realized this right, no matter what its history, is ignoring quite largely that this man could do much better to wish some place else to doom.
geber22 // April 2, 2008 at 12:28 am
Darren,
I guess that’s where you and I differ. You believe in guns and wigs, and I believe in God. You believe that Rev. Wright is allowed to preach by men with big guns, while I believe he is allowed to preach by god.
This might come as a shock to you Darren but there are some people in this world that are willing to die for those freedoms, and in turn kill for them. I wonder if you ever read the book Long Walk To Freedom? Perhaps you should!
Rest assured though that America, China, Germany, Russia… or no other govt will deny Rev. Wright his privilege to preach, without facing severe repurcussions from those who TRULY believe in freedom.
I don’t know whats more pathetic your defeatist attitude, your powerless view of your place in the world or your metaphoric defense of rapists are better than child molestors.
darrenk121 // April 2, 2008 at 2:44 am
In case you didn’t notice, we don’t live in times where the men with guns and wigs dictate our lives but it is very possible that we could have been born into those times. In fact, there are a few countries not too far from this one where those times are now. If modern day America were one of those places, then Reverend Wright would be standing up for freedom and he would be wishing doom to a people who STILL oppress him. But to wish doom on a nation that no longer oppresses him? Why? Do you see the disconnect? Long Walk to Freedom is written by my national hero. I’m a South African and I understand the horrors of Apartheid. But nobody will stand up today and say “god DAMN South Africa” because there has been a shift. Nelson Mandela is a free man and so are all people in that country, as they are in this country. Why damn a country where a black man has a very realistic chance of becoming president ? Yes, healing is a slow process and you can’t just put a band-aid over a bullet hole and expect it to sew itself. Surely, criticism of the way the healing is being dealt with is fine. But damnation? Is that even part of the healing process? Is that a solution? I respect you for elaborating more on your opinion as initially I hadn’t seen what you meant. And I do see where you are coming from. There are freedoms and ideals that human beings have the responsibility to pursue and to protect. But once we have found liberation enough to bathe in those freedoms, we put down our own guns as we have accomplished what we sought to accomplish. The nation of America is no longer one that runs its economy on a slave trade. The United States Army is not a machine of racism or intolerance. There has not been a “Trail of Tears” in recent memory. If you believe in those freedoms as you say you do, then celebrate them… don’t damn the people who collaborated in realizing them. I am not saying that the rule of law is just or that the men with wigs and guns are superior to the rest of us or that it SHOULD be that they are allowed to grant us the right to a voice. But we are lucky enough that we live in a nation where men and women of ALL colors have matured enough that they would all stand together to speak loudly against any infringement on our basic rights as human beings. Fortunately, that time for us is not now. Therefore, a damnation is not needed. If there is a problem with the status quo, I will be the first person to stand up for WHOMEVER the problem is affecting. But at no point is it okay to say that the people of today bear a responsibility for the mistakes of yesterday. Our responsibility is to learn from then, apply to now, and secure the future. I’d say to you that I am the last person you need to be proving that to. My complaint is a simple one. Reverend Wright may criticize this country but there is a line that is crossed when a damnation is wished for. By damning the state, you are disbanding and demolishing the leaps and bounds we have made in realizing the important freedoms we -should- possess. Why damn a country that has laws with punishments SPECIFICALLY for people who infringe on other peoples basic civil rights? That doesn’t make sense. If you want to criticize those laws, go ahead. But damning the people who are only trying to fix the problems of our latter years? A damnation? That’s the problem. I support any man’s quest for the freedoms he deserves. But I also live in a world where those freedoms don’t come easy… where time and time again, people DO have to die and DO have to kill for those freedoms. And as a citizen of this world, I am offended when someone who everyday can relish in the rights he took part in taking back for himself while many millions in the rest of the world cannot even fight for their freedoms or recognize that they are robbed of those freedoms will damn a nation that supports, encourages, and PROTECTS those freedoms. You and I are not as different as you think. If the world were a blank canvas, I would not wish for guns and wigs. I would not wish for dollars and I would not wish for gasoline. But the world has been painted a very different way than you and I would have painted it. Maybe the path to a better tomorrow can be realized through the candidate I take it you also support (Obama) and maybe people like you and I can fight the good fight. But damning our friends in that fight is wishing doom on ourselves. Nobody wants to be told what they can and cannot do, but even the hero you have referred to (Mandela) took part in writing a constitution. Even -he- was the big wig and the leader of a government. Even -he- made laws. I won’t ask that people stop dreaming of a time where we aren’t in need of laws… that the way of “god” could rule us all in harmony and in an understanding of what is right and wrong. But I will say that instead of damning the people who are closest to that, stand with them and among them. Make your criticisms and make your suggestions, be part of the movement to realize that dream – but don’t wish the vehicle that will take us there to blow up on the highway. This is the last response I will lend to this topic, I implore you to consider my words more openly. Thank you.