25 April 2008

Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Bill Moyers

So I'm watching Bill Moyers Journal right now and listening to Rev. Wright talk about his church and the function of Christianity in general. So far, so good. He's extremely well read. He just alluded to Edward Albee, Albert Camus, and the theater of the absurd--saying that church services are not to be separated from "reality" but should be always contextualized. The church services should be rooted in current events, so Darfur, Iraq, poverty, starvation, etc. should be a part of the sermon and the experience since it is often a part of the congregation's everyday experience.

But to have a minister reference Camus (and say his name correctly) is killer. There's no way that Hagee would have or could have done that. So if nothing else, Obama's bigot is smarter than McCain's bigot, and he wears cooler robes when he preaches.

Of course, only one of them is a bigot in my estimation...and I think that only because I haven't seen Hagee's statements in context; those statements may not be as vitriolic as they sound if we look at the entire picture. I have not seen anything but the media snippets, and we all know how distorted that can be. If we--as I have done--give Wright a chance to contextualize and explain his ideas, then we owe the same to Hagee. It doesn't matter with what candidate and/or party the person is associated with.

Equal time and equal consideration for all.