Why Wright is sooo Wrong

I think at this point, it's public consensus that Rev. Jeremiah Wright is pretty much a nut-case. His recent remark are so off the wall that some are proposing if they aren't intentionally so in order to knock Obama's "freedom train" off the rails. I "says" (brief h/t to an old boss of mine) that makes sense in as much as Barack Obama's success - at least as a candidate, even if he isn't elected to president - t0tally discredits Rev. Wright's "Theology".

This brings me to a question - What ever happened to "render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar"? Wright's time at the pulpit is more political self victimization than any recognizable Christian message. Just because you reference biblical history doesn't make it ecclesiastically sound! I sure hope this isn't actually representative of "black Christianity" (I know it isn't! In fact I am not convinced there's a such thing as "black Christianity") In a church such as Wright's, one would be hard-pressed to discern — were one ignorant of Christianity’s history and teachings — that Jesus came to earth for any reason other than ensuring universal health care, redistributing income to designated victim groups, impeaching Bush, and stopping The Man from oppressing the Brothers by spreading the Good News of affirmative action, reparations, welfare, and food stamps.

If Christianity is nothing more than do-good government social programs which require no personal moral transformation, which frequently cause more harm than good to their intended beneficiaries, and require no personal sanctification or sacrifice — then who needs Christianity at all? Wrapping social programs in Scripture verses and Jesus-talk does not make them “Christian” any more than putting mascara on a pig makes her Miss Universe.

The problem with ministers like Reverend Wright and others, who wrap their political and social agendas in Christian facades and Bible-talk, is that they are partly right. That social justice, concern for the poor and the underprivileged, and the mitigation of hatred and racism are — and have always been — emphatic teachings and priorities for Christianity is indisputable. But Christian opposition to injustice and oppression is not its sole and central doctrine, but rather a manifestation of the personal deliverance of the individual from the slavery and oppression of sin which Christianity offers. These ministers have juxtaposed cause and effect and made an error about the nature of man and his relationship to God. Good deeds arising out of the darkness of the unredeemed heart invariably foster repression and dependency rather than deliverance and liberty. As Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) points out, speaking about this type of political theology:

… the overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures which generate violence is not ipso facto the beginning of a just regime. A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people.

Churches which abandon historical Christian orthodoxy in favor of Christianized political and socialistic substitutes may indeed accomplish some good (even Hamas feeds the poor) and often seem to operate from the very best of motives but they strip it of it's source and purpose. -Its historical orthodoxy, hammered out through centuries in councils, creeds, and scripture, through persecution endured and heresy rebutted. They leave only a shell of religious talk and self-righteousness.

The inevitable response to such a critique is: “Who are you to say who is a Christian?” I would say that it's not I but the church throughout history in its teachings and doctrines, even if imperfectly followed. Apostolic in origin, its teachings and doctrines sharpened and clarified by opposition and heretical movements, the church looks back 2000 years and finds its center in a Man and His followers, unchanged and unchangeable truth which the assault of the ages has neither altered nor eroded.

It is said that man was created in the image of God. Yet it is equally true that we are ever creating God in the image of man.

If you look closely, you will see this act of creation taking place on TV screens and above the fold of your favorite paper or periodical, on nearly a daily basis. And you will find them, invariably, as often wrong as Wright.