The Right Reverend Wrong

(apologies to our British friends for the lame play on words in the title)

Alternate Title: Confused About Race in 2008 America

A recent imbroglio on another blog got me thinking. Not about intellectual fascism (which set the whole thing off), but about the ObamaNation defending Reverend Wright by saying “Jerry Falwell is Just As Bad.” And then deleting rational discourse to the contrary from their blogs, but I digress. [Why would one start a blog, create a controversial thread, and then clap ones hands over ones ears shouting “LALALALALA?” Weird.]

Then Peggy Noonan wrote an interesting piece in the WSJ Weekend Edition about it (The Reverend Wright controversy. Not intellectual fascism in the blogoshpere.). She basically said she was puzzled by why anyone would even be concerned.

So here we have two competing ideas:

– Reverend Wright is Wrong (for using the pulpit to preach arguably racist/separatist/paranoid ideas; the “Black Liberation Theology” in his words).
– Reverend Wright is Right (or at least we shouldn’t get upset about his using his position to preach the arguably racist/separatist/paranoid stuff).

Of course, if a white preacher were preaching a “White Liberation Theology” (No, wait- we do! And they are rightfully shunned, ostracized, investigated by the IRS, infiltrated by the FBI, etc. etc.).

Hmmm.

O.K., let’s start over. If a pastor were to claim from the pulpit that the Jews were responsible for all the ills of the world, that the USA blew up the WTC on 9-11 in order to launch an aggressive imperialistic war for oil, that supporting Israel against the PLO/Hamas was terrorism (No, wait- we do! They’re called madrassas and . . . )

Oh never mind.

What fascinated me about the Wrong Reverend Wright was his unabashed recognition/premise that “Black People Are Inherently Different From White People” (on much more than just skin pigmentation). That, and the enthusiastic support his victimology philosophy gets from his (predominantly middle class/wealthy) parishioners (more appropriately, “followers”).

If Stephan & Abigail Thernstrom, Thomas Sowell, Richard J. Herrnstein, Charles Murray were to ever even *notice* that some black/white differences in America were heritable as well as cultural . . .

the other steve

(A charismatic separatist religious leader espousing a theology of victimization and hate to a small, isolated group of enthusiastic supporters who are convinced to turn over large amounts of their lives and livelihoods to “the cause” *can’t* ever be a Good Thing . . . can it?)