Bucks
B. Obama, Rev. Wright and Local Pastors
Dear Friends,
Good morning. When I heard Senator Barack Obama’s speech about race in America, I wondered how Upper Bucks County pastors would react to it? Just days before Easter, Obama responded to the criticism of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s anti American rhetoric. Wright was Obama’s former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the largest UCC congregation in America.
George Curry wrote an appropriate op-ed column in the Inquirer (Mar. 20). “The incendiary sound bites feature Wright changing the words “God bless America” to “God damn America” for treating its citizens as less than human,” Curry wrote. “Wright blamed the United States’ unbalanced Middle East policy for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and said the killings were an example of “America’s chickens coming home to roost.”
I called Father Dan Gambet, former President of De Sales University; Lisa Keppeler, the Rector at Emmanuel Episcopal, Quakertown; Reverend William Neiman, pastor of St. John’s UCC, Richlandtown; Reverend David Ryan, pastor of Quakertown United Methodist Church; and Father Fred Riegler, pastor of St. Isidore’s Catholic Church, Quakertown. Did they hear about local sermons addressing Wright’s beliefs and did they preach on the subject of race in America?
All five were sympathetic to Wright’s sermons about bigotry.
At St. John’s UCC, I found a copy of the April/May edition of United Church News. “Wright’s character is being assassinated in the public sphere because he has preached social gospel on behalf of oppressed women, children and men in America and around the globe,” one of the articles stated.
“Jesus says his mission is to eradicate poverty and to bring about freedom and liberation for the oppressed,” the newspaper’s column, “Overheard,” added, “and most Christian pastors in America skip over that part [of the scriptures]. Jeremiah Wright loves America. That’s why he’s so angry. Angry because the nation does not deliver on its promises and its possibility,” the column continued.
Reverend Neiman’s church has 170 members, most of them white. St. John’s UCC recently celebrated its 200th anniversary and is one of 188 UCC churches in the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference. Neiman is a member of its Race Relations Task Force. He told me that the conference was planning a session about race relations in September.
I was fascinated to learn that all five members of his most recent confirmation class were African Americans. Throughout the classes, he taught the history of black churches in America. Incidentally, the Race Relations Task Force meets tomorrow.
Pastor Lisa Keppeler was moved by Obama’s speech. “Look at the entire track record of Pastor Wright,” she began. “He’s done a great deal of good.” Like Obama, Keppeler was raised in Hawaii. “Obama’s multi racial background gives him a broader look,” she continued. “Hawaii is a real melting pot with people from very varied racial backgrounds.”
That’s probably why Hawaiians get along so well.
“I speak against bigotry,” Keppeler said. “Two thousand years ago, Jesus taught us to love our neighbor. Today, he invites us to do the same. Anyone who denigrates race and ethnicity isn’t with Jesus.”
Pastor Ryan told me that every Methodist pastor and prospective pastor must take a course, called “Healing the wounds.” Eradicating racism is one of the Methodist missions. “It helps open people’s eyes,” he began. “There’s so much white privilege. We need to meet racism head on.”
“Jesus’ message was to help the forgotten ones and peace,” Father Dan Gambet told me. Often, he is a guest preacher in Father Fred Riegler’s church in Quakertown. “Yes, I constantly address tolerance…but not just race.”
Father Fred understands Wright’s indignation. “Obama says let’s be fair and I agree,” Riegler said. “It’s lack of fairness, which sustains racism. A [racial] chasm exists in America and we need to get over it.
“If a white teenager is murdered in the suburbs, the story's on page one of the Inquirer,” Riegler observed. “But if a black teen is murdered, it’s on page four. Is this a question of worth,” he asked? “It’s a disgrace!”
“I came from an immigrant family,” Riegler added, “And I remember the importance of fairness. It was drilled into me as a child.”
Edith Guffey summed it up best in her United Church News column. “The reality is that we live in a country with a shameful history of racial oppression and that history has in some way touched and shaped us all,” she penned. “And it still does. As sisters and brothers in Christ, we know that our unity is in Christ, not in a political party. Our mandate…to be welcoming and to embrace the “stranger” is from the gospel, not from the perspective of political correctness.”
“Are there two Americas,” Reverend Keppeler asked? “One of privilege and one not?”
It’s a 300-year-old question with no easy answers.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith