The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in his speech at the National Press Club today answered questions at the end and one of his answers has been getting a lot of attention.
Mr. Wright was asked about his association with the Minister Louis Farrakhan's. Mr. Wright said that Mr. Farrakhan is a powerful voice in the black community and that he has been treated unfairly by the media.
"Minister Farrakhan said that Zionism not Judaism was a gutter religion, by the way," Mr. Wright said.
A lot of people have asked whether Wright was correct so I decided to ask Jerry Seper, our esteemed Justice reporter and 30-year veteran journalist who spoke to Mr. Farrakhan about this in 1990, and here is what he sent. This doesn't clear up the Zionism vs. Judaism quandary, but it does give a clearer understanding of his point of view.
Seper: "Brian: This came up during a Feb. 28, 1990, luncheon meeting with editors and reporters at TWT. I wrote:"
Mr. Farrakhan was critical of the media in its reporting of his remarks, saying, for example, that he was misquoted upon his return from the Middle East when he was reported to have called Judaism a "gutter religion."
"I said that the state of Israel has not had peace and will not have peace because there can be no peace structured on injustice, lying, thievery, murder and using God's name as a shield for your dirty religion," Mr. Farrakhan said yesterday.
"But don't call me anti-Semitic, as though I have some plan in my heart to kill Jewish babies and put them in ovens like Hitler did," he said. "Not only have Jews practiced unclean religion, but [so have] Moslems and Christians."
Comments (1)
It is shocking to me that any candidate for public office would be held responsible for church sermons. Ministers do not tailor their messages to suit all the pundits out here. They may occasionally preach truth to power about conditions not being addressed, in seeking changes for the betterment of all. And they will cite possible consequences of in-action. That's what Reverend Wright does. If those, who are criticizing Reverend Wright, heeded the teachings of their own ministers, the Reverend Wrights could turn their attention to other matters.
Nathan the prophet told David that having Uriah killed so that he, David, could take his wife, Bathsheba, was wrong. Other brave figures have similarly risked and lost their lives speaking truth to power. Jesus is a classic example. The truth raises ire. Would to God, some of the ministers of this country had gone to the White House and warned President Bush that going into Iraq would be a grave mistake. Doing so might have emboldened enough of our fear-struck Senators to act differently. Negligence is often most deadly to the innocent. Over four thousand Americans killed due to it.
I don't know what church these pundits belong to, if any. But, I think that it is patently dishonest of them and others of their ilk to infer that ministers give the same sermon every week. Repeats are not that frequent. I would ask; how many times they've visited Obama's church? In the final analysis, it's not what we hear from our parents, teachers, professors, politicians and ministers that matters. Rather, it's what we do with what we hear that's all important.
Finally, a dangerous trend for our republic is the religious litmus tests and Taliban-like, front-loading of our politics with religion. The founders would not be pleased.
Posted by Bigsky007 | May 21, 2008 3:29 PM