(Half) Black Writer on Jeremiah Wright: This is How Low the Black Church Has Sunk

Writer Kevin McBride, who like Barack Obama is the son of a white mother and black father, offers a stinging commentary on black preaching as reflected in the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.

In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, McBride (author of "The Color of Water") says the perhaps (politically) fatal reality of Obama's past was that he came to the black church late in life. He therefore did not fully understand the kind of person-clothed-as-preacher that he was dealing with, McBride says.

Obama "was betrayed by a smooth-talking preacher whose recent behavior is a clear example of how low the black church has sunk in the days after the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," McBride wrote in the May 1 issue of The Times."

(For the full five-paragraph letter, click here.)

McBride says that he has an advantage over Obama in that he was raised in the black church. McBride seems to be suggesting that he, unlike Obama, has had a clearer comprehension of the strength and potential fury of the ego that was wrapped in Wright's pastoral robe.

Regarding Wright's ego (much commented upon these past two days for its narcissism), the very last quote today's long front page article about the Obama-Wright affair (by Michael Powell and Jodi Kantor) is especially relevant.

It quotes a deacon of Chicago's Trinity Church, from which Wright recently retired as pastor, as saying about Wright: "It's easy to hurt his feelings . . . He's extremely sensitive."

Not the best attribute for someone preaching the traits of Christianity, understood by many if not most Christians to be based on a certain selflessness. (read that Times article.)

[photo: This is of Jeremiah Wright, taken at the National Press Club for Getty Images by Bill Pugliano.]

Comments

[LoveTruth]

Yea, Melinda go postal on his ass since everyone has a black scapegoat now. This has done little to effect Obama in my opinion. It wasn't going to go away either. If people are this expedient with insititutions that did wonders for their community then I dont know.

The man said nothing objectionable nor did he say anyhting different from what he said before!

Jeremiah Wright is a prominent minister who has done far more for his community that most black churches. Half of you dont know anyhting about him nor his church but you continue to run your mouth off.

These people use all the stereotypes and issues that they have with the black church and slap it on Wright. Wright is the exception to all the black churches that close Monday-Saturday and could care less about their communities.

Lets be serious.

[Ron]

Hi, Davey Mac. I was going to just say 'black,' but I didn't know McBride that well and thought maybe he preferred it that way, since I saw in his Times letter that he referred to himself as mixed.

I remember once getting an angry reaction from a mixed person (who taught theater at NYU) when I referred to him as black.

It just seemed an easy way around something I wanted to do quickly.

Anyway, that was it.

Ron

[Davey Mac]

I've never seen you write that Obama would be the first (half) black president if elected? Why the amendment for McBride?

[Melinda James-Lewis]

JW need to sit the hell down and put a sock in his mouth. I swear...if Obama loses this nomination...I'm go postal on his ass.