Jeremiah Wright in Milwaukee: Preaching to the Choir?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Lee Bergquist and Eugene Kane both cover Jeremiah Wright's visit to Milwaukee last Sunday.

Bergquist's piece is a news article, not commentary like Kane's column.

Kane is still carrying water for Wright, still being an apologist for Wright. Kane is still hanging on, well after Barack Obama disowned his pastor and mentor.

In "Obama's former pastor visits Milwaukee," Bergquist offers some aspects of Wright's sermons that Kane conveniently leaves out.

Bergquist writes:

Wright declined through a church spokesman to be interviewed. But during his sermon, he reserved his strongest political attacks for former President George W. Bush.

He told an audience of more than 200 that Babylon embodied arrogance, greed and power. As Wright detailed its demise, he used words and phrases like "Guantanamo," "shock and awe," "Patriot Act" and "stolen election."

"Babylon fell - and Bush did just the other day," he said.

Wright also decried the disproportionate number of African-American men who make up the U.S. prison population, and he chided a culture consumed with accumulating possessions.

"Does anyone see anything wrong with this?" he asked.

Still, Wright's half-hour sermon drew heavily on Scripture.

I wish I could have heard Wright's sermon. Bergquist is very short on specifics when it comes to Wright's statements. We just know he "reserved his strongest political attacks for former President George W. Bush."

I suppose the attacks were similar to what we've heard before from Wright, not the sort of things I'm used to hearing at a church service. In fact, I've never heard anything like that at any church I've attended.

When I was at Mass last weekend, the priest talked about Scripture but he didn't say a word about President Bush. Nothing about Guantanamo, "shock and awe," the Patriot Act, or a stolen election.

That stuff didn't come up while he was talking about Jesus and Lazarus. No politics.

Bergquist explains the reason for Wright's appearance:

Wright was in Milwaukee to celebrate the third anniversary of the Grace United Church of Christ, founded by its pastor, the Rev. Wanda J. Washington. She served as an associate pastor at Wright's former congregation, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, for 14 years. The church's motto is "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian" and has more than 6,000 members.

If Rev. Washington was at Wright's church for 14 years, she must have been there when Wright was spewing his anti-American, anti-Semitic, racist rants.

Bergquist doesn't get into that.

Kane's column, "The Rev. Wright doesn't sound as wrong as many think," makes no mention of Wright speaking of President Bush or Guantanamo or "shock and awe" or the Patriot Act or a stolen election.

He completely omits that, choosing to emphasize Wright's discussion of Scripture.

Kane admits:

I was invited by church officials, who remembered my defense of Wright last year. My point then - and now - was that judging Wright's preaching ability based on a few out-of-context excerpts from his sermons was another example why some people regard Sunday mornings as the most segregated time in American society.

Kane's clear about being in Wright's corner.

There's no need to rehash all the details of the Wright controversy during the presidential campaign.

Suffice it to say that Wright's inflammatory comments weren't taken out of context. His sermons weren't being judged unfairly.

Here's what Obama had to say last April, after he had his epiphany about Wright.

From the New York Times:

“At a certain point, if what somebody says contradicts what you believe so fundamentally, and then he questions whether or not you believe it in front of the National Press Club, then that’s enough,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s a show of disrespect to me. It’s also, I think, an insult to what we’ve been trying to do in this campaign.”

...“Whatever relationship I had with Reverend Wright has changed as a consequence of this,” Mr. Obama said Tuesday. “I don’t think that he showed much concern for me. More importantly, I don’t think he showed much concern for what we’re trying to do in this campaign and what we’re trying to do for the American people.”

What's odd about Kane's column is that he seems to forget that Obama cut his ties with Wright.

Kane concludes:

I've listened to enough church sermons to recognize what attracted Obama to Wright in the first place. His presentation was theatrical but compelling and always grounded in Scripture. Using the example of the blind man who called out to Jesus on a road, Wright told the congregation that was proof if you call out to the Lord in a time of crisis, He will always come to your aid. As always, there was more to his message than just that.

I suspect anyone hoping for controversy in Wright's Milwaukee appearance didn't find it, but they may have found some inspiration.

He didn't say "God damn America" once.

But then, if you are acquainted with the black church, you know he didn't really say it the first time, either.

Obama disagrees with Kane. He rejects Wright. At least Obama claims he rejects Wright. Maybe he does see it Kane's way. Who knows if Obama was telling the truth or if he rejected Wright just to advance his political future?

Whatever the case may be, Kane seems pleased to be able to point out that Wright "didn't say 'God damn America' once" during his sermons in Milwaukee.

But judging from Bergquist's article, Wright didn't actually have to say "God damn America" for the congregation to get the message.