Wright says criticism is attack on black church

[Ban Hammer 14,290]

WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright says criticism surrounding his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church.

Barack Obama's longtime pastor says he hopes the controversy will have a positive outcome and spark an honest dialogue about race in America. Wright says black church traditions are still "invisible" to many Americans, as they have been throughout the country's history.

Wright spoke at the National Press Club Monday morning before the Washington press corps and a supportive audience of black church leaders beginning a two-day symposium.

He said the black church tradition is not bombastic or controversial, but different and misunderstood by the "dominant culture" in the United States.

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[Heracles 417]

So he, and anyone else with his views, should move elsewhere where the culture is not dominant.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

...should move elsewhere where the culture is not dominant.

Good luck with that.

[Heracles 417]

...should move elsewhere where the culture is not dominant.

Good luck with that.

Good luck with what?

I someone does not like the Chinese culture then they need to move from China. Rather than beating on about it every day. Year after year. I know a lot of people who hate the culture in London so they have moved. Quite simple for most really.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

...should move elsewhere where the culture is not dominant.

Good luck with that.

Good luck with what?

I someone does not like the Chinese culture then they need to move from China. Rather than beating on about it every day. Year after year. I know a lot of people who hate the culture in London so they have moved. Quite simple for most really.

Emmigration is not "simple for most". Noone says you have to like where you live - many people don't, usually they make the best of their limited options.

BTW: The "culture" in London... What does that even mean? What is "London culture"?

[Heracles 417]

Emmigration is not "simple for most". Noone says you have to like where you live - many people don't, usually they make the best of their limited options.

BTW: The "culture" in London... What does that even mean? What is "London culture"?

So should everyone else simply have to take it because x people don't like the "dominant culture". Actually makes them sound like idiots.

Every city has its culture / norms. As does London. Most people tend to move rather than complain about a city, state, country etc 24/7..

Culture:

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society."[6] As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art.

Edited April 28, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

So should everyone else simply have to take it because x people don't like the "dominant culture". Actually makes them sound like idiots.

Why are they idiots? Quite simply, its about dealing with your day-to-day realities as they are, within the limitations of your available options. The wife and I don't much like NJ/NY - but the simple fact is that we are here because of mine and my wife's jobs. Yes we could move, but its not that easy. The fact is that you can't have everything, and you have to make compromises for the greater good.

The distinction is more significant when you look at the 3rd world - which I believe you have also applied similar reasoning to elsewhere. I mean... why don't all those unhappy people in Sudan just move somewhere else where they aren't being starved and/or butchered?

Every city has its culture / norms. As does London. Most people tend to move rather than complain about a city, state, country etc 24/7..

Culture:

Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society."[6] As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art.

I know what culture means - what I'm curious about is what London's specifically identifiable culture actually is that makes people want to (presumably) emigrate. In short, I don't believe it really has one, certainly not one that is significantly distinct from much of the rest of the country. It isn't that big of a country after all.

[Heracles 417]

Why are they idiots? Quite simply, its about dealing with your day-to-day realities as they are, within the limitations of your available options. The wife and I don't much like NJ/NY - but the simple fact is that we are here because of mine and my wife's jobs. Yes we could move, but its not that easy. The fact is that you can't have everything, and you have to make compromises for the greater good.

The distinction is more significant when you look at the 3rd world - which I believe you have also applied similar reasoning to elsewhere. I mean... why don't all those unhappy people in Sudan just move somewhere else where they aren't being starved and/or butchered?

I am not talking about Sudan though. I am talking about the African Americans like Jeremiah Wright living in a 1st world country. African Americans like Wright who have many options. While what you are saying about moving is somewhat correct, I don't hear you talking ####### about NJ/NY to the extent that people like Jeremiah Wright do about the "dominant culture", basically Caucasians. If he doesn't like it he should move elsewhere. White people are not going to vanish because he does not like them. Instead he should also be looking at his own "culture" in Chicago where the streets have been turned into a carbon copy of Sudan. Where they now need to have heavily armed police squads to quell the violence and crime there. That is an embarrassment for a 1st world nation.

This guys opinions are not isolated or marginal as some would previously like us to believe. There are clearly thousands who both listen to and support him.

What I would want to know from someone like Wright is what he expects the government to do for him. What does he mean by opening dialogue about race. What does he hope to achieve by his race based rhetoric. What does he have to say about the murders committed by young black male youths in America, each and every single day..

Edited April 28, 2008 by Boo-Yah!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'm pretty sure you could find out the answers to those questions pretty easily on the internet. I'm sure there are plenty of websites and message boards discussing race-relations and where people like Wright fit into the fix.

[Heracles 417]

I'm pretty sure you could find out the answers to those questions pretty easily on the internet. I'm sure there are plenty of websites and message boards discussing race-relations and where people like Wright fit into the fix.

Yeah you are right NAACP etc..

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) interesting name that one..

[Krikit 1,166]

[Heracles 417]

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

And Obama has been listening to his hate for 20 years. A vote for Obama is a vote for racism.

[cmartyn 0]

And Obama has been listening to his hate for 20 years. A vote for Obama is a vote for racism.

I find him refreshing. It’s good to get this out on the table. I thought Beethoven’s music was actually better than PDiddy's but I was wrong. Now I know it’s just different.

[GaryC 7]

Reverend Wright does have some room to gripe about the way America has been treating him. I had the man all wrong. Look at the pityfull home he has to live in. America should be ashamed.

Obama’s Former Pastor Getting $1.6M Home in Retirement

by FOXNews.com

Thursday, March 27, 2008

The four- bedroom, 10,000-plus square foot home that Trinity United Church of Christ is building for Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

By Jeff Goldblatt

This was supposed to be the week that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. returned to the pulpit to preach for the first time since his anti-American sermons generated nationwide outrage and drew condemnation from his longtime parishioner, Barack Obama.

But, citing security concerns, Wright canceled his speaking engagements in Florida and Texas. A spokeswoman at his former church in Chicago said his schedule is pending.

A two-week FOX News investigation, however, has uncovered where Wright will be spending a good deal of his time in retirement, and it is a far cry from the impoverished Chicago streets where the preacher led his ministry for 36 years.

FOX News has uncovered documents that indicate Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community.

While it is not uncommon for an accomplished clergyman to live in luxury, Wright’s retirement residence is raising some questions.

“Some people think deals like this are hypocritical. Jeremiah Wright himself criticizes people from the pulpit for middle classism, for too much materialism,” said Andrew Walsh, Associate Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life with Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

“So he’s entitled to be tweaked here. So the question really is, how unusual is this? Somewhat unusual,” he said.

According to documents obtained from the Cook County Register of Deeds, Wright purchased two empty lots in Tinley Park, Ill., from Chicago restaurant chain owner Kenny Lewis for $345,000 in 2004.

Documents show Wright sold the property to his church, Trinity United, in December 2006, with the proceeds going to a living trust shared with his wife, Ramah.

The sale price for the land was just under $308,000, about $40,000 less than Wright’s original purchase two years earlier.

Public records of the sale show Trinity initially obtained a $10 million bank loan to purchase the property and build a new house on the land.

But further investigation with tax and real estate attorneys showed that the church had actually secured a $1.6 million mortgage for the home purchase, and attached a $10 million line of credit, for reasons unspecified in the paperwork.

There is apparently nothing wrong with that, according to non-profit tax expert Jack Siegel of Charity Governance Consulting, who examined public documents FOX News obtained from the Cook County Register of Deeds and the Village of Tinley Park.

“At least looking at it from a public document standpoint, there’s clearly not a problem that jumps out or some sort of wrongdoing,” Siegel said.

Siegel characterizes the transaction as unusual, however, because of the way Wright sold the property to Trinity and the way the deal was financed, with the attached $10 million line of credit.

Because churches are classified as private businesses, Trinity isn’t required to reveal its intended use for the line of credit. Nor, because it’s a non-profit entity, is it required to provide that information to the IRS.

A spokesman for ShoreBank, the Chicago-based financial institution that secured mortgages for the loans, said the deals were aboveboard.

Wright did not respond to repeated calls for comment, and Trinity United refused to discuss the specifics of the home it is building for him and the way the deal was financed.

The church referred FOX News to its denominational headquarters in Cleveland, which provided a statement of support:

“It is customary and appropriate in many Christian denominations, including the United Church of Christ, for local churches to offer housing provisions for retiring clergy, especially in cases where pastors have served long-term pastorates. We support efforts by our 5,700 local churches to ensure that retiring pastors and spouses have continuing housing, adequate pension and health care, as an expression of our continuing appreciation for their years of service. Each local UCC congregation is free to honor a retiring pastor in ways it feels most appropriate to address the needs of that clergyperson’s circumstances,” wrote the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, spokesman for UCC’s national office.

“This is about how these kinds of churches work,” notes Walsh. “These pastors who made big successful churches are real valuable commodities. Is it morally wrong? Well, Protestants don’t have the idea that their religious leaders should live modestly or aesthetically. We’re not talking Buddhist monks or Catholic priests here. There’s no tradition that says they have to live poor.”

Tradition at Trinity United centers on a congregation that’s unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian, according to the church’s website. There are also no apologies from the church for the home it’s building for its former senior pastor, who nurtured a religious empire that grew to have more than 8,000 congregants.

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/27/ob...etirement-home/