Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.
He has been called the “last of the great militants” by at least one writer who knows his story well, we know Rev Wright as the retired pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where President Barak Obama and his wife Michelle we married and worshipped for more than 20 years prior to being elected to the Presidency. What most do not know is that he gave up his student deferment to join the U.S. Marines in 1961. After two years in the Marines, he joined the Navy as a Corpsman that provided medical assistance to Marines and Navy personnel at Bethesda Naval Hospital. As a member of the commander in chief’s medical team, helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery.
For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation.
After leaving the service of his country, the young Wright finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America’s biggest cities.
It was here that he met the future president and his wife, married them and baptized both of their children. A fiery speaker with a ‘take no prisoners’ type of rhetorical delivery, Wright soon became known throughout Chicago and beyond for his provocative sermons and harsh criticisms of the racism and hypocrisy of the U.S. Government. In a noted sermon that he delivered, “Confusing God and Government,” which was widely shown on television, he makes the distinction between God and governments, and whether one is a believer or not, it does well to distinguish the power of government when it does things that may be untoward.
Wright states: “The government lied about their belief that all men are created equal, yet, did not even believe that white women were created equal, and had to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get white women the right to vote. The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today. Governments lie.”
“The government lied about Perl Harbor, too. They knew the Japanese were going to attack. Governments lie.” “The government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. They wanted that resolution to get us in the Vietnam War. Governments lie.”
“The government lied about Nelson Mandela and the role out CIA played in helping to put him in prison and keep him there for 27 years. Governments Lie.” Wright went on to say that the government lied about the Tuskegee experiment, about bombing Cambodia, about drugs for arms in Nicaragua scandal, about rationale for the Iraq war, the non existent “weapons of mass destruction” being a threat to the United States.” And guess what else? If they don’t find these weapons of mass destruction, just plant some like the LAPD does. Governments lie”.
Wright then commented on God and government: ”And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains, on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness.
Wright, then famously stated, “the government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law and then wants us to sing: God Bless America. No, no, no, not God Bless America. God damn America, that’s in the Bible, for killing innocent people.”
“God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human.”
“God damn America, as long as she tries to act like she is God, and she is supreme. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent.” It is expected that the Reverend Wright will be delivering an equally strong message when he addresses the Community Brainstorming Conference Annual James Howard Baker Award Dinner on Friday October 14th at the Radisson Hotel at 7065 N. Port Washington Road, in Glendale.
Tickets are still available at the Employ Milwaukee Offices at 2338 N 27th St. Phone: (414) 270-1700, Ask for Karen.