Barack Obama’s pastor buddies don’t frighten me as much as his church-going brethren.
You have to expect that the bizarre likes of Michael Pfleger and Jeremiah Wright would ooze to the surface in any number of organizations or institutions—right or left, Republican or Democratic. But the multitude gathered in what is supposed to be a temple of God, cheering on the racist slobbering of the two “reverends’” is scary.
Cheering is too mild a word. Look at the video of Pfleger’s rant against Hilary Clinton; notice the guys in the background. They’re on their feet, clapping, laughing and cheering. One is nearly doubled over in laughter. Broader shots of the crowds show that while some people are sitting quietly—in disapproval, I hope—there also was widespread affirmation of both Pfleger’s and Wright’s “sermons.”
They were eating it up.
God damn America. White people think they’re entitled to everything. They won’t tolerate a black man stepping up. Those whites are still benefiting from slavery, and they ought to give it all—their 401Ks, their trust funds—back, and if they don’t, they’re guilty. Their performance and the congregation’s response was a twisted attack on decency and the Christian values they supposedly espouse. For a congregation that helped form Barack Obama’s message of harmony, the riotous acceptance of the hated-filled messages of Pfleger and Wright exposed the rot of racism festering underneath.
For all the media attention focused on the ugliness of the Pfleger and Wright speeches and its impact on Obama’s presidential aspirations, the congregation and its frightful reaction have gone relatively unscathed. It should not be so. These weren’t just folks who were nodding their affirmation or applauding politely; their approval was on flagrant display and constituted a profoundly troubling narrative for some of us who thought, perhaps naively, that our nation has been making steady progress in race relations. Deep-rooted in one of the city’s most prominent African-American churches is a level of enmity that is analogous to that found in the segregationist white churches of the old Deep South. Them against us. Us against them.
But, the Wrights, Pflegers and their media acolytes, instruct us that the congregation’s reaction is a “cultural thing.” You have to understand that church-going for African-Americans is different than it is for white congregations. African-American Christian tradition has made church service a routine (as in an act), a show, if you will. Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin turned to a member of the congregation and University of Chicago theologian for an explanation: in black preaching there is a “ritual of performance . . . where the preacher and the congregation shift to an outrageous realm.” To his credit, Hopkins said he didn’t see much of what makes a Christian a Christian in Pfleger’s performance.
One might hope for an even stronger condemnation than noting the absence of virtue in the tirade. Its fault wasn’t just that it lacked something;; the fault is to be found in what was there: malice, viciousness, cruelty. And that’s what makes the congregation’s reaction so troubling: So many failed to recognize the hatred and racism that it expounded.
Whites have used up generations to confront their own biases and prejudices, to come to grips with their own racism, in their speech and their actions, and one hopes, in their thoughts. It’s been a long struggle, and it has not been easy to get to the point we have reached. But the state of race relations as described implicitly and explicitly by Wright and Pfleger is not so profoundly and systematically racist as the two and, apparently, many members of the congregation would have it. One would have expected better from such a congregation, which is described as well-educated, thoughtful and successful. So successful that Obama reportedly joined the church in part to parlay its social and political networking opportunities to his advantage.
Where does this come from? How can men of God, good men, lead in such a fashion? For men whose lives have been characterized by so many good acts, how did this happen? How can a church that inspired Obama’s message of unity have fallen into such a trap of divisiveness? For some—notably Obama’s own supporters—it’s all so incompatible as to be unexplainable.
Yet, the explanation isn’t all that puzzling or complicated. It’s the corrosive effect of victimhood. “They’re still persecuting us.” “They’re still trying to take away what’s rightfully ours.” “Poor us.” “Evil them.” It’s almost as if being the victim provides some solace, some explanation, some refuge. Even entertainment and laughter. Scratch the surface and victim mindset is ignited into victim frenzy.
Perhaps Pfleger and Wright and some members of the congregation truly believe that white racism explains most things, if not everything, bad. Or perhaps, the raucousness of the congregation can simply be written off as a bunch of folks being entertained, much as if they were watching an HBO comedy special. Maybe Pfleger and Wright know they can advance their own fortunes and agendas by playing to a ready-made crowd whose positive reaction is certain. None of those possibilities is very comforting.
And none of it explains away the open and vile race baiting that’s alive in what should be the house of a loving and forgiving God.