Letters to the Editor

This letter is associated with the following article:
The hysteria over Obama's former pastor's attacks on America shows we're still in thrall to knee-jerk patriotism.
  • Review the UCC and then decide

    I think it's important that readers come to understand, too, that churches that espouse a liberal religion (not the same as liberal politics, although the folks who like one often like the other too) do NOT tell their parishioners what to think. The whole point is that they should think for themselves--in theological terms, that's the "liberal" part. So Wright speaking from a pulpit is not the "sanction of God"--it's an opportunity for the congregation to think, using spiritual and religious considerations as part of what drives the thinking.

    You'd also want to look at the whole sermon, because sermons have structures and arguments that may not be clear from an individual sound bite.

    But in any case, is it wrong to ask a congregation even to *think* about American culpability in international politics? Or problematic dynamics between majority and minority culture, particularly where science is concerned? I may not like the excerpts I've read from Wright's sermons, but a liberal religious tradition would ask me to think about those things and reach my own decision about them--not to take anyone's, even a pastor's, word for them.

    Somehow I think people from more conservative, authoritarian religious traditions just don't get how liberal religions work. And that makes them unclear on how Obama and Wright might be connected--that is, Wright may have made Obama think. Is that really all that scary?