[April 13, 2011] Hate speech comes to Hattie Obama’s ex-pastor visits Shady Grove

"We have in our midst tonight the pastor who led the ministry that produced the first African-American President," announced Rev. Reginald Woullard, Pastor of Shady Grove Baptist Church in Eastabuchie, Miss.

From my pew last Monday night, I could see Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's ex-pastor – the man who became infamous for shouting "God damn America!" from the pulpit. Woullard, who had invited Wright to preach a revival at Shady Grove, hailed him as "the Prince of Prophets."

Two others – fellow USM students Robby Terrell and Tyrone Adams – joined me. Robby and I were the only white males in the room.

Wright began by welcoming the visitors – which included members of the Nation of Islam. Then, he gave us all a warning:

"This message is not addressed to everyone," he said. "This message is addressed to believers."

Not everyone who comes to church is a believer, he said. Some are curious – others are critics.

With that, Wright was already planting in the minds of the congregation that any objection to his preaching should be met with hostility.

Wright then set up his sermon by juxtaposing Jesus with Pontius Pilate, the Roman leader to whom Jesus was brought before being crucified. These men were from "two different worlds," Wright said.

"There are people in power who have opinions about you based on their privilege of skin color," he told the mostly black crowd. "I'm in the text – Pilate was European, Jesus was not European."

He then launched into a hateful tirade against whites, attacking everything European.

"They are ignorant and arrogant," he said. "And these graduates of Harvard and Yale are setting policies for you based on the stupidity of David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Voltaire, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Thomas Jefferson – a pedophile, Theodore Roosevelt, and the racist Supreme Court and the Encyclopedia Britannica."

"The ignorance and arrogance of white supremacy have the shapers and movers of world policy living in a different world from the world you live in altogether, and the sooner you realize that, the better off you're gonna be."

What upset me most was not Wright's hate speech – it was the fact that everyone else in the church was shouting, clapping and pumping their fists in the air. Wright noticed that Tyrone, Robby and I were still and silent, and quickly informed us that we looked like the three stooges. "Curious," he sneered.

He went on to make more hateful comments, attacking Israel, America and Bush. Though he did not call him by name, I'm pretty sure he made several thinly veiled attacks on Obama as well.

But finally, the service ended. To my relief, we had all kept cool – until some poor, unfortunate soul asked Tyrone how he liked the service.

When Tyrone responded by saying he didn't like the service at all and that Wright was a "bigot, anti-Semite, and a racist," churchgoers nearby began yelling at us angrily. We tried to explain our feelings, but to no avail; a security guard told us it was time to go.

When a deacon tried to speak to us, church members attempted to dissuade him. "Let them leave," one said. "Don't entertain the devil."

It was quite clear that we would not be welcomed back at Shady Grove Baptist Church.

After arriving, USM students Eric Fry and John Negri were interrogated a total of four times throughout the service. The church and its security team wanted to know what their "real business was there." Several times, they were asked if they were reporters.

At one point, Eric and Jon were pulled out of the sanctuary by security guards who took them into the lobby for questioning. At the same time, an older man – who happened to be the only other white male in attendance – was also pulled out.

"We were only asked a few questions and released fairly quickly," Eric said. "But as we were leaving the lobby, we saw a cop move the older white man to the wall. It appeared that he was about to be frisked."

Eric believes that what happened to him and Jon amounted to racial profiling. I agree. It was no more acceptable than would be an incident in which a white church selectively pulled out black visitors for "questioning." That would also be absurd.

The entire experience was remarkable. To realize that a church so nearby would allow such a hateful man to preach division and bigotry was mind-blowing. To know that such a large congregation would be so receptive to that hate was disheartening.

I may have walked into the church "curious" about the man who was once the spiritual leader of our current president, but I walked out a decided "critic."

The week after this article in the paper, the author, Ashton Pittman, wrote a follow up article. here it is:
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Nothing ‘Wright’ about hate

Last week, I wrote an opinion article about my experience during Rev. Jeremiah Wright's visit to a local church, Shady Grove Baptist Church in Eastabuchie, Miss. Since then, I've received numerous e-mails from church members. I would like to clear up some misconceptions and answer some questions presented to me in those e-mails.

First of all, I did not set out to “come into God's house to dig up dirt.” I visited Shady Grove several times before Rev. Wright came, and I was genuinely interested in hearing what he had to say. I went in with an open mind. In fact, I was prepared to find that the media had misrepresented him by using a few select clips and sound bites.

But that's not what I found. In fact, what I found was that Wright was even worse than the media's portrayal. To report otherwise – to omit Wright's racial rhetoric – would be an abrogation of my duty as a journalist.

Still, some have said that I “mixed-up” select portions of Wright's sermon to make him look bad. That's not true – I wrote, not only from my memory, my notes and from interviews, but from a video I had of the sermon. In context, there's no denying the intent behind Wright's message.

Wright is a master of the art of manipulative preaching. He established the premise for his sermon while reading a passage from the Gospel of John. But Wright subtly twisted it in such a way that most of the eager-eared believers in the room didn't even notice the racial overtones he had injected.

Essentially, Wright took Jesus’ spiritual proclamation to Pontius Pilate that his kingdom was “not of this world” and made it racial.

“Pilate was European; Jesus was not European,” Wright pointed out.

He contrasted Jesus – the Savior – to Pilate, the European “oppressor.”

Wright went on to spend a good portion of the sermon, entitled “Believers, Beware,” attacking all things European. Wright warned to be careful about engaging in conversations with those who are different.

“Believers beware,” he said. “You may find yourself in a conversation with somebody who lives in a different world than you altogether” – perhaps including someone who dares to challenge Wright's preaching.

His message can be summed up this way: “Believers beware – of people who are different from you.” That kind of teaching and thinking is what engenders the kind of ignorance that develops into prejudice, then bigotry, and finally hate.

Yes, I am aware that many people who were present in the service may not have consciously understood it that way; Wright intertwined his sermon with emotional stories, anecdotes and ideas that everyday people can latch onto. For those who were present for the purpose of personal growth, that's what they will have found. But for those with a discerning ear, Wright's message had far broader implications.

I'm sure there were people in attendance who understand exactly what Wright meant and completely agreed with him. But despite the fact that most people in the service were shouting and clapping at Wright's statements, I do not believe that most of the people at Shady Grove are racist or that they truly embrace his doctrine. I believe that most people at Shady Grove are probably kind, decent people.

At the same time, I don't believe most of those kind, decent people grasped Wright's true message. In fact, I think Wright knew they wouldn't. Church people are notorious for falling for the wiles of charismatic preachers without questioning them. That's why such people are Wright's primary prey.

Wright did not preach to a hateful congregation. He planted the seeds of racism at Shady Grove. He planted the seeds of anti-Semitism. He planted the seeds of acceptance for the black supremacist organization that calls itself “The Nation of Islam.” He planted the seeds of hate. It's up to Shady Grove to refuse to nourish them.

I sincerely hope that Shady Grove will not succumb to the poison that Wright sought to inject among its congregation. But first, Shady Grove must recognize that Jeremiah Wright is not the “Prince of Prophets.” It must repudiate him for the discord he has already managed to spread.

Believers, beware of men like Jeremiah Wright.

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