If you care at all about the intersection of religion and politics, this show was an absolute must-watch.
I don't care what you thought about the man before, because whatever it was, it was wrong.
It's impossible to excerpt much without losing the meaning - although PastorDan has tried admirably here - so I implore you to either watch the video or read through the transcript. And to convince, I'll offer up the conclusion of the show, the one part I think truly does stand on its own:
BILL MOYERS: Our denomination, the United Church of Christ has called for a sacred conversation on race in America. What are the steps that you think from all of your experience can be taken to move race relations forward?
REVEREND WRIGHT: I think there are many - to start using Bill Jones' paradigm, about how one sees God. Your theology determines one's anthropology. And how you see humans determines your sociology. To look at how we've come to see race, and in others of other races, based on our understanding of God who sees others as less than important. Less than my people. And where in our religious traditions are there passages in our sacred scriptures that are racist? They're in the Vedas, the Babylonian Talmud, they're in the Koran, they're in the Bible. How do we grapple with these passages in our sacred texts? The same way you grapple with Judges:19, where it's alright for a preacher to have a concubine and cut her up into 12 pieces. We gotta argue with our texts that are, as we've been struggling with, battling with, wrestling with, anti-Semitic. The Christian, "The Jews killed Jesus." No, we gotta come to grips with, you know, these texts were written by certain people at certain times with certain racist understandings of others who are different. That different meant deficient. That doing that with adults and starting with kids. that begins the conversation that Senator Obama talked about that we need to have. And re-writing the curriculum in our schools to tell the truth in our schools.
UPDATE: The reaction from O'Reilly and Gingrich to this interview is even for them quite shocking. Leaving aside the fact that the show hadn't even yet aired, thus meaning that they couldn't have seen more than a few out takes, the idea that Moyers "dislikes America" is so absurd that I hardly know what to say.
Does this sound like someone who hates his country?
It's just a fact: Democracy doesn't work without citizen activism and participation, starting at the community. Trickle down politics doesn't work much better than trickle down economics. It's also a fact that civilization happens because we don't leave things to other people. What's right and good doesn't come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of democracy will never go out as long as there's one candle in your hand.
Just because I disagree with your vision for the country does not mean I hate I the country. I shouldn't even need to say that, should I? Why do I need to say that?
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