Reverend Wright and America's moral infants

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, in which I wondered why Bill Moyers was granting an interview to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, I add these thoughts:

I watched the interview and believe Moyers was not using it to help or hurt Obama, but to help a fellow minister who had been slandered unfairly.

I also believe Moyers' interview was in keeping with what he always does - attempt to educate people and help them see the world in all of its complexity, rather than just in sound bites.

Moyers has helped viewers see the complexity of the Iraq War, of terrorism, of poverty in America and around the world, of religion as well as atheism, of evolutionary theory and Biblical creationism, of global warming, etc.

Moyers, you see, is a different kind of Christian from many of the loud mouth "christians" who are constantly spewing their black and white "beliefs" on television.

He is unlike the many "born again" christians who never get very far past the birth stage, and who remain moral infants for their entire lives. He wants people to grow up.

What I saw on Moyers' show last night was a preacher who is definitely not a moral infant, and who insists the members of his congregation not be moral infants. If he wanted them to remain infants, he would confine himself to preaching syrupy sermons about how much God loved them or angry sermons about how much God hates gays and women who have abortions.

Instead, Jeremiah Wright challenged his parishoners, both before and after 9/11, to realize that even though a grievous wrong had been done to this country, the leaders of this country have also done grievous wrongs. What he said cannot be denied by any sentient being, no matter how much they might want to deny it.

What America did to the Native Americans and the Africans they brought to be slaves is unconscionable. And with the many wars it has engaged in, America does have blood on its hands. How can anyone deny that? They can't, unless they remain moral infants.

Moral infants don't want to see reality. They can't accept the fact that they might ever have done anything wrong. Have you ever seen a two year old accept responsibility for being "bad?" No, they try to blame someone else, and if mom punishes them, they get angry at her.

The role of the Christian religion is not just to count how many souls have been "born again," but to help those souls grow up and see their own role in the evils of the world so that they can reform and renew humanity.

9/11 was a terrible evil perpetrated on this country, but it wasn't perpetrated simply because Osama bin Laden was jealous that Americans own fancy cars and wear designer clothes. Osama bin Laden may or may not be crazy, but he made his cause very clear. He was tired of America's meddling in the Middle East, in his homeland, in which he believed they had no business.

Whether or not you believe America has a right to be in the Middle East, or had a right to incinerate hundreds of thousands of Japanese with two atomic bombs, or enslave hundreds of thousands of Africans, or slaughter hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, the fact is that these things are realities and many people in the world condemn us for them, even if we have a blind spot that does not allow us to condemn ourselves.

The job of a preacher, or a prophet, is to hold a mirror up to ourselves and help us see how we are not living according to the laws of God. Jeremiah Wright did that. He wasn't just interested in comforting his people who have been victimized by the ongoing racism of the country, and whose ancestors had been slaves, but to help them see what they must do to change America and help create a nation that rejects violence and discrimination.

Yes, some of Jeremiah Wright's words were unfortunate. But as he said, he was doing what preachers do. In some instances he may have gotten carried away. He wasn't timid. But he wasn't wrong.

It's hard to grow up, as a human being and as a person of faith. Judging by the hysterical reaction to Jeremiah Wright's words, not enough people in this country have done it.

What is he doing?

Bill Moyers is televising an interview with Reverend Jeremiah Wright on tonight's Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS.

I usually watch the Journal, and imagine I am one of about three who do so. It isn't a highly viewed program, and it is not viewed at all by people who are not progressives.

It is likely to have a much larger audience tonight, however, as the program released some clips from the pre-taped show that has had the cable show pundits' panties in a twist. Everyone on those shows is saying what a disaster this is for Obama, to bring up this controversy again, and they are using the clips to further criticize Obama.

In one, for instance, Wright responds to Moyers' question about how he felt when Obama distanced himself from him. "He does what he does and I do what I do," Wright said, adding that he (Wright) was a pastor, and Obama a politican. There appeared to be no negative connotation to the quote, but once again, it was taken out of context. To people like Joe Scarborough, though, who transformed Wright's words into "Obama is just a TYPICAL politican," Wright was "throwing him under the bus."

I admit I don't know what Moyers is doing here. If indeed this is an interview that will hurt Obama (and we haven't yet seen the whole interview so we don't know that) why is he doing it? Is he a shill for Hillary?

We know that before he became a journalist, Moyers was a political operative in the Johnson White House, and largely responsible for the little girl with the daisy ad. So he can be one tough strategist. This could be a deliberate attempt to resurrect the Wright controversy to hurt Obama and help Clinton.

We also know, however, that after he left the Johnson White House, and especially recently, Moyers has been a highly progressive journalist and television personality who has promoted the causes and ideas most akin to those of Obama. Is it possible that the clips he released are the most controversial, meant to get attention from the nitwit pundits on cable news? Is it possible that the interview, in its entirely, is far more favorable to Obama, and that Moyers has outsmarted the pro-Hillary, pro-McCain pundits by releasing some very misleading clips which will get Obama's critics to watch?

Or is Moyers, an ordained minister, not being political, but rather simply charitable to a fellow minister, giving him a chance at redemption?

Or finally, has Moyers now morphed into a publicity seeking television star, and this is only about ratings?

We'll see tonight, as I and a lot of new viewers will tune in.