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Black pastors speak out on Wright's statements

Story by BART JONES, NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON and MICHAEL AMON; Written by JONES | bart.jones@newsday.com

May 1, 2008

The Rev. Sedgwick Easley of the Union Baptist Church in Hempstead was sitting in the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Monday when the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. spoke and generated worldwide headlines.

From Easley's perspective, Barack Obama's longtime pastor was generally right on target, and the storm of criticism aimed at him is an attack on the black church in general as Wright contended. "I think the issues that he spoke about are issues America does not want to hear about," Easley said.

In his appearance Monday, Wright insisted that the firestorm of controversy surrounding him "is not an attack on Jeremiah Wright; it is an attack on the black church."

While his assertion received support yesterday from some black Long Island ministers and national academics, others disagreed. Many agreed that black churches in America are largely misunderstood by the media and white America.

The Rev. Charles Coverdale of the First Baptist Church in Riverhead said he did not believe the controversy surrounding Wright constituted an attack on black churches in general. He also said he did not necessarily agree with all of Wright's statements on Monday, such as the suggestion that the U.S. government may have invented HIV/AIDS to wipe out minority communities.

Still, Coverdale said, decades ago the U.S. government gave out blankets infected with smallpox to Indians. "What makes that so far out for him to reach that way?" Coverdale said. "Our governments have done some things that as a country we ought not to be proud of."

He added: "I love my country. Within that love there have been some dastardly deeds."

Others said there is a lack of understanding of the black religious experience.

The Rev. Reginald Tuggle of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt, who said he was sitting about 20 feet from Wright on Monday, said that "when preachers speak out, they're often criticized by the media because they represent a voice that cannot speak for itself."

He added that "systemic racism is alive and well" in the United States and that the "rebuke he's [Wright] gotten in the press may suggest an attack on the black church."

Jonathan L. Walton, a professor of African-American Religion at University of California, Riverside, said Wright's actions at the press club may have been a perfect example of the disconnect between the media and black churches.

"There is a performative element to black preaching ... wherein the preacher is not only thoughtful and prepared, but also comedic," Walton said. "I think based upon the large number of clergy that was present ... Rev. Wright began to feed off of the crowd in such a way that would be totally appropriate within the context of his church, but came across as very inappropriate at the National Press Club."

William Green, a professor of religious studies at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss., said Wright spoke for many African-Americans, saying the controversy over his remarks represented "a failure to put human value on anything that black people do."

"It is an attack on the black church," said Green, who is black. "My society is very critical of white society and angry about it. The vast majority of black people feel the way he does. They just probably wouldn't say it in white company because it's not advantageous."