|
This week, Adam Joyce revisits what he calls “one of the most profound and misunderstood sermons in U.S. history.” Spoiler alert: The sermon has swear words. If you remember Barack Obama’s 2008 bid for the presidency, you may know the sermon in question. Preached by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s then-pastor, the sermon argued that when it came to how the U.S. has treated Black and Indigenous people, the appropriate response wasn’t “God bless America!” but, ahem, the opposite. But while the sermon elicited a frenzy of pearl-clutching—how could a minister talk like that?!—Joyce points out that the sermon was a pretty biblical response to injustice: The psalms are full of prayers naming enemies, railing against them, and then crying out to God for justice. And though we don’t often hear these passages in church, Joyce thinks maybe we should. Elsewhere, Christians are grappling with the recent Supreme Court decision that felt like an affront to the Black church and what Trump’s would-be assassin got wrong about the Bible. We’re also thinking through what it means to leave your denomination and how to respond as our friends, families, and leaders renounce their allegiance to Trump.
|
