Another angry black preacher
By E. J. Dionne | Friday, March 21, 2008 | The Washington Post
“…Listen to what [Martin Luther] King said about the Vietnam War at his own Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Feb. 4, 1968: ‘God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war. . . . And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it. And we won’t stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation. But God has a way of even putting nations in their place.’ King then predicted this response from the Almighty: ‘And if you don’t stop your reckless course, I’ll rise up and break the backbone of your power.’….”…BS
If today’s technology had existed then, I would imagine the media playing quotations of that sort over and over. Right-wing commentators would use the material to argue that King was anti-American and to discredit his call for racial and class justice. King certainly angered a lot of people at the time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003021_pf.html
This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 6:02 AM and filed under 1st Amendment (speech), Elections/Voting, History, Media, Politics, Race. Follow comments here with the RSS 2.0 feed. Skip to the end and leave a response. Trackbacks are closed.
2 Responses to “Another angry black preacher”
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Bill:
The difference is in HOW he said it; both the language that he used and the language that he DIDN’T use.
Re Rev. Wright, while many people are troubled by the conent of the words themselves (i.e., putting down America), far more people are troubled by the incendiary, inflammatory and mean-spirited INTENT in which he made those comments.
There are ways to say things, and there are ways to say things. As “angry” as MLK’s words above may be, he did not deliver them with the “shock value” fever pitch that Rev. Wright was given to. Indeed, MLK was able to express his moral outrage and righteous indignation WITHOUT resorting to incendiary and near-vulgar language. So was Gandhi, who was one of the most soft-spoken leaders in history. And the difference is that both of these men were able to get others to turn their words into ACTION.
In this regard, Rev. Wright’s approach is self-sabotaging if his intent is to effect change.
Peace.
Posted on 21-Mar-08 at 1:35 pm | PermalinkIan is probably right, although he doesn’t actually give examples of the Rev Wright’s incendiary, inflammatory and mean-sprited intent. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that in today’s world the words of MLK’s that are quoted would be regarded as anti-American.
Posted on 22-Mar-08 at 4:00 am | PermalinkThe article finishes by saying “This does not prove that Obama deserves to be president. It does mean that he deserves to be judged on his own terms and not by the ravings of an angry preacher.” I would go along with that surmise, as I would also go along with the idea that Hillary’s association recently brought to light does not make her a Neocon. She should also be judged on her own terms.