An Open Letter to Former President Barack Obama

      During the 2008 presidential campaign Senator Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., were bombarded with scathing denucination by the news media.
      Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., at the time, was pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and Barack Obama, was a U.S.Senator (IL) and the Democratic candidate for president of the United States. Since 1988 he was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ. Reverend Wright married Obama and his wife  Michelle and baptised their two daughters Sasha and Malia.
       Reverend Wright made more than a few controversial statements in some of his sermons. The media accused Obama of not only being a member of Trinity  United Church of Christ but having the same views as his pastor and demanded that Obama denounce Reverend  Wright and cease being a member of Trinity United Church of Christ. During a  March 15, 2008 interview on Fox News Obama was questioned about controversial statements Reverend Wright made and his relationship with Reverend Wright. Obama said he rejected these statements in question and had severed his relationship with Reverend Wright and was no longer a membef of Trinity United Church of Christ.
      The Trinity United Church of Christ Motto: "Unashamedly black and unapologetically Christian." These are some of the statements Reverend Wright made: "The United States supports state terrorism against the Palestianians and South Africa." His comments (quoting Malcolm X) that "America's chickens are coming home to roost," was widely interpreted as meaning that America had brought the September 11 attacks upon herself. He also said  "the government lied about Pearl Harbor too. They knew the Japanese were going to attack. The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment that infected African American men with  syphilis. The government gives drugs to people, build bigger prisons, passed three-strike laws and wants us to sing "God Bless America." No, no, no, not God bless America. God damn America - that's in the Bible - for killing innocent people." As stated earlier Obama said he did not agree with Reverend Wright.  He said he saw Reverend Wright as "an old uncle."
       Only history will tell the full story, in this regard. Apparently, Obama was wise and practical in denouncing and separating himself from Reverend Wright and Trinity Church of Christ in 2008. He did the expedient thing. Had he not done what he did, it is highly likely that he woud not have been elected the first  African American President of the Untied States and served in that office from 2009 through 2016
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         Now, that Obama is no longer President of the United States, joined by most African Americans, I call on Barrack Obama to reestablish his relations with Reverend Wright and publicly express this in the media with no less intensity than he did when he denounced Reverend Wright and withdrew his membership from Trinity United Church of Christ in 2008.
           Both Obama and Reverend Wright have contributed notably to promoting the agenda of African Americans and moving America toward "a more perfect union."
        During Reverend Wright's visit to Los Angeles in 1995 I received a copy of his book, "What Makes You So Strong." The title of one of his sermons in this book is "The Audacity of Hope." Years later, Obama chose "The Audacity of Hope" for the title of his book. It is obvious, and Obama has admitted it, that Reverend Wright, the man he saw as "an old uncle," greatly impacted his life.
      Many black preachers delivered messages containing some of the same controversial statements as those delivered by Reverend Wright.  A generation before Reverend Wright was a pastor, I was pastor of the Bell Street Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, that was bombed, as were three other churches on a single night during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I am sure at that time, I proclaimed some of the same controversial statements as Reverend Wright when I observed what racist white people were doing and the so-called "good white folk" were silent. When I reflect on these facts: African Americans were slaves for 244 years and subjected to legal segregation, Jim Crowism, and disenfranchisement, for nearly a 100 years, I too proclaimed what may be controversial messages. In a real way the past - the legacy - is the present. Barring a miracle White Americans will continue to embrace the doctrine of white supremacy which accounts for black inequality in America and much destruction abroad.
          Obama, if Nelson Mandela, after spending 27 years in prison in South Africa without having done anything other than fight for freedom for the people of South African could, after being released from prison forgive, although not forget, as stated in his autobiography  "Long Walk to Freedom," the defenders of apartheid former prime Ministers of South Africa John Vorster and B. W.  Botha and unite with F. W. De Klerk, President of South Africa, an office he would be elected to in 1994, surely, surely, surely, Obama you can reestablish relations witrh Reverend Wright whom you are indebted too.
     In reestablishing your relations with Reverend Wright you will bless your two daughters and many more daughters and sons in America and beyond. Obama,  this single act will be more important than any speech you will make or any book you will write. Like Muhammad Ali who is remembered more for refusing, although drafted, to enlist in the Army to fight in what he believed to be a God-forbidden war than for being the number one heavyweight champion of the world, you may very well be remembered more for reestablishing relations with Reverend Wright than being the first African American President of the Untied States. Obama, will you heed this appeal from  your fellow-African Americans? Many are waiting for your answer. What will be your decision?
     Obama, thank you in advance for making the righteous decision concerning this matter. Only righteous acts really matter?

{Readers are invited to read, "Don't Mess With the Black Church" by Uriah J. Fields, which focused on the aforementioned matter. It was publsihed on April 29, 2008 on "Authoersden.com."
Visit:
www.authorsden.com/na.asp?id=39035.

Copyright 2017 by Uriah J. Fields

Note:  this Open letter to former President Barack Obama has been published in other media, including "The A.M.E. Zion Quarterly Review (Volume CXXX  No. 4, October 2017),