Recently, the Black Church and black religion came under fire with TV news people and radio talk show hosts leading the scathing denunciation of Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr, and Senator Barack Obama.

This outcry followed Youtube, major TV channels and radio news and talk shows airing excerpts -  more correctly - snippets,  from sermons Reverend Wright preached during his more than thirty years as the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and accusatory and slanderous attacks on Senator Barack Obama, candidate for President of the United States, who for twenty years has been a member of that church. He and his wife were married in that church and their two children were baptised in  that church. Trinity United Church of Christ has the largest membership in the United Church of Christ denomination, a denomination with mostly white congregations, even though all their churches welcome all people without regard for race.

While the primary reason for Youtube, the major TV news channels and radio news and talk shows airing snippets from Rev. Wright's sermons was to discredit Senator Obama it has had the correlative effect of aiming at discrediting the Black Church as a whole, not just the Church Rev. Wright pastored before his recent retirement. Rev. Wrights's sermons and pronouncements are not all that different from sermons delivered by African American preachers across America. Perhaps, most white people do not recognize this because there is a gulf between black churches and white churches that, to a large degree, keeps black Christians and white Christians separated. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke a truth more than fifty years ago that remains true today. He said: "The eleven o'clock hour on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America."

The Black Church in America began in slavery when slaves were preached to by white preachers, with few ecxceptions as represented by John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, who spoke out against the evil of slavery. Pro-Slavery Reverend George Whitefield represented most white preachers at the time. He preached that slavery was ordained by God and that God meant for black people to be white people's slaves.The favorite text of these white supremacy attuned preachers was "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters ... as unto Christ." (Ephesians 6:5). Instead of saying "servants" they said slaves."

The Black Church has led the Black liberation struggle. The black preacher has been the foremost spokesman, encourager of black people, and prophet who delivered his message, not merely to black people but also to white people. Often black preachers have spoken truth to power, sometimes defiantly and accusatorily. It is in this tradition that Rev. Wright declared that America has and will continue to be judged and that retribution which he defined as "God damn America" is inescapable. Of course, the Bible says. "...for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7). 

The high proverty rate, homeless persons and huge prison population that make America the World's number one jailer lend some validation to Rev. Wright's assertion that at least a significant percentage of Americans are already being damned, if not by God by greedy human beings who exploit and hoard.

A few days ago the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London issued a report that said: The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population but it has almost a quarter of the worlds's prisoners. The U. S. has 2.3 millon prisoners while China the second largest prison nation, has 1.6. million prisoners out of a population of more than 4 times the population of the United States. Let this writer state that 47% of these American prisoners are African Americans. Somebody must be held responsible for these people being incarcerated, other than the prisoners themselves.

Rev. Wright's preaching is also in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who dared to warn the people, unhesitatingtly and unapologetically, of the woeful consequences of their sins, sometimes while kicking and screaming. History reveals that time and time again they were vindicated. The prophet Jeremiah, who, apparently, Jeremialh was named after, said, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that  I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" (Jeremiah 9:1.)

In March of 1995, I was present when  Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., delivered a sermon at an  AME church in Los Angeles. He preached a powerful and challenging sermon.

That evening I purchased a copy of his book titled, "What Makes You So Strong?" The book was edited by Jini Kilgore Ross, daughter of the late Rev. Thomas Kilgore who several year earlier retired as pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles. I recall that shortly after the Montgomery Bus Bocyott began Rev. Kilgore was the first preacher from outside of  of Alabama to come to a bus boycott mass meeting and bring a financial contribution to support the bus boycott. At that time, in early 1956, he was the pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in New York City. It was because of my appreciation for Rev. Kilgore and being aware that his daughter edited Rev. Wright's book that I purchsed a copy of the book. In Rev. Wright's book there is a sermon titled "The Audactity to Hope." (pp.97-110). The title of Senator Obama's bestselling book is, "The Audacity to Hope." He admits that he got the title for his book from his pastor. I have read Rev. Wright's book several time and thoroughly enjoyed it each time I read it. Recently, since the slanderous attack on him and Senator Obama, I have I read his book again. Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., is God's Saint Troubadour. I, too, consider myself to be a Saint Troubadour. My latest book has just been published,  "The Saint Troubadour: Speaking and Singing Truth and Love."

Let me express a personal experience I had while preaching in the tradition of the Black Church before Rev. Wright became a pastor. During the Montgomery Bus Boycott I was a leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, first Civil Rights secretary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and pastor of the Bell Street Baptist Chuch in Montgomery. This church was bombed by die-hard racists just days after the buses in Montgomery were desegregated. Like Rev. Wright, sometimes I preached a social gospel that spoke truthfuly about reality and was critical of the white society in general and the White Church in particular. I refer to one such sermon in my book, "Inside the Montgomery Bus Boycott: My Personal Story." ( p.26.) Here I quote myself: "Occasionally I was guest preacher on Radio Station WRMA in Montgomery. That radio station was commonly referred to as the "black radio station," because the station's employees were black and catered to black interests, paticularly in matters of consumerism, more than other Montgomery radio stations. The radio station was owned by white folk. Oftentimes my sermons addressed social issues and were critical of segregation practices. One of my hard-hitting sermons on racism got me kicked-off the air. I was cut off the air in the middle of my preaching. When I contacted the owner of the radio station about the matter I was told by him that in order for  me to speak on that radio station I would have to preach on religion, not social matters. He also told me that he had received complaints from white folk about the kind of preaching I had done on that radio station. Black people encouraged me and thanked me for having the courage to tell the truth about racism. Or, as one person put it, "Telling it like it is."

Today, there is not anything in America that is more peculiarly and uniquely black than the Black Church, hence black religion and black preachers. Black people recognize that their church, religion, faith, and ministers, more than anything else or a collection of other things, account for their survival and achievements in America. The cruel treatment Black people received from white people, more than suggests that they should not have survived anymore, maybe less, than the American Indians, most of whom, even today, are confined to Reservations as their population continues to dwindle. Black people believe that it has been the Black Church that has prevented them from having had a similar experience as that of the American Indians.

"Don't mess with the Black Church!" This is Black folk's message to white America. The Black Church, more than any other American institution, is owned and controlled by black people.  More than a few black preachers  minister without receiving a liveable wage or salary, in order to be free to preach as God directs them to preach. obeying God, not man.                                                                                      For  For those  who would use Rev. Wright  and  the Black Church to prevent Senator Barack Obama from becoming the next President of the United States, be aware that the evidence reveals that the assault on the Black Church and black religion will not work this time. I believe that the majority of white Americans, even with insufficient knowledge about the Black Church, are more humane and less racist, than were their foreparents, including the Founding Fathers, and more willing to, in the words of  Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Judge a person by the quality of his character, not the color of his skin." There is evidence that  many white people will vote for Senator Obama this time and help to accelerate the speed with which America moves closer to being a "more perfect union."

Let me close by saying to white people: black people have voted for white men to be president across the years. Even though it was difficult for me to become a registered voter in Alabama in the fifites, I have voted many times for white men, including two times for "dead" white men. We, the people, all races of people, have an opportunity to vote in this in 2008 election for an African American, who, in his biological and physiological constitution is equally black and white or more white than black because his mother is white and his father is black. Favoring him will help to effect racial reconciliation and redeem America. Will we accept this challenge? What legacy do we want to leave our children and their children? Hopefully, one that is better than the one that exists today, for the simple reason that we can be and do better.

Finally, let all Americans be glad that there is a Black Church, even as people of goodwill strive to see the day when there is no need for a black or white church. But that day has not come yet.

(Uriah J. Fields, a clergyman, author of "The Saint Troubadour: Speaking and Singing Truth and Love" and "Inside the Montgomery Bus Boycott: My Persoanl Story" is a veteran of the Korean War.

Copyright 2008 by Uriah J. Fields