The presumption of so many Americans that God is on our side and every military action that we engage in is somehow the will of the Prince of Peace himself - including nuclear bombings, napalm, firebombings, and the current arsenal of depleted uranium bullets and three trillion dollars' worth of death and dismemberment - is, in my opinion, one seriously deluded viewpoint. And to think that angry fanatics are never ever going to strike back is an exercise in mindless optimism. When Wright stated as much, he was called un-American.
Let me tell you that, right here in my own community, I hear denigrating words about blacks, Hispanics, women, and Muslims with stunning regularity. I got to thinking - when Americans casually suggest that blacks are "taking over your neighborhood" as if black people are not really bonafide U.S. citizens with every right to live next door to me, for instance - isn't this a language of hate that denies the basic humanity of an entire group of Americans? When I hear that one "hates shopping at Wal-Mart now that it's full of Mexicans" or that "I always vote Democrat, but I will never vote for that Barack Obama" because "he's not smart enough to be President" when that person graduated from community college while Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School - I can't help but look at the speaker and think, Jeff Foxworthy-style, "well, you might be a bigot". I hear porch monkey and towel-head and women's libber and wetback and worse.
Most of this talk comes from people who consider themselves good Christians (although I don't believe most Christians speak this way). But to me it smacks of demeaning hate speech far more than what I have read of the Reverend Wright's sermons.
America is not religion to me; it is not heresy, but in fact my duty as a citizen to criticize any actions done in the name of my country if I think that they are wrong. The great writer James Baldwin said it best:
I love
NTD
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