Jeremiah Wright

Barack Obama partisans must be wishing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright had chosen to lay low, so maybe the "preacher issue" would go away, so maybe Obama wouldn’t have to deal with white anxiety over an angry black man. But Wright will not go quietly. He is defending himself and making his case, most recently before the National Press Club. If you don’t watch the entire speech on C-SPAN or a video replay, we don’t have much to talk about.

Wright is as formidable an intellect as he is a "controversial" preacher. He is a preacher of the Gospel, coming from the prophetic tradition…his name is Jeremiah, for goodness sake. If the Gospel doesn’t sometimes make you uncomfortable, you haven’t really read it. If the election is decided on a sound byte of "God damn America" vs. the nuanced and complex message this Jeremiah delivers, then…

Or, as Obama put it in his magisterial address, we could say "not this time." Unfortunately, I increasingly fear that won’t happen. Old habits die hard. Old prejudices. So we will march forward to the McCain presidency. If so, then let Jeremiah say all the things that make the comfortable feel uncomfortable — so it is in the Bible.

It doesn’t matter now. God’s will be done. That’s what Christians pray every Sunday in church, "the most segregated hour in America," many without even realizing what they’re affirming.

Does this Jeremiah have anything to teach us?