I Am A Wright Brother

A Wright Brother
Rev. Alan Claassen
March 30, 2008
In response to the treatment of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Trinity UCC in Chicago.
Written before the interview with Bill Moyers
and the appearance before the National Press Club

It is has been a quiet week on Lake U.C.C.
Actually I have been so busy with Holy Week and the lecture by Michael Dowd that I have not had time to watch TV, see the repeated soundbites of Rev. Jeremiah Wright damning America or hearing Barack Obama’s speech on racism. But I have had time to do a little research on our ucc.org web page and I would like to share with you what I learned from others about my colleague and our brother in Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the church that he built from 87 members to over 1,000 members.

J. Bennett Guess March 14, 2008

“In the wake of misleading attacks on its mission and ministry, Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ is being lauded by United Church of Christ leaders across the nation for the integrity of its worship, the breadth of its community involvement and the depth of its commitment to social justice.

Located in the heart of Chicago's impoverished Southside, Trinity UCC's vast array of ministries include career development and college placement, tutorial and computer services, health care and support groups, domestic violence programs, pastoral care and counseling, bereavement services, drug and alcohol recovery, prison ministry, financial counseling and credit union, housing and economic development, dozens of choral, instrumental and dance groups, and diverse programming for all ages, including youth and senior citizens.”

The Rev. Steve Gray, the UCC's Indiana-Kentucky Conference Minister, describes Trinity UCC as a "jewel."

"It's everything a Christian community is supposed to be," says Gray, who has been working with Trinity UCC for the past three years to develop a new UCC congregation in Gary, Ind. "Trinity has given well over $100,000 in support of its partnership with us, and in 15 months of regular meetings with Jeremiah Wright, we always found him to be a man of gracious hospitality, humor, generosity, who paid attention to detail but also a man who does not call attention to himself."

Gray, a member of First Congregational UCC in Indianapolis, has worshiped several times at Trinity UCC and is most impressed by the overflowing sense of welcome it extends to visitors.

"When you're Euro-American, the people [at Trinity UCC] are so exceedingly gracious, warm and welcoming. They hug you and say, 'Welcome to our church!'"

The Rev. Bennie Whiten, retired Massachusetts Conference Minister who prior served for 15 years as associate director of Chicago's Community Renewal Society, says, Whiten, a member of Pilgrim UCC in Oak Park, Ill., is especially taken with Trinity UCC's commitment to the need and importance of quality theological education. More than 60 members of Trinity UCC are currently enrolled in seminary and pursuing masters-level degrees. Moreover, the congregation pays for students' tuition costs.

"They firmly believe in the UCC's commitment to an educated, seminary-trained clergy," Whiten said, "and they have probably had more people feeling the call to ministry than any other church in the denomination."

The Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president and professor of theology at UCC-related Chicago Theological Seminary
"Another thing I really appreciate about Trinity is that its ministries are always directed both inward, toward the congregation itself, and also outward in supporting other congregations ecumenically and supporting community organizations that are dedicated to lifting up the wider society," Thistlethwaite says. "We have had so many fine students come through Chicago Theological Seminary who were helped to discern their call to ministry through this church's dedication to serving the wider church."

The Rev. Kenneth L. Samuel, pastor of Victory UCC in Stone Mountain, Ga.,
While Trinity UCC is the denomination's largest congregation, Samuel's 5,300-member church is the UCC's second largest. Founded in 1987, it joined the UCC in 2004.

"Trinity was really one of the churches that inspired me to want to affiliate with the United Church of Christ," Samuel said. "My church was originally National Baptist and Southern Baptist, but it was the critical-thinking that [Trinity] brought to this work, the justice work, that helped me to want to become a part of the denomination. I have no regrets about that."

Carol Brown, national president of United Black Christians and a member of Cleveland's Mt. Zion UCC for more than 50 years, describes Trinity UCC as "the flagship church of the United Church of Christ."

"I think it's very interesting that a minority group within a denomination can have the largest church, support the most ministries and give the largest number of OCWM [mission] dollars," Brown says. "That speaks well for us as an accepting, open and affirming denomination. Especially, as a justice-oriented church, [Trinity UCC] sets a standard for all the denomination that all are welcome."

The Rev. Dr. John P. Gardner is senior minister of Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, United Church of Christ, Fort Wayne.
How ironic that a pastor and congregation which, for forty-five years, has cast its lot with a predominantly white denomination, participating fully in its wider church life and contributing generously to it, would be accused of racial exclusion and a failure to reach for racial reconciliation.”

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By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News

“More than two dozen well-known black preachers and scholars, in Dallas for a long-planned conference, offered unequivocal support Friday for one of their number who was not there.

“The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now world-famous as the former pastor and spiritual mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama, was to be the guest of honor at the Black Church Summit held by Brite Divinity School. Amid the recent controversy about some of his sermons, Dr. Wright decided not to attend, but the summit started Friday as scheduled.”

Most of the event was not open to the media, but several of the scholars and preachers spoke at a news conference. They said that Dr. Wright's sermons fit into a long-standing black tradition of prophetic preaching – one that the Rev. Martin Luther King also emerged from.


Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas, director of the black church studies program at Brite, said that the controversy over Dr. Wright's sermons is an indication of how little many whites know about what happens routinely at many black churches.

"It's news to you," she said. "Black America has long known about the tradition of religious formation within mainline white congregations. Now, for the very first time in history, mainline America, white America is finding out something about its black church."

“Mr. Wright has been cited by Mr. Obama as his longtime pastor and spiritual mentor. In the last couple of weeks, parts of some of Mr. Wright's sermons have been repeatedly rebroadcast. In the sound bites, he attacks the Iraq war, says that AIDS was produced by the U.S. government and calls for God's condemnation of the U.S. for its policies on illegal drugs.”

But that needs to be set into the context of preachers like Dr. King, who once called America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today," Dr. Floyd-Thomas said. And he had been scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled "Why America May Go to Hell" on the Sunday after he was assassinated in 1968, she added.

That is some of what I read at ucc.org. Here is what I read in the gospel of John this week.

“When it was evening of that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the authorities, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his wounded hands, his wounded side.”
And Jesus said to his disciples. As God has sent me, so I send you. When he said this he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The healing begins and peace enters our hearts when we forgive one another the sins of our frightened forefathers who taught us to fear someone because they were different than us; whether the difference was race, gender, sexual orientation, culture, age, nationality, political party, or denomination.
The healing begins and peace enters into our communities when we move from the safety of our familiar homes and move out into the wider world and see how the other half lives, to walk a mile in their shoes.
The healing begins and peace enters our world when receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit that unites all of humanity with all of creation and with the understanding that peace and reconciliation can only come through our commitment to:
Sacrifice – Sacrifice that is spiritual; that is courageous and steadfast in its willingness to endure great hardship for others. Service to Others – Service that is predicated on empowering others; engendering self-help, self-determination, and self-sufficiency versus charity.
Acceptance of all People – An essential ingredient for success in organizing diverse forces to achieve social change, create community, and actualize democracy is the acceptance of all people; an absolutely indispensable necessity to the well-being of this country.

By the way, those three commitments to Sacrifice, Service, and Acceptance come from the Core Values of Non-violence of Cesar Chavez, who birthday was today. Happy birthday Cesar Chavez. Another prophet like Jeremiah Wright whose complaint about what is wrong in our society and his commitment to the foundational values of this nation caused him to do something …right.
Also, in the Gospel reading for today we read that Thomas needed to touch the wounds of Jesus in order to believe that he was the risen Christ. The wound that we in America need to touch is the wound of racism, that in spite of all the distance we have come, including a black American, possibly becoming the next President, too many Americans of color are treated as second-class citizens in this great nation. It is not an excuse for violence or victimhood, but it is an illness that needs to be treated with peace, with honesty, with forgiveness and reconciliation.
Finally, as a sign of life coming out of death, the United Church of Christ is currently raising funds to buy a full page ad in the New York Times to explain to the nation who we are as a nation and what we truly stand for.
In the meantime, you can be a part of this work by simply telling one another what you know and love about this church where it is said, every Sunday, “No matter who you are and where you on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”