"Outrageous?" "Destructive?" Jeremiah Wright should at least be heard. Barack Obama, you have caved to the media and abrasive sound bites!

Reverend Jeremiah Wright at the National Press Club yesterday

Former presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has decided to put politics ahead of principal and (as the media loves to say) toss the Reverend Jeremiah Wright “under the bus.” He referred to Jeremiah Wright as both “outrageous” and “destructive” today.

But I, as a white middle class American progressive (admittedly older and flawed in many ways) would like y’all to read the full context of the “God damned America!” snippet that I have heard played and replayed by Fox News and CNN over the past two weeks. It’s only part of a very powerful 40-minute sermon given on April 13, 2003. It's titled, "Confusing God and Government" -- not "God damn America" as the media would have you believe.

“And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent, she failed. She put them on reservations.”
“When it came to putting her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in interment prison camps.”
“When it came to putting the citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains. The government put them on slave quarters. Put them on auction blocks. Put them in cotton fields. Put them in inferior schools. Put them in substandard housing. Put them scientific experiments. Put them in the lower paying jobs. Put them outside the equal protection of the law. Kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education, and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness.”
“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America. Naw, naw, naw. Not God Bless America. God Damn America! That’s in the Bible. For killing innocent people. God Damn America for treating us citizens as less than human. God Damn America as long as she tries to act like she is God and she is Supreme.”
“The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent. Think about this. Think about this. For every one Oprah, a billionaire, you’ve got 5 million blacks that are out of work. For every one Colin Powell, a millionaire, you’ve got 10 million blacks who cannot read. For every one Condi-Skeezer Rice, you’ve got 1 million in prison. For every one Tiger Woods, who needs to get beat at the Masters, with his Cablanasian hips, playing on a course that discriminates against women, God has this way of brining you up short when you get to big for your Cablanasian britches. For every one Tiger Woods, we’ve got 10,000 black kids who will never see a golf course. The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent.”
“Tell your neighbor he’s (going to) help us one last time. Turn back and say forgive him for the God Damn, that’s in the Bible though. Blessings and curses is in the Bible. It’s in the Bible.
“Where government fail, God never fails. When God says it, it’s done. God never fails. When God wills it, you better get out the way, cause God never fails. When God fixes it, oh believe me it’s fixed. God never fails. Somebody right now, you think you can’t make it, but I want you to know that you are more than a conqueror through Christ. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.”
He then went on to talk about the salvation of Christians through the death of Jesus Christ. The sermon ended with a song proclaiming, “God never fails.”

Though I do not agree with all of what Dr. Wright said, it surely seems to have been said with massive passion and conviction. Thank God for the all-too-few prophets in the United States of America. Some day I'm sure that we Americans will look back at this powerful sermon and the distasteful realities that it highlights and thank Rev. Wright for shining light on our darker side.

America needs restoration and counselling, but, like I had to learn while taking the first Step in AA, America must first come to realize that she needs it.