Wright’s theology “not new or radical”

Some of you may be tired of the whole Jeremiah Wright thing, but I’d be remiss not to let readers know about a great article that puts Rev. Wright’s preaching and remarks into their context, and then explains that context extremely well.

Salon.com’s Sarah Posner interviewed Dr. Jonathan L. Walton, assistant professor of religious studies at UC-Riverside. It’s an excellent interview.

Walton points out, among other things:

1. Black Liberation Theology has been around since the 1960s and can be found in the curriculum of the leading seminaries in the U.S.

2. While Wright and Martin Luther King are two different people, MLK had his own “God damn America” moment toward the end of his career. Walton also says that the sermon he was schedule to preach on the Sunday after he was assassinated was titled “Why American may go to hell.”

3. While Wright’s statements about HIV/AIDS may not be true, they can be seen as shorthand for frustration with the government’s lack of truthfulness on the Tuskegee experiments, Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, etc.

Posner’s interview with Walton takes “black liberation theology” out of quotation marks [as it’s been used in the press, as if it’s something made up, as in “this so-called ‘black liberation theology'”]. If you’re still puzzled and angered by Wright, but open to learning something new, this article will help.