What is the best way to contextualise Jeremiah Wright’s out-of-context quotes about America?
1. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said America is damned — cursed by God, though not permanently — because we tolerate feminists and queer people.
2. John Hagee says America is damned — cursed by God, though not permanently — because we tolerate Muslims.
3. Jeremiah Wright says America is damned — cursed by God, though not permanently, suffering from hate and division, from bitterness and envy — because we succumb to hating one another.
For my money, my Bible, and my democracy, that last sentiment has the ring of truth, and I’m not even a religious man.
(Props to Mobius.)
The average John Hagee sermon is far more offensive to me than what I’ve heard so far from Jeremiah Wright.