Jeremiah Wright
One of the things that signaled to me that it was gonna be excellent was the commentary on educated pastors. Tavis Smiley asked how come Dr. King seemed to understand the connection between theology and politics and how important it was for the church to be the prophetic voice and "speak truth to power" against the powers that be-the government. Tavis then went on to note how many pastors today don't really become that politically active and he wanted to get some reasons as to why. Jeremiah Wright hit the nail on the head when he stated "90% of our black pastors today aren't seminary trained. Dr. King was seminary trained". This I think is fascinating to note because as we think about many of the issues that characterize our condition as black people here in America, many of the topics they were discussing, you could see that they were very complex issues that required some knowledge and grasp of politics, sociology, economics, psychology, etc. Many of our pastors are just not aware of these things and this greatly affects how they interpret the bible and what they teach. One word that they kept throwing out that I think the black church needs to examine more is hermeneutics- the science of biblical interpretation. This is where the black church renders itself irrelevant to many black people in the 21st century. You have to study hermeneutics in order to really understand the truth of the gospel. Dr. James Cone put it best when he talked about how we as a people would not let an untrained doctor perform surgery on us or let an untrained lawyer represent us in court, but we will, as Jeremiah Wright stated, let anyone who turns up their collar and says "thus saith the Lord" preach, teach , and lead us in our spiritual development. I think this is why Paul Morton was silent most of the day, because they set the foundation for discussion that was going to make him look foolish if he continued to open his mouth. And the few times he did say something, it just revealed his ignorance. What do you guys think?
Blackwatch!!!!!!
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