Gerald Britt is Vice President of Public Policy and Community Program Development for Central Dallas Ministries.  In a previous life he was pastor of New Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Dallas.  Rev. Britt argues that the media flap over Jeremiah Wright’s preaching shows how little white people know about the Black church. 

When I was just cutting my teeth as a Baptist minister a seasoned black pastor joined the staff of my home church, McLaurin Memorial, in Edmonton, Alberta.  “You do pretty good for a white preacher,” he said after hearing me preach.  “I like the way you modulate your voice.  Too many white preachers drone along in a monotone, and that’s hard for folks to listen to.”

Black preachers (at least the good ones) are masters of modulation.  They move from a whisper, to flights of rhetorical fury and back again.  They make church musicians (generally the organist) and the congregation part of the production.  Black worship is participatory.

Rev. Britt agrees with the old bromide that eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week, but he has no great passion for integrated worship.  The traditions of Black worship are rooted in a painful and singular history and it is unlikely that many white people could relate even if they wanted to.  

Nonetheless, segregated worship has its downside.  White America (especially secular white America) misread Jeremiah White’s preaching because they weren’t familiar with the extreme emotion black preachers can unleash in the pulpit.

When Jeremiah Wright shouted “God damn America,” he wasn’t being unpatriotic, Britt argues, he was being prophetic.  When the congregation responded rapturously to this rhetoric it was showing an appreciation for the difference between patriotism and nationalism.  

Although I grew up worshipping white, I was baffled by the media’s feeble grasp of black preaching and the tradition of Black liberation theology.  As Rev. Britt argues, historical prophets like Jeremiah Write’s namesake subjected ancient Israel to the same scathing critique the Chicago preacher unleashed against his country of birth. 

Christians, even the most patriotic, are citizens of the Kingdom of God first, and citizens of their country of residence second.  Few white Protestants have come to grips with this fact.  America, like every other nation on earth, is subject to the judgment of God.  Living under oppression makes this fact obvious; the fruits of white privilige make it hard to grasp.  As Jesus put it, we cannot worship God and Mammon (material prosperity). 

Rev. Britt isn’t signing off on every word that has proceeded from the mouth of Jeremiah Wright, nor does he criticize Barack Obama for distancing himself from his controversial mentor.  But the furious outcry generated by Wright’s “God damn America” theme reveals how much white people have to learn about the Black church and about biblical religion. 

If you care about bridging the perception gap between white and Black America, please give this excellent essay from the ezine New Wineskins your respectful attention.