Title: Reverend Wright - In Context (full video) Source:
Crooks and Liars URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T6-O8GIylQ Published:Mar 23, 2008 Author:Reverend Jeremiah Wright Post Date:2008-03-23 13:15:55 by Arator Keywords:Wright, is, right Views:524 Comments:36
I didn't see anything so controversial about reverend Wright's sermon, thanks for posting it here. his interpretations are only controversial to the war mongers in our country, but his interpretations are very common and normal in the christian community.
here is Psalm 137's King James version in case anyone would like to read it.
I really like Psalm 137. The Jamaican group bonie M got their song lyrics from 'by the rivers of Babylon' from this chapter.
There was a kingdom of Babylon that was a rival to the jewish community in BC days. It was headquartered originally in Iraq. And according to bible prophecy there is also to be an 'end-times' kingdom of Babylon that will rule the world, that this ancient kingdom will be restored and rule in the end- times.
Many christians today believe that this kingdom of Babylon is today headquartered geographically in our country. and that we the Americans have been turned over to them, that we are a captive nation just as the jews were a captive nation to Egypt in BC times before Moses & god led them out. That is why in verse 4 it says 'how can we sing the lords song in a strange land'? As people who believe in god we are required to sing a song to the lord, but how can it be done when this new captor rules us & requires that we sing a song to it.
the destruction of the innocent infants by dashing their heads against rocks in verse 9 I believe is speaking about the slaughter of innocent civilians when America is eventually invaded by a huge army made up of people from all over the world and who hate America. This is to happen when end-times babylon is finally destroyed. and when end-times babylon is finally destroyed through this horrendous violence here on earth, that is when jesus will return, he will raise the dead and judgement of each and every person who has ever lived will occur. Some will be judged positively and allowed to live in the kingdom of god to be built here on earth at that time and some will be judged negatively and prohibited from this kingdom. This is the great separation of people that will occur at the time of judgement.
I didn't really like Wright's statements about how 'we' took this country from the Indians. I don't think our people are especially evil and I think that it is god who decides what the nations are, so I believe in the 'manifest destiny' concept that was popular in the 1800's. At the same time we did in fact do a lot of terrible things to Indians. that's not to say that they didn't also do a lot of terrible things to the white Americans. In the early 1700's there were a lot of white people murdered by Indians in the eastern part of the US. The Indians did have organized drives where they murdered whole families & villages of whites systematically. At the same time, my great-great- grandfather participated in a US Army slaughter of a village of 300 Indians in a village near Tucson. and there were many evil things done to the Indians.
Consider some other things about US policy especially in recent decades. The US imposed economic sanctions on Iraq and that killed one million people, mostly children. The US encouraged the war between Iraq & Iran in the 1980's and that killed 1 million people. The US paid Iraq to attack Iran and that is what started the war. Our country does have chickens to come home to roost. consider how the US government has decided to subsidize ethanol even though the production of ethanol is not economical and does not save energy, it costs more energy to produce the ethanol than what is produced by the ethanol. And this policy has caused grain prices to more than double in the last few years, and this causes starvation for millions of people. The poor in Indonesia, Phillipines, Bengladesh, India and many other countries are persecuted severely by this policy.
There are many descriptions of end-times Babylon in the bible. and many people have for decades now noted that it bears an uncanny resemblance to the US-based world empire now ruling. One small description of these end-times is that things will be arranged so that the rich do very well economically and have no problems, but that things will be arranged so that the poor simply can't make it. The bible says that when god hears the cries of these poor people, then he will release the violence that will take babylon down, it will be done very suddenly with overwhelming force and much violence. That is what verse 9 is about.
There was a time when jesus was sacrificed to bring about the forgiveness of sins and a new understanding we call the new covenant. and there will be a time when god's favorite nation will be sacrificed as well to bring about the kingdom of god here on earth.
Like I said, Wright's comments that I saw above at least, are not controversial or unusual, except of course to the war-monger who sees our country as god's tool doing justice by killing muslims and others around the world. remember what jesus said though - that he who lives by the sword will also die by the sword.