This was sent to an Atlanta area newspaper. Letter to Editor at AJC on 3/18/08:
Dear Editor,
The current spasm of “righteous indignation” concerning Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama’s pastor, smacks of embarrassing ignorance. Such a critique of Wright is not only ignorant of black preaching rhetoric and the practice of liberation interpretation. It is also disturbingly ignorant of the prophetic traditions of the Bible that regularly expose the failures of society in savage rhetoric. I am grateful for the ministry of Jeremiah Wright, a colleague of mine in the United Church of Christ, who for a very long time, has been a faithful pastor and a daring prophetic figure. It is odd when right-wingers misconstrue this belated Jeremiah as they do the original Jeremiah, who knew about God’s passion for truth-telling in risky places.
Walter Brueggemann
Emeritus Professor of Old Testament
Columbia Theological Seminary
Decatur, Georgia