Did Obama's pastor preach hate?

While some label the Reverend Wright's words 'hate speech,' others point to a tradition of exposing social ills.

from the March 28, 2008 edition

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Albert Raboteau – an authority on African-American religious history at Princeton University who quotes the former slave in his book, "A Fire in the Bones" – writes of voices of "righteous anger and prophetic certainty" whose God "was a God of justice ... who intervened in human affairs to cast down the mighty and uplift the lowly. And a whole cloud of biblical witnesses supported their case."

Emancipation did not lead to full-blown freedom, but to Jim Crow laws, thousands of lynchings, Tuskegee medical experiments on syphilis in black men – and to black preachers speaking out as surrogate political leaders while inspiring their people to refrain from despair.

As Dr. King once wrote, there can only be deep disappointment where there is deep love, Braxton says. That's the way he sees Wright's deep disappointment and anger, too – not as hateful speech, but simply "radical," from someone who expects so much more.

Some say it may also be the style of preaching that puts people off, especially those used to a tamer message.

"Prophetic preaching involves critique and social analysis," says Dr. Fry Brown. "One has to be able to assess the needs and issues of a people and then, using language the people understand, say, 'This is what's happening. God is not pleased. We need to do something about it.' "

Drawing directly on biblical texts, the prophetic voice is not against people, and it's not complaining, but engaging people to change, she says. Transformation requires individual change to come first.

Those who know Wright say he's done a remarkable job at that. On Chicago's poor South Side, his church has grown from 87 people to 10,000. It is a multiclass church, black and white, and those who've moved up the economic ladder continue to attend.

While he has made some mistakes, "Jeremiah Wright is a prophet of hope – no doubt about it," Marty says. "People can't wait to get to the church, and you can't leave that place without a sense of hope."

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