Rev. Wright, Obama, and Freedom of the Pew

This is a message I delivered on Easter Sunday after a week of hullabulu regarding pastors and presidential candidates--

Before I preach today, I was wondering…do any of you plan to run for President? (chuckles and laughter)

Without in any way implying who is the best candidate for President,

I’d like to shed some light on the controversy about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his parishioner Barak Obama…because it has implications for us and we need to understand our covenant together….

You see, some religious people believe that what the pastor says confines the minds of those in the pews…a belief that could be because they have not known anything different…

Clergy do attempt to define the beliefs and values of the pew in certain orthodox/hierarchical faiths where edicts are read to the faithful on a Sunday morning, even to the extent of implying how to vote on certain political initiatives…

but that is not true of those faith communities whose authority structure is congregational…each congregation being independent of any higher authority…Rev. Wright is a United Church of Christ Congregational minister…Obama doesn’t have to agree with his minister—which is called freedom of the pew! and his pastor has freedom of the pulpit…that is the way with their denomination, and it is the way with ours, and some Baptist congregations—in fact Mike Huckabee, who is a Baptist minister did explain this because he understands it and has lived it.

The secular world does not understand the relationship of the free pulpit and free pew, formed by a sacred agreement, a covenant, that creates a spiritual entity, a congregation, out of a simple grouping of individuals. It is an issue deeper and wider than political free speech.

The controversy that arose this week is a result of several factors: 1) ignorance of this covenant or that it even exists, 2) a lack of knowledge about the cultural depth and meaning of African American prophetic preaching style 3) an assumption that dogmatic preaching is the only way, 4) a conscious attack upon our liberal religious protestant way, 5) not to mention the obvious political motivations.

I never in my right mind thought that all of you would ever all agree with any one of my sermon points! That’s just not very Unitarian Universalist.

Any minister who takes some risks with their sermons would be vulnerable to quotes taken out of context. I would not expect you to ever have to defend me or renounce me or leave the congregation if you didn’t agree with me!

What I do hope is that I give you something to think and feel about that is relevant in your life…that helps you to continue to know yourself more deeply whether because you agree or you disagree, and that you will hear something that motivates you to share our commonly held values of working for more understanding, love and justice in our world.

That said, let me know if you are planning to run for office!

Warmly, Peg