# Jeremiah Wright Steps In It Again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 10, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393 "2009-06-10T23:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/181 "2009-06-12T16:26:01Z")
> [@Early\_Out](#): > > Jon Krakauer put it pretty succinctly: > If a seemingly intelligent person tells me that his dog is actually the reincarnation of Pocahontas, and speaks to him, I don’t feel it necessary to spend more than a fraction of a second examining the possibility that his dog is anything other than a dog. The person is either pulling my leg, or he’s not as bright as I thought he was - or perhaps he’s intelligent, but his judgment is seriously flawed. > > The notion that all ideas are equally worthy of consideration is not supportable. Pursued to its logical conclusion, it would make it impossible for anyone to get through the day. You clearly don’t understand why people go to church or what they get out of it. Krakauer is talking about religious fundamentalists in that book. If you are comparing every religious person to Warren Jeffs then you have a very simplistic way of looking at things, one that probably is fairly simplistic in all matters. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/182 "2009-06-12T16:28:29Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > After the election. Wright left Chicago and moved into the white house as spiritual adviser. When he speaks, he speaks for the entire administration and all democrats. When you hear him, think that is what Obama really thinks. Understand that all dems agree and back Wright. Shodan warned you before the election and you did not listen. Don’t be so faggy. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/183 "2009-06-12T16:30:28Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > The idea that Wright said nothing offensive is preposterous. (God Damn America?) Just because you agree with him doesn’t make it inoffensive. What does “offensive” mean, then? “A comment that could potentially offend one person?” Loads of people were offended by what Wright said, so how can the offensiveness be debated? It’s debatable how many people understood the comment in the first place, since it was in some cases wilfully misinterpreted. I won’t bother arguing about Obama’s religiosity, but how often did he go to the church in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/184 "2009-06-12T16:49:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What does “offensive” mean, then? “A comment that could potentially offend one person?” Loads of people were offended by what Wright said, so how can the offensiveness be debated? It’s debatable how many people understood the comment in the first place, since it was in some cases wilfully misinterpreted. It’s offensive to certain people. It means what it means. Just because you don’t care doesn’t mean others don’t, or that you personally are incapable of understanding that it offends a lot of people. And yes, it was willfully misinterpreted. > [@](#): > > I won’t bother arguing about Obama’s religiosity, but how often did he go to the church in the first place? I understood it to be regular attendance. I think a lot of people don’t understand what’s going on, and don’t want to understand beyond the need to confirm their bias. What Jeremiah Wright says, IME is pretty common in the black community. I’ve heard those kinds of things stated commonly, but then again my experience with black people is often black leftists, so my sample is skewed. I think Obama broke with Wright because Wright was getting more and more belligerent during the campaign process. Wright was effectively sabotaging Obama because he couldn’t handle taking a step back and letting Obama do his thing. Obama split with him because he wouldn’t get with the program, not because Obama suddenly thought his ideas were no longer worthwhile. Jeremiah Wright is a Red Herring. People on the right overestimate his influence on Obama and people on the left underestimate it. It is quite common IME for black people to feel like the US Government is an entity by and for OTHER people, and people like Jeremiah Wright get up there and say what a lot of people are thinking. Obama’s attempts at ‘CHANGE’ are specifically based around changing the perception that it’s by and for other people. Wright couldn’t set down the anger over past transgressions long enough to get with that program, so Obama cut him loose. Wright says things that are offensive, and says them regularly. There is no reason to downplay that, there is no reason to try and create some superficial narrative that confirms our own biases about Obama in order to judge his religiousity based upon our own prejudices regarding religiousity. Yes, he went there for political reasons, but I don’t think that politics are the sum total of his experience with that church. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/185 "2009-06-12T16:57:41Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > The idea that Obama had no real connection to a church he attended for 20 years is also preposterous. You mean like how Tony Blair refused to officially convert to Catholicism during his premiership in a country where the vast majority of the populace wouldn’t have given a shit if he professed his belief in a Supreme Being made of marzipan? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/186 "2009-06-12T17:01:52Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Don’t be so faggy. > > Regards, > Shodan I can not believe you jumped back on Wright. I would have thought you would have said that it was old news and irrelevant. I keep hoping for a grain of honest from you. Alas ,it is beyond you. It is sad. But you are what ever you are, no matter how small that is. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/187 "2009-06-12T17:07:45Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Don’t forget _That Strange Group Behind The Media_\* and _The New Yorkers_. I _knooooooooow_, I totally hate it when that happens I’m all, like, on the way to my car and someone jumps out and he’s like “so talk to us about politics?” And then I’m all like “The Jews control the media and they’re using it to subvert traditional western Christian culture!” when, what I really meant to say was “I object to all the sex and violence that the media is putting out these days.” Or maybe I meant to say “The Zionists control the media”, I’m not sure. But whatever it was, the fact that I used a blatant anti-semitic trope to slanders American Jews is only because I was surprised and caught off guard. Why, the other night my wife jumped out at me and surprised me and, before I had a chance to think, I was all like “Jews sacrifice Christian children and use their blood to make matzah!” I just say shit like that when I’m not well rehearsed. Obviously, I meant to say that it’s Zionists who make blood matzah. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/188 "2009-06-12T17:13:09Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You mean like how Tony Blair refused to officially convert to Catholicism during his premiership in a country where the vast majority of the populace wouldn’t have given a shit if he professed his belief in a Supreme Being made of marzipan? I didn’t understand anything here except that Tony Blair didn’t convert to Catholicism in Anglican Britain. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/189 "2009-06-12T17:38:00Z")
:rolleyes: Paging Carrie Prejean, Ms. Carrie Prejean to the white courtesy phone. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/190 "2009-06-12T18:12:39Z")
Yes, I too was looking for a way to link gay marriage to this debate. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/191 "2009-06-12T18:51:53Z")
See, now that **is** faggy! Darn that **gonzo**! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/192 "2009-06-12T19:25:40Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > See, now that **is** faggy! Darn that **gonzo**! > > Regards, > Shodan What did I have to do with that ,you ambulatory sphincter. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/193 "2009-06-12T19:43:36Z")
Hey guys - who is Jeremiah Wright? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/194 "2009-06-12T19:46:09Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Hey guys - who is Jeremiah Wright? America’s angry black man in chief. 😉 Al Sharpton’s term of office ended. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/195 "2009-06-12T19:47:45Z")
Oh, he’s the guy who speaks for all black people now? We really did need a new one. I hope he only has nice things to say, and doesn’t rile up the white folks like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson did. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/196 "2009-06-12T19:50:29Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Jeremiah Wright is a Red Herring. I had him pegged as more of a bottom feeder. I mean, he’s a snapper, he gives me a haddock and this episode proves he’s really floundering. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/197 "2009-06-12T19:51:59Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Oh, he’s the guy who speaks for all black people now? We really did need a new one. I hope he only has nice things to say, and doesn’t rile up the white folks like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson did. Nah, too late, he riled some people up. They like to get riled though. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/198 "2009-06-12T19:59:39Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Hey guys - who is Jeremiah Wright? The link in the OP still works. Have you tried that? ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/199 "2009-06-12T20:01:08Z")
[**Sampiro** , don’t ever change.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11231880&postcount=2) ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393/200 "2009-06-12T20:02:44Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > You clearly don’t understand why people go to church or what they get out of it. > > Krakauer is talking about religious fundamentalists in that book. If you are comparing every religious person to Warren Jeffs then you have a very simplistic way of looking at things, one that probably is fairly simplistic in all matters. The book was about people with fairly extreme fundamentalist views, but the quote applies to all religious belief - faith is the opposite of reason. I don’t think every religious person is Warren Jeffs, but I think all religious belief falls into the same broad category. It’s a demonstration of the willingness of people to believe in things that make no sense, and for which there’s no evidence. There are degrees of silliness within the spectrum, but it’s all silliness, in the end. If people get some comfort from going to church and engaging in rituals, I wouldn’t dream of denying them that comfort. But that doesn’t make any of it believable or justifiable on an intellectual level. I genuinely believe that humanity would be in much better shape if the seemingly inherent tendency to believe in the supernatural could be eliminated. I concede that it can’t be - it seems that every culture comes up with similar flights of fancy when confronted by anything it doesn’t immediately understand - but that’s no reason to surrender to it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeremiah-wright-steps-in-it-again/499393.md?page=11)