Knowing Wright from Wrong

I concede readily that the Pastor Wright controversy is a punch in the head to the Obama campaign. But on the bright side, it does offer evidence that Obama may not really be a Wahabi jihadist.

Beyond the politics, I'm pondering what the reaction to Wright says about our citizenry.

Wright got a lot of cheers in those notorious YouTube videos. That confirms that his angry denunciations were reassuring, cathartic and vindicating to many in his flock. But what seems to be righteous indignation to one person always seems like lunacy to the object of that indignation -- and that's why so many conservative whites are shocked, shocked by it all.

And while what Wright said was inflammatory, he and his crowd would surely liken it to Jesus turning over the tables of the money-changers at the Temple. Truthfully, his comments about America's judgment before God are certainly in line with a New Testament view of human depravity and the need for redemption and reconciliation.

That's what makes me think about how so much of religion in America is just a diluted, nationalized form of civil religion that can make Wright -- or any bold person who makes us uncomfortable -- look like the devil.

Yet, whether a person is a theologian or a patriot, think about what Clarence Darrow said: "True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else." Maybe, just maybe, the pastor who has famously said, "God [bleep] America" is in that sense a true patriot.