Jeremiah Wright and the Conservatives Who Preach Just Like Him

The subtitle of a great essay by Russell Moore in Touchstone...

For months, Barack Obama’s pastor lit up the radio and television airwaves with his comments...

The clips of the Wright sermons should outrage us. But we should be outraged first as Christians. The most egregious aspect of his statements is not what he is saying about America, but what he is not saying about the gospel.

But one does not have to be a political radical to bypass Jesus at church. White, upwardly mobile, pro-America preachers preach liberation theology all the time, with all the fervor of Jeremiah Wright, if not the anger....

How many times have we heard conservative preachers use the Bible in exactly the same way that Jeremiah Wright uses it? Wright uses the Scripture as a background to get to what he thinks is the real issue, psychological or economic or political liberation from American oppression. Others use the Scripture as a background to get to what they think is the real issue, psychological or economic or political liberation through the American Dream.

Either way, Jesus is a way to get to what the preacher deems really important...In both cases, the preachers fit Jesus into a preexisting storyline....For them, Jesus is a mascot, just for different agendas, none of which will last a minute past the Judgment Seat....

The answer to both is to preach Christ, and him crucified. Where the gospel is preached, the whole story of Scripture as it is summed up in Jesus Christ, people will find authenticity and wholeness and, yes, liberation—and will do their best to extend that liberation to others....