What if Jeremiah Wright is Right?

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the LORD.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.

Do not trust in these deceptive words: "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD."

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.

Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, "We are safe!"--only to go on doing all these abominations?

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 7: 1-11)

The Puritans preached such sermons all through their reign in New England: "If you don't stop doing X and start doing Y, God will rightfully destroy our nation."

Conservative Christians have preached such hellfire and brimstone around social issues for a hundred years: "God will destroy America if we don't stop X and start doing Y."

And this was precisely Mr. Wright's approach as well. The rhetoric of the jeremiad has always been that we have failed as a nation, we are pursuing false gods, and we are doomed if we don't act with justice and follow only the true God. For Mr. Wright to suggest these things from the pulpit is not shocking; it would be more shocking if he had suggested that America had gotten everything right, that God sees no reason for us to amend our behavior.

No, the Rev. Wright's ideas, however offensive, are not alien; in fact, he fits right in the middle of American ethical debate. That line about "chickens coming home to roost" that offended so many? Susan Sontag, described in her obituary as America's foremost public intellectual, wrote in The New Yorker's 9/11 issue that the attack, horrifying and evil as it was, grew out of America's foreign policy decisions:

Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a "cowardly" attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world" but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions? How many citizens are aware of the ongoing American bombing of Iraq? And if the word "cowardly" is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing to die themselves in order to kill others.

Many readers were outraged at the time by Ms. Sontag's analysis, and perhaps Mr. Wright's 9/11 sermon likewise was more angry than pastoral on a morning when people needed comfort more than confrontation.

But that doesn't mean that either of them was wrong.

When we make America, freedom, and success our gods, our moral compass will always be pointing the precise wrong direction, and our path will always lead to disaster.

The other day, on KUT Radio in Austin, I was asked why in my new book I took pains to identify myself as a Christian American instead of an American Christian. The reason, as I just said, is that we often make our nation into an idol. As much as I love and respect America and its legacy of freedom and human rights, I am more attuned to the responsibilities called for in my faith. If I am to be truly Christian, I must place my first allegiance to Christianity and my second to America.

If they are ever in conflict, then America is wrong.

That's what Mr. Wright said in his angry sermons.

And he was right.