Is there a significant difference between Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “God damn America,” and what Rev. Billy Graham has often said: “If God does not judge America for its sins, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”?
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While very similar, I believe the difference is in scope. Wright damned the whole of a nation, while Graham called for judgment for sins.
Well, Rev. Wright’s sermon focused on more systemic issues. I saw the context of those comments on Bill Moyer’s Journal. Wright’s focus was on how all nations/empires in the Bible who oppressed others fell, whether Rome, Egypt, Syria or Babylon. He remarked that America could as well because of how she treated blacks, in effect.
As for Rev. Graham, I suspect he could be referring to homosexuality specifically or post-sixties social developments more generally. Regardless, Graham probably is mainly trying to focus on personal integrity and how it effects national identity.
Having spent a good amount of time around the African American church, I never found Rev. Wright’s statements out of line at all. And like the comparison with Billy Graham implies, this kind of calling for judgment is common in all kinds of churches in the U.S. (See “Damning America a U.S. Tradition”). This makes me thing all the criticism is political, or worse: a sign that the U.S. isn’t ready for a black president after all.