Jeremiah Wright undermines racial reconciliation

Conservative black pastor Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., says the man who claims he led Barack Obama to Jesus Christ is mischaracterizing the history and nature of the black church.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright said in a speech yesterday at the National Press Club that criticism leveled against him for his incendiary sermons is not about him or Barack Obama, but rather "an attack on the black church."
 
Bishop Jackson, a Maryland pastor and founder of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, researched more than 400 black churches for the book he co-authored with George Barna titled High Impact African American Churches. Jackson believes Wright is "bitter and self-absorbed" regarding the issue of race in America and acting in an opportunistic fashion.
 
"He [has] just retired. He's trying to make a name for himself. In my view, he wants to elevate his own profile to that of Malcolm X or of Louis Farrakhan, or he may even see himself as a [Martin Luther] King-like figure in his own generation," Jackson suggests.
 
"But there is a megalomaniac behind the background that we are looking at -- and I think he did horribly," the pastor offers. "He was prideful and flippant in the interviews and didn't give the forum that he spoke in, at a National Press Club [venue], the respect that it was owed," Jackson contends.
 
According to Jackson, Wright is going about reconciliation in the wrong way and confusing the issue of race. "He is presuming to be a bigger fish in the pond than he is. And it is very sad what's going on because I think it diminishes Barack Obama's campaign, and it also opens up this wound. You could tell by the people who were in the room with him cheering him on that many of them have the same view that he did, and I think that's terrible. It won't help race relations in America," Jackson points out.
 
Jackson says the problem of race in America can be solved first by "bringing the church together, not fostering the hate Jeremiah Wright is involved in." Jackson has co-authored a new book with Tony Perkins titled Personal Faith, Public Policy. In it, they argue that in order for true racial reconciliation to occur in America, Christians must unite behind a set of common principles.