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Jewish World Review April 29, 2008 / 25 Nissan 5768 PBS, Bill Moyers and the Rev. Wright By Dennis Prager
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When Air America, the left-wing talk radio network, began, I predicted that it would not succeed. One of the main reasons I gave was that liberals already had their views expressed in the mainstream news media — the major networks, PBS and NPR (National Public Radio), and just about every major city newspaper. Therefore, the need liberals have for liberal talk radio is nowhere near the need conservatives have for conservative talk radio.
1. "One of the most controversial sermons that you preach is the sermon you preach that ended up being that sound bite about G-d damn America." Moyers changes Wright's "G-d damn America" to "Poor Rev. Wright."
And why not? It is soon clear that Moyers essentially agrees with Wright about America:
"What is your notion of why so many Americans seem not to want to hear the full Monty — they don't want to seem to acknowledge that a nation capable of greatness is also capable of cruelty?" For the many Americans who suspect that most Americans on the left silently agree with nearly all of Wright's views of America, Moyers provided proof.
Nevertheless, Moyers' total failure to confront the America-hating, race-preoccupied mentor of a man who may be the next president of the United States does not mean the interview was worthless. Any time Wright speaks publicly, even with the most sympathetic of questioners, we learn more about the two motivators of his thinking: race and contempt for America.
Here is Wright in his sermon the Sunday after 9-11 as replayed during the Moyers interview:
"Terrorism! We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hardworking fathers. We bombed Gadafi's home and killed his child. 'Blessed are they who bash your children's head against a rock!' We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy. Killed hundreds of hardworking people; mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima! We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye! Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians — not soldiers — people just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant? Because the stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yards! America's chickens are coming home to roost! Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism."
To which Moyers offered another lacerating response: "You preached that sermon on the Sunday after 9-11, almost seven years ago. When people saw the sound bites from it this year, they were upset because you seemed to be blaming America. Did you somehow fail to communicate?"
Finally, as regards the Rev. Wright's Africa-centric form of Christianity, this was Wright's explanation to his young church members as shown during the PBS interview:
"We wanted our stained-glass windows to tell the story of the centrality of Africans in the role of Christianity from its inception up until the present day. We play some interesting games educationally with the kids to help kids understand — 'Can you name the seven continents?' As a kid, you learn that in school. All right, on what continent did everything in the Bible from Genesis to Malachi take place?"
And, of course, the Reverend and his church's answer is: Africa.
Now, as it happens, the Middle East is not Africa. It is Asia Minor, or Southwest Asia, if one must have an identifying continent. And Jesus was not black, nor were the apostles. It's all racial pride. And not true. Africa in the Bible is overwhelmingly Egypt, which was not black and not a moral model.
In sum: PBS has done some wonderful programming. But when it comes to the news or anything controversial, it is as politically correct and liberal as the rest of the news media. As for Bill Moyers, had Mrs. Wright interviewed the Rev. Wright, the questions and reactions could not have been less challenging or even supportive. And as regards the Rev. Wright, the more he talks, the more one worries about Barack Obama's values.
JWR contributor Dennis Prager hosts a national daily radio show based in Los Angeles. He the author of, most recently, "Happiness is a Serious Problem". Click here to comment on this column.
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