Carter is right. When you and I saw Wright's speech to the NAACP, we loved it. Wright is exciting, charismatic, funny, brilliant, incisive, etc.
He makes some outrageous, even wrong statements during his sermons, but they are all swallowed up and forgotten in the over-all context of his message, which is to do social justice, help the poor and oppressed, and not harm anyone. That is his message, which is very clear when you listen to him in context.
As Jimmy Carter and Mike Huckabee have both stated, many Southern preachers make outrageous comments in the course of their ministry. There is nothing new in that and, as Huckabee said, "You have to cut preachers some slack".
Of course, when these comments are taken out of context, and played by themselves, they can be used as a political weapon to frighten lots of people. That's what the right-wing is doing with these sound bites today, in an effort to destroy Obama's candidacy.
The Indiana and North Carolina primaries should give us some indication of whether Obama's candidacy has been hurt by Wright.
Either way, I'm happy to see Wright emerge as a powerful force in his own right, and as a voice who will certainly be heard loud and clear in this country from now on. Wright is gathering millions of supporters and is rapidly becoming the most popular minister in America.
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