Glenn Beck: Just ain't Wright

Current Events & Politics > Glenn Beck: Just ain't Wright

April 28, 2008 - 13:24 ET

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Rev. Wright Beyond the Bite; See His Context for Yourself

GLENN: I guess we should just start with Reverend Wright. I guess we should just start -- because I'm -- you know what, I went into a gun store over the weekend and I was shooting over the weekend and I went to the gun store and there's a guy who's standing behind the counter and he's -- I mean, let's just be honest. He makes me look like Michael Moore. This guy is very conservative and he says, man, I can't believe this Reverend Wright. I said, I know, it's unbelievable, isn't it? He said, why would the media do that? I said, I have no idea, I have absolutely no idea but they're just making him look like a saint now, aren't they? He said, what are you talking about? He said, I don't know, what are you talking about? He said, I just saw a report on ABC this morning. I said, really? I read it. What did it look like? He said, the media took him out of context, made him look bad. He said, I saw the interview with him and he seems like a reasonable guy. Mmm, sure does, he does seem like a reasonable guy, doesn't he?Well, I'd like to give you some context. I'd like to give you the sound bites of Reverend Wright but I don't want to play it in an eight-second chunk. I mean, let's not play things in an eight-second chunk. Let's go ahead and actually play what the man said. Start with Cut 6. Here we go with Reverend Wright just so you have a taste of what this man really believes. This is Reverend Wright on the pulpit.

WRIGHT: We confuse government and God. Let me tell you something. We believe in this country and we teach our children that God sent us to this promised land, he sent us to take this country from the air back, the Susquehanna, the Apache, the Comanche, the Cherokee, the Seminole, the Choctaw, the Hopi and the Arapahoe. We confuse government and God. We believe God sanctioned the rape and robbery of an entire continent and we believe God ordained African slavery. We believe God makes Europeans superior to Africans and superior to everybody else, too. We could choose God and government. We said in our founding documents as a government we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. Created? That means God, and endowed with certain inalienable rights. That means given by God. And then we designed Africans in those same documents as 3/5 of a person. We believe God approved of African slavery. We believe God approved segregation. We believe God approved apartheid and a doctrine which said that all men are created more equal than other men and we're talking about other men. We confuse God and government.GLENN: Well, there's -- I hate to play a 2 minute and 41 second sound bite for you, but there it is. I've got tons of them, tons of them. He sounds very reasonable. Here's Reverend Wright on Bill Moyer's last -- and by the way, I think he went on Bill Moyer's not because it's a friendly audience but I believe because they tried to bring Lennon back and Lennon, you know, they had his -- they are like, his body is intact, it's right here in the glass, why don't we just -- and he couldn't do the interview. So Bill Moyers did the interview with Reverend Wright but here it is. Listen.

WRIGHT: The persons who heard the entire sermon understand perfectly. The failure to communicate is when something is taken like a sound bite for political purposes and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public. That's not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me a whack-a-doodle, it's to paint me as something, something's wrong with me. There's nothing wrong with this country. It's policies. We're perfect. Our hands are free. Our hands have no blood on them. That's not a failure to communicate. The message that is being communicated by the sound bites is exactly what those pushing those sound bites want to communicate.

GLENN: Stop for a second. Pause there and then we're going to come back right there in a second. I want you to go to Cut 8. I'm going to go back to Cut 6 in a second but remember there's nothing wrong with America. We have no blood on our hands, got it? That's what he just said. Cut 8, please

WRIGHT: We say that God will bless the shock and awe as we take over unilaterally another country, calling it a coalition because we got three days from Australia going against the United Nations, going against the majority of Christians, Muslims and Jews throughout the world, making a preemptive strike in the name of God. We cannot see how the same thing we are doing is the same thing Al-Qaeda is doing under a different color flag calling on the name of a different God to sanction and approve our murder and our mayhem!

GLENN: Our murder, our murder. But we don't have any blood on our hands. What he tries to do here is say, well, that's just policies. That's not the country. Again I refer you back to Cut 6. Let's take this one apart. You can make the claim that, well, that's just the policies. Well, I got news for you, gang. If we as the United States of America are allowing our government to murder in our name, to do the same thing as Al-Qaeda is doing under a different flag, blood is on our hands. But he tries to say, no, our country is good. It's just our policies. Go back to Cut 6.WRIGHT: We confuse government and God. Let me tell you something. We believe in this country and we teach our children that God sent us to this promised land, he sent us to take this country from the air back, the Susquehanna, the Apache, the Comanche, the Cherokee, the Seminole, the Choctaw, the Hopi and the Arapahoe. We confuse government and God.GLENN: Stop. You know what? I am one of those hate mongers that believe this is a blessed land. I do believe that Columbus, through divine inspiration, was sent to this land. I do believe that the pilgrims, because I've read their diaries. They believe -- they didn't want to come here. They were afraid to come here. They came here because they felt the Lord directed them to come here. I do believe that we came here for a reason, but I also firmly believe, as did the pilgrims, that when Columbus got here -- and again, I've read the diaries. When Columbus came here, Columbus came here and became an egomaniac. It became all about gold. He didn't try to coexist like the pilgrims did and that's why Columbus never came back. That's why every time we set it up like that, it failed because God withdrew his blessings. God withdrew because we became about money and greed, and it happens every time.

I mean, I hate to point out to the reverend read your scriptures but that's what happens every time. Godsend you some place, you screw it up because you become arrogant, because you become focused on money or wealth or fame, which is what happened to Columbus. He was humbled. When he came over, he was egomaniac. When he went back, that's why it failed. Why did it succeed with the pilgrims? Because they remained humble. They made friends with the Indians. God didn't send us over here to take the land. That was man doing that. But this is a blessed land. And you know what? The more arrogant we become, the more we force ourselves because of our greed and whatever, the faster the Lord will withdraw his blessings and his protection. And just like it happens every time, we'll be destroyed. Not from an angry vengeful God but because we're on our own. Hey, we know what we're doing; we'll do it on our own and we'll screw it up because we don't know what we're doing. And yes, I do teach that to my children. Boy, isn't that horrifying? We should stay away from homeschooling because God forbid I teach my children that stuff.