Cosby is the real prophet, not Wright
Jeremiah, you’re no Jeremiah. Although Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, puts himself at the center of a prophetic tradition of the Afro-American church, he’s not much of a prophet.
Around the time Wright was fluffing his feathers before the national media, a genuine prophet appeared in Newark, N.J. to deliver a tough look-in-the-mirror message to fellow African-Americans.
The visionary was entertainer Bill Cosby, and his theme was encapsulated in the title of a book he wrote with Harvard professor of psychiatry Alvin Poussaint: “Come on, People! On the Path From Victims to Victors.”
For his candor, Cosby has been tarred by black and white intellectuals as “blaming the victim.”
“A prophet is despised in his own country, and in his own house, and among his own kin,” Jesus says in the Book of Mark.
The biblical Jeremiah launched invective against priests, kings and, above all, his neighbors. In highly unflattering terms, he tells the Israelites that their own iniquity would bring about their downfall. Purporting to convey the words of God, he says, “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by My name, and say we are delivered to do all these abominations?” (Jeremiah, 7:9.)
The public did not respond warmly to this negative commentary. People in his hometown wanted to get rid of Jeremiah. The princes put Jeremiah in prison following one of his bleak prophecies.
In America, preachers starting with the early New Englanders rained brimstone onto their congregations. One of the most famous no-holds-barred sermons was Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741). “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure toward hell,” Edwards wrote, describing the torments there in excruciating detail.
Edwards went so far as to publish the names of some young church members thought to be reading “impure books.” The congregation fired him.
Cosby may deliver his message in a more supportive manner than the old Hebrew prophets, but he doesn’t do much mincing of words.
Not surprisingly, Cosby has come under attack by black and white intellectuals who prefer the script that places all fault for the plight of black America on white America.
Last week, Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker introduced Cosby at a conference of community services as follows: “He’s speaking to the heart of the matter, and he speaks to the realities of what a lot of folks are experiencing.”
That’s what a prophet does. The real kind.
Contact Froma Harrop through www.creators.com