The African-American minister spoke in church the Sunday after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and related America's shock after "a day of devastation and senseless death" to a story in the Bible.

He spoke of the people of Jerusalem taken captive after the Babylonians sacked their holy city.

He told how a faithful people, grieving the destruction of all they valued, moved from reverence to revenge, from worship to war, from paying tithes to wanting payback.

The desire for vengeance was so great, the minister said, they even moved "from the hatred of armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents."

Even a Psalm, he noted, blesses anyone who takes Babylonian babies "and dashes them against the rocks."

"And that, my beloved," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright warned those wanting revenge, "is a dangerous place to be."

Beyond sound bites

A snippet from Wright's Sept. 11 sermon has gotten a lot of play on TV and radio. It's the one in which he talks about "America's chickens … coming home to roost."

If that sound bite were all you knew about Wright's sermon, you might question his patriotism. You might also question the judgment of Wright's most famous congregant: Sen. Barack Obama.

But if you heard Wright's entire sermon — the biblical text he preached from and his healing words on moving beyond the acts of "unthinkable" terror — you might not be so quick to condemn.

What are we to make of Wright's "chickens" comment? Those who've heard the entire sermon know that Wright was repeating a phrase used by a retired U.S. diplomat on Fox News.

Wright then amplified the comment by citing the callousness of some actions of the United States.

He said our government used terror to clear native peoples from their lands and to steal Africans from their lands. He said American bombs killed innocents in Grenada, Panama, Sudan, Libya and Japan. He said the United States supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans.

"And now we are indignant," Wright said, "because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."

Wright continued, "Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. Terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that (on Fox), not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who's trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we're now poised."

Love, not hate

Was Wright renouncing America? No. He was saying, Wise up, America. Recognize violence is not a solution.

Was that not the message Americans needed to be hearing from every pulpit after Sept. 11?

Wright, like most Americans, recoiled from the horror he saw unfold on his TV screen. He spoke of people holding hands and jumping from the towers, of "people on fire, jumping."

"And I asked the Lord, 'What should our response be?' " Wright said.

He concluded that this time of anguish was a moment for people to examine their relationships with God, family and faith community.

He said it's a time, too, for social transformation, of refusing to go back to business as usual.

And finally, Wright said, it's a time for spiritual adoration.

"I could have been on one of those airplanes or in downtown New York," Wright said. Instead, "God had let me see another day … had given me another chance to be the person that God meant for me to be."

"I am going to take this opportunity to adore you," Wright said, "and to say, 'Thank you, Lord, … for the love we have experienced, for love itself is an inexpressible gift.' "

E-mail: jhawkes@lnpnews.com