SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:

A wise man once asked, “Why do you look at the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?”

It has been painful to watch as the pastor of the largest church in my denomination, the United Church of Christ, has been metaphorically stoned and literally threatened.

My hunch is that we are so terrified of the log in our own eye, we project ourselves onto him.

Much has been said about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the last month, and yet I suspect that very few have actually listened to more than a sound bite.

Cut to a scene of an angry man, with wild hair, in front of a temple, screaming and waving his arms.

He’s shouting and swinging a whip at people, shoving them out of his way, pushing over tables. With money flying his fury rises.

Watch that 30-second clip over and over again for a month, and you’d be denying any affiliation with that crazy man.

The wise man and the angry man are the same. He is the man whom millions claim to follow; a man who so upset his own society with his criticism of the status quo that those in power crucified him.

Wright’s prophetic words about race may not have been comfortable to hear, but neither were Jesus of Nazareth’s prophetic words and actions!

Those of us who engage in Biblical studies know the importance of “sitz im leben.” Just as we examine scripture with the intent on understanding the social context, so too should we keep in mind the context of the sermons preached at Trinity UCC.

We cannot dismiss Wright’s words as “crazy,” painting him out to be a fanatic and therefore ignore his words.

His message might not be something we want to hear, it might not come the way we are comfortable hearing it, but the truth is Wright is echoing the Hebrew prophets and Jesus, himself.

Just as people of faith led the way in the civil rights movement, we have to pick up the torch. Our work is not done.

We need to continue to have conversations about race, poverty, power, inequality, and discrimination. We need to be honest with ourselves to see that log in our own eyes, so that we might begin the process of removing it!

•REV. SARAH HALVERSON is the senior pastor at Fairview Community Church in Costa Mesa.

What would possess the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to declare that the AIDS virus was concocted by the government as a weapon in its ongoing effort to eradicate America’s black population?

Has Wright discovered the smoking Petri dish? How can a reasonably intelligent person proffer such an outrageous, not to say harebrained, claim with a straight face?

My answer is that while people often become strange when seeking gods, they become even stranger when seeking devils.

Identifying Masonic cabals, Elders of Zion, the cover-up of Jesus’ marriage, Israel’s central role in 9/11, the faking of the moon landing, and the murder of Princess Diana demonstrate that many have an affinity for bizarre explanations and are susceptible to the siren song of unreason.

Wright and others of his ilk pander to the fears of their audience by creating simplistic fantasies that reinforce victimization.

As a reviewer of “The Da Vinci Code” wrote, “The only thing more powerful than a worldwide conspiracy is our desire to believe in one.”

People succumb to the alluring comforts of conspiracy theories that allow them to shrug off responsibility for what befalls them.

Human nature reveals an elastic capacity for self-delusion in service to a desire to wrap all mysteries in a small package and tie it with a bow of finality.

The Bible confronts the tendency to imagine that conspiracy is the grand explanation of history and the overarching issue of causality in human affairs: Isaiah warns, “Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.”

Instead of pathological, delusional belief in the nonexistent, we must recognize that there are indeed real enemies who are bent on destroying us and who are quite honest about their intention.

The opponents of civilization have declared open war against us, but we indulge our propensity to dramatically miss the point of where real threats originate and exist.

Instead of poking around in the shadows to uncover the nonexistent, we would do well to open our eyes to the dangerous reality that is right in front of us.

•MARK S. MILLER is the rabbi at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach.