What would Madea say?

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

Tyler Perry has plenty in common with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the embattled former senior pastor at Sen. Barack Obama's Chicago church.

Both Mr. Perry and Mr. Wright firmly believe in a higher power. Both preach a sermon of self-reliance for the black community — Mr. Perry primarily via his plays, movies and TBS sitcom "House of Payne," which routinely feature church-going protagonists who pray that their current struggles can be resolved through the Lord's will.

Both men also enjoy a large congregation, although Mr. Perry's flock greatly outnumbers the Chicago-based holy man's followers, if ticket sales are any measure.

They differ sharply in one key respect, however. Mr. Perry's films don't point fingers at white racism or the U.S. government for the plight of poorer blacks.

As for Mr. Wright, let's just say his index finger might be hyperextended from all the pulpit pointing he has done.

Mr. Wright, the just-retired senior pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, infamously cried "God ... America" in a YouTubed video segment culled from one of his sermons. He also said the U.S. government lied about creating the HIV virus to commit genocide against people of color and compares the U.S. to al Qaeda for nuclear bombing two Japanese cities during World War II.

In comparison, every time Mr. Perry steps behind the camera, he sends out another love letter to his homeland.

Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore says of Mr. Perry, "He always leaves the race card off the table, with a nearly equal share of black and white villains and sympathetic figures."

"Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns," the writer-director's latest hit, follows a single mother named Brenda (Angela Bassett) who has every reason to blame someone, anyone, for her predicament. She lives paycheck to paycheck to support her three children — each from a different unsupportive daddy — and isn't sure what to do when she loses her job. She's broke, but her faith remains rock solid. Her prayers are answered as her extended family and a new love interest enter her life.

In Mr. Perry's last film, 2007's multicharacter drama "Why Did I Get Married?" Angela (Tasha Smith) shakes off her rejection by corporate America and starts her own successful company from scratch. It's a throwaway plotline, one among many in Mr. Perry's overstuffed feature, but hardly an insignificant one. It's the Tyler Perry story, writ small.