Fighting for change is not an easy endeavor.

The effort is complicated, stormy and even ugly at times. Those who speak out to right the injustices they see about them are often derided, maligned (or worse) by those who prefer the status quo.

Sojourner Truth, a black Methodist Christian whose religious beliefs compelled her to work for the rights of her race and sex, rose to give a speech before the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851.

Having lived as a slave, bought and sold many times over the first three decades of her life before winning her freedom in New York in 1826, many hissed and sneered at Truth for daring to speak while others called out for someone to stop her.

But Truth had the last word.

Her “Ain’t I a Woman?” refrain from that day is now a part of American history, and the former much-abused slave is now remembered as one of the leading abolitionists of her time. Truth’s determined push and call for change made many uncomfortable, even angry, but eventually her vision was embraced by the masses and enacted into law.

As we have seen, social change has great political consequences.

Historically speaking, the most successful social movements have had a spiritual foundation or are led by religious leaders or others who lean on theology to power their work.

The struggle is that difficult and deep.

Those of us growing up in the veritable light and ease after the civil rights struggles of the past often forget that those we hold high today, such as Truth or Martin Luther King Jr., are often considered crazy or heretical by some in their own day.

I was reminded of this over the weekend as the much-maligned Rev. Jeremiah Wright stormed back onto the scene to engage and yes, enrage us. After sitting for an interview with Bill Moyers on Friday, on Sunday night he delivered a barn-burner of a speech to a packed crowd of NAACP members gathered in Detroit, and Monday, he spoke in Washington, D.C., before the National Press Club.

“Different does not equal deficient,” Wright said repeatedly on Sunday night. “A change is going to come because we are committed to changing how we see others who are different.”

Change of a very different kind, however, is what we got from Wright; his erratic performances raise more questions than answers.

While the Moyers interview was generally palatable and his NAACP speech was lauded by many as powerful and even funny, his National Press Club appearance, especially the combative closing Q&A, appears to have fanned the controversy flames again.

Wright’s underlying message, compelling in the context of social and theological movements, is now unfortunately lost in the ensuing din.

Was Wright’s social commentary supposed to make us comfortable? No. Is he a perfect leader? Hardly. Nonetheless, does some of what he has to say deserve our deeper consideration than what mere sound-bite replay and political pundit snipes currently offer us? Absolutely, yes.

But with all the drama he’s created, Wright doesn’t stand a prayer of receiving much more than that.

He’s missed a great opportunity to move the issues he says he cares about forward in a productive way, and that’s the real shame.