I agree.
Posted on 03/23/2008 1:17:11 PM PDT by melt
Carrie Budoff Brown sends over the transcript from Obama's appearance, airing tomorrow, on the Michael Smerconish Show on 1210 AM WPHT in Philadelphia, from audio the show provided.
In the interview, Obama says he's talked to Wright in the past about "some of his views," and defends Trinity, saying "This is not a crackpot church."
Smerconish is a conservative talker who's been defending Obama's race speech.
OBAMA: I will be honest with you that I didn’t have that many conversations with him over the last year just because I have been so busy. I haven't been going to church. I wasn’t hearing a lot of these comments. The ones that are most offensive are ones that I never knew about until they were reported on. I had had conversations with him in the past – in fact from the day I first met him -- about some of his views. Understand this, something else that has not been reported on enough is despite these very offensive views, this guy has built one of the finest churches in Chicago. This is not a crackpot church. Witness the fact that Bill Clinton invited him to the White House when he was having his personal crises. This is a pillar of the community and if you go there on Easter on this Easter Sunday and you sat down there in the pew you would think this is just like any other church. ... So I don’t want to suggest that somehow, the loops you have been seeing typifies the services all the time. That is the danger of the YouTube era. It doesn't excuse what he said. But it gives it some perspective.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Listen to the cheers coming from the congregation when Wright spews his bile that is anti-American, anti-semitic, BS. Give me a break. These Liberal traitors think the majority of Americans are clueless morons. I guess the ones that support this wackjob pastor and Muslim running for POTUS fit that description.
OK, it just has crackpot pastors, and a congregation who likes to listen to crackpot minister.
melt: "Yeah, he's right. The church isn't the crackpot. It's the membership that's used the "crack" and the "pot"...
LOL
Of course those who are of the opinion that atheistic Marxism -(which drives "Liberation Theology")- isn't "crackpot", would agree with him.
Pope Benedict XVI would disagree with them, however. He shows them how they're twisting Scripture:
"..But the "theologies of liberation"...go on to a disastrous _confusion_ between the poor of the Scripture and the proletariat of Marx."
[...]
"..Let us recall the fact that atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and rights, are at the core of the Marxist theory. This theory, then, contains errors which directly threaten the truths of the faith regarding the eternal destiny of individual persons. Moreover, to attempt to integrate into theology an analysis whose criterion of interpretation depends on this atheistic conception is to involve oneself in terrible contradictions. What is more, this misunderstanding of the spiritual nature of the person leads to a total subordination of the person to the collectivity, and thus to the denial of the principles of a social and political life which is in keeping with human dignity. ...
[...]
"..We are facing, therefore, a real system, even if some hesitate to follow the logic to its conclusion. As such, this system is a perversion of the Christian message as God entrusted it to His Church. This message in its entirety finds itself then called into question by the "theologies of liberation."
[...]
"...As a result, participation in the class struggle is presented as a requirement of charity itself. The desire to love everyone here and now, despite his class, and to go out to meet him with the non-violent means of dialogue and persuasion, is denounced as counterproductive and opposed to love.
If one holds that a person should not be the object of hate, it is claimed nevertheless that, if he belongs to the objective class of the rich, he is primarily a class enemy to be fought. Thus the universality of love of neighbor and brotherhood become an eschatological principle, which will only have meaning for the "new man", who arises out of the victorious revolution. ...
[...]
"..But the "theologies of liberation", which reserve credit for restoring to a place of honor the great texts of the prophets and of the Gospel in defense of the poor, go on to a disastrous confusion between the poor of the Scripture and the proletariat of Marx.
In this way they pervert the Christian meaning of the poor, and they transform the fight for the rights of the poor into a class fight within the ideological perspective of the class struggle. For them the Church of the poor signifies the Church of the class which has become aware of the requirements of the revolutionary struggle as a step toward liberation and which celebrates this liberation in its liturgy. ...
[...]
"..The new hermeneutic inherent in the "theologies of liberation" leads to an essentially political re-reading of the Scriptures. Thus, a major importance is given to the Exodus event inasmuch as it is a liberation from political servitude. Likewise, a political reading of the "Magnificat" is proposed. The mistake here is not in bringing attention to a political dimension of the readings of Scripture, but in making of this one dimension the principal or exclusive component. This leads to a reductionist reading of the Bible.
Likewise, one places oneself within the perspective of a temporal messianism, which is one of the most radical of the expressions of secularization of the Kingdom of God and of its absorption into the immanence of human history.
In giving such priority to the political dimension, one is led to deny the radical newness of the New Testament and above all to misunderstand the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and thus the specific character of the salvation he gave us, that is above all liberation from sin, which is the source of all evils. ..
[...]
"...Faith in the Incarnate Word, dead and risen for all men, and whom "God made Lord and Christ" is denied. In its place is substituted a figure of Jesus who is a kind of symbol who sums up in Himself the requirements of the struggle of the oppressed.
An exclusively political interpretation is thus given to the death of Christ. In this way, its value for salvation and the whole economy of redemption is denied. ...
[...]
"..For them, the struggle of the classes is the way to unity.
The Eucharist thus becomes the Eucharist of the class. At the same time, they deny the triumphant force of the love of God which has been given to us.
[...]
"...the source of injustice is in the hearts of men. Therefore it is only by making an appeal to the moral potential of the person and to the constant need for interior conversion, that social change will be brought about which will be truly in the service of man.
For it will only be in the measure that they collaborate freely in these necessary changes through their own initiative and in solidarity, that people, awakened to a sense of their responsibility, will grow in humanity.
The inversion of morality and structures is steeped in a materialist anthropology which is incompatible with the dignity of mankind.
[...]
".. the overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures which generate violence is not ipso facto the beginning of a just regime. A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people.
This shame of our time cannot be ignored: while claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make themselves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help.
The class struggle as a road toward a classless society is a myth which slows reform and aggravates poverty and injustice.
Those who allow themselves to be caught up in fascination with this myth should reflect on the bitter examples history has to offer about where it leads.
They would then understand that we are not talking here about abandoning an effective means of struggle on behalf of the poor for an ideal which has no practical effects. On the contrary, we are talking about freeing oneself from a delusion in order to base oneself squarely on the Gospel and its power of realization. ...
[...]
~ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (nka Pope Benedict XVI) August 6, 1984
“Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes, not divine, but demonic.” ~ Pope Benedict XVI
“...After all, every normal person wants to help the poor and needy, but helping them at the end of a gun, as the left always want us to do, renders any spiritual benefit inoperative for both parties. .... What we hear from Obama is the eternal mantra of the socialists; America is broken, millions have no health care, families cannot afford necessities, the rich are evil, we are selfish, we are unhappy, unfulfilled, without hope, desperate, poverty stricken, morally desolate, corrupt and racist. This nihilism is the lifeblood of all the democrat candidates, even ‘hope you can believe in’ performers like Obama. When Michelle Obama claims she is only newly proud of her country, she does not exaggerate. In her world as in Obama’s, they believe we are a mess, a land filled with the ignorant and unenlightened, filled with despair” ..." (Fairchok).
Obama: “This is not a crackpot church.”
He may really believe this to be true! This is where he’s gone for the past 20+ years. The Black Liberation Theology was taught to him, and appealed to his admitted sense of victimization (which was rooted in his vanity).
I doubt very much that he ever took the time to figure out that this is not a Christian message.
He’s deceived. I pray he discovers Jesus, and the true gospel.
Meanwhile, he will continue to be stunned and amazed at the backlash from “typical white people.”
It's unbelievable how out of touch the Obama's are. I think, OTOH, that these are typical opinions of those involved in the new-fangled, post-soviet Left. There's usually some strong class-struggle themes supercharged with a racial angle. Your link shows just how deep those roots are.
The Obamas' upbringing and wealth have left them completely out-of-touch with the mainstream of American life. They inhabit a parallel universe of ideology and fantasy.
“This is not a crackpot church.”
True enough.
It’s a crackpot RACIST church.
Only a crackpot could say that and mean it.
“That lying scum-bag POS.”
Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel. :-))
(btw, I agree)
Of course it isn't. It's a "Black separatist racist hate church".
“O is becoming more expert at giving evasive responses.”
I guess the “all black churches are like that” explanation only worked on some white liberals charmed with O’s race speech.
Now, now, Obama, do the right thing!
I belonged to a crackpot church for a long time.
Just ask the Very Rectum Archbishop Williams of Canterbury.
The difference, Obama, is that when it went barking mad I took a walk.
“KIll My Landlord!!!”
Exactly.
“Obama - Building a Religion”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtNr5-up0U
And Wright compares him to Jesus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.