Posted on 06/03/2008 1:49:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A self-identified African-American caller to a Washington, D.C., radio station characterized the recent anti-Hillary Clinton outburst by the white liberal Chicago priest, Michael Pfleger, as a “minstrel show.”
Pfleger, who was preaching “another gospel,” which the authentic gospel warns against, denounced Sen. Clinton for her effrontery and sense of “entitlement” in trying to take the Democratic presidential nomination from a black man, one Barack Obama. Pfleger, who donated $1,500 to the Obama campaign between 1995 and 2001, is indebted to Obama because when Obama was in the Illinois legislature, he, according to the Chicago Tribune, “announced $225,000 in grants to St. Sabina programs.” Three months after the grant was announced, Pfleger donated another $200 to Obama.
Obama denounced Pfleger’s comments far more quickly than he separated himself from his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but one is known by one’s preferred associations. Obama’s friends and associates have a long history of far-left political and theological positions with which Obama has appeared perfectly comfortable. It makes one wonder if Obama’s denunciations are sincere or if he’s had a politically convenient “conversion.” On Saturday, in what might be considered spiritual and political damage control, Obama announced he has resigned his membership in Trinity United Church of Christ.
We have seen conservative preachers and other self-anointed spokesmen for God make fools of themselves by overindulging in politics and other trivialities and now the theological left is getting its chance to rush in where even angels fear to tread for their equal time and deserved mockery. As I watched the video of Pfleger (and Rev. Wright before him), I felt a profound sadness for the congregation, whose members might be enjoying the political equivalent of foreplay, but are being denied preaching that would turn their eyes to another kingdom and another King that could do them far more good than a politician of any color or philosophy.
Shakey’s Pizza restaurants used to have among its signs: “Shakey made a deal with the bank. Shakey doesn’t cash checks. The bank doesn’t make pizza.” That is the kind of deal congregations should demand from their politicians and pastors. Politicians shouldn’t do religion and preachers should stay out of partisan politics. If preachers want to do politics, they should resign their ordination and become politicians. And if politicians want to do religion, they should stop running for positions in the lower kingdom, enroll in seminary and become ministers in the Higher Kingdom.
The pastor at my church doesn’t do politics. The closest he gets is to pray for the national leadership, as Scripture commands. And before you ask, yes, he did it during all eight years of the Clinton administration. Preaching on politics would divide our congregation, which consists of Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Besides, what’s the point of listening to a political sermon, as if most of us do not already have well-established points of view? We don’t need a clergyman to tell us how to vote. We need a clergyman to reveal God to us. If I want politics on Sunday morning, I can stay home and watch the morning interview shows.
Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa Republican, is investigating “prosperity gospel” preachers who claim you can live like kings if you’ll send them money, thus allowing them to live like kings. One can argue whether government ought to be inserting itself into doctrinal issues in order to save the biblically illiterate from their gullibility. But the Internal Revenue Service must investigate Trinity United Church of Christ to determine whether it has violated its tax-exempt status by allowing its pulpit to be used for political purposes.
God can judge the quality of the preaching at Trinity. The IRS should step in and judge the quality of the politics. If Rev. Pfleger’s cardinal, Francis George, won’t go beyond a statement criticizing his inflammatory and bigoted remarks, Pope Benedict XVI should consider disciplinary action. As for Obama’s resignation, he must still explain how he could sit in the church for two decades and be indifferent to such inflammatory rhetoric.
However, I DID notice this. What'dya know, even a clock is right two times a day:
"Billboards against 'disrespectful' rappers: In 2007, Father Pfleger and the faith community of Saint Sabina erected twenty billboards across Chicago with the words "Stop Listening To Trash", followed by a list of ten "disrespectful rappers". Pfleger said in a press release, "If we are going to end the violence and disrespect of women, we must fight every form of negativity, including the music industry." He explained to WMAQ-TV's Alex Perez, "When you disrespect women and you continue to demean a community or race by names and by language, that's unacceptable. . . . We can kill with our words."[14]
I was told when young to try to say at least one nice thing about somebody, a good thing that swims in their sea of faults. I guess maybe that would be it. As an American, I have had my fill of loud, vulgar forms of rap/hip-hop.
....only his public reference to testicles (in slang), and some other vulgar utterances of his own were not too swift, to say the least....
Yet the Caucasian Pfleger has no hesistation to go up onstage and pretend to be a caricature of a Black preacher and act like an assclown in front of the congregation. Minstrel show indeed.
He doesn't have to explain it. He agrees with it. I think we all know that by now.
At last someone is raising the question about their tax exempt status.
We’ve heard endless media commentary for decades about the “religious right”. About time we heard a about the religious left, even though the coverage will be kept to an absolute minimum.
Obama’s Chicago associates are like bad characters who all once lived together in a psychedelic-painted schoolbus.
Cal Thomas is always full of good common sense.
Yes! Cal Thomas is such a wise, intelligent man and I always pay close attention to what he has to say about anything. However, I fear that American has fallen so far due to forced political correctness and to misconceptions about what racism really is, that we ignore blatant bad behavior from leaders of all kinds which is harming us, perhaps, beyond repair. I do not understand why the Catholic Church is not pulling this Priest from his position as a result of his remarks against Hillary from the pulpit. A big part of the problems we face is that those in leadership positions will not take the responsibility entrusted to them when faced with the need to take drastic action. Decent people will tolerate this only until the consequences of such reach their own doorstep. Then they begin to “get it.” This a.m., during my own private devotion, I read the book of Lamentations in the Bible. It is scary to think that this could be where we are headed. My own faith opinion is that God will not be mocked forever and if a nation gets too far out, it will fall.
yes
ping
We sure have, the difference is we tend to reject those preachers among us who exhibit such behavior.
The left rewards them with publicity, celebrity and big wads of cash.
I was trying to find one ounce of good in the poor, decrepit man. He did one thing that I approved of; I took notice.
That's all.
You’re right. America has been given much and much is expected of her. Because of abortion rights, gay marriage, pornography and the like, we ARE in a dangerous position. God will not be mocked and we are in the throes of His judgement. Think tornadoes, economic fallout, floods, earthquakes...it’s all either here or coming to a state near you. We need, as a country, to repent.
Obama’s grants to the corporation run by Pfleger, followed by Pfleger’s “donations” to Obama. This is politics. The larger the grant, the larger the kickback. I’m dismayed by the matter of fact tone in which it’s reported. It occurs daily on every legislative level in the country to the tune of thousands of billions.
Note that when Obama resigned from TUCC, he didn’t do so because he disagreed with the message from the pulpit, he did so because it was adversely affecting his campaign for president.
One would have to infer, then, that were he not running for president he’d still count himself among the “faithful”.
Wow, this hypocrite needs to take his own advice. He could do alot in his parish to "fight negativity", "end disrepect of women" and get people to "stop listening to trash" if he ended his anti-white sermons and screeching about Hillary being "privilidged" and "entitled"
"When you disrespect BLACK women and you continue to demean a BLACK community or BLACK race by names and by language, that's unacceptable... On the other hand, if you do it to WHITE women and the WHITE community..."
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