Had Michele Bachmann been an irreligious gal who one day walked into a Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod church, heard the preacher scream, in a hateful voice, that the Pope was the Antichrist while the congregation yelled back “Amen” and said to herself “I’ve finally found the place where I can fill the spiritual void in my life,” then it would be comparable to President Obama joining Jeremiah Wright’s church and staying there for two decades. (In case you’ve forgotten, Barack Obama first visited the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988, heard a hateful, racist sermon by Jeremiah Wright in which he blamed all of the world’s ills on “the white man” (the money quote is when he described the world in which we live as one “where white folks’ greed runs a world in need”), and not only decided to make this the first Christian church he ever attended regularly (and had Rev. Wright officiate at his wedding and baptize his daughters), but he entitled the book in which he described his vision for America “The Audacity of Hope,” which was the name of that first hateful Wright sermon that Obama heard.)
I’m a devout Catholic, and I won’t countenance anti-Catholic bigotry. But there’s a difference between a bigot that publishes false, hateful tracts about the evils of the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand, and Martin Luther and modern-day Lutherans on the other hand. The former are hateful persons looking to defame Catholics in much the same way that anti-Semites like Jeremiah Wright defames Jews, while the latter simply have doctrinal differences based on a different reading of Scripture (when Jesus said to the disciple theretofore named Simon “you are Peter [”Cephas” in Aramaic], and on this rock [”cephas” in Aramaic] I will build my Church,” Catholics interpret that second “cephas” as refering to Peter himself (whom Jesus had just renamed), while Lutherans interpret it as referring to “the truth that Peter had just proclaimed” (that Jesus was the Christ)). And when Martin Luther described the Pope as being “the antichrist,” it came from the Greek “antichristos,” meaning “instead of Christ” or “counterpart to Christ” (”anti” did not necessarily mean “against” in Greek), because Luther believed that the Pope was putting himself in the place of Christ by claiming to be God’s voice in the world instead of letting Scripture speak for itself. Lutheran churches today still include that among their beliefs, and just because the popular meaning of “Antichrist” has changed over the centuries it does not mean that Lutheran churches espouse hateful bigotry against the Roman Catholic Church, or that pastors at Lutheran churches insert anti-Catholic (modern definition) statements into their sermons.
moral relativism that is needed to believe that attending a racist, anti-Semitic, pro-Farrakhan church *precisely because of the preacher’s (anti-white) statements* is exactly the same as attending a Lutheran church. As a Catholic, Lutherans are, together with the Episcopalians, the least objectionable doctrinally among Protestants, since they believe in the Eucharist, have the same numbering for the Commandments, etc.), so the libetal media will have to do a lot better if they want to convince Catholic conservatives that Michele Bachmann would be an anti-Catholic president while Obama isn’t one.
Well stated...from a WELS church member)...
When the press and the Democratic establishment (which overlap) gave Obama a pass on his church allegiance, they lost all credibility in holding ANYONE EVER accountable for their religious leanings. If they attempt to, the ready response will always be a reference to Obama/Rev. Wright.
Excellent.
Thanks for explaining that antichrist thing.