Shame on you Barack Obama.
Posted on 03/15/2008 8:43:45 AM PDT by DeweyCA
As the media begins to examine Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright of the Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC), Obama will distance himself from Wright's virulent racism. That exercise will display some interesting linguistic choreography and promises to be an example of incredible denial.
For 25 years, I was the pastor of congregations in a mainline protestant denomination similar to the UCC denomination. It doesn't take a preacher long to understand why people join a church, why they stay, and why they leave. In a setting where the pastoral leadership turns over frequently, laypeople will stomach a preacher they don't like for a few years in hopes that a better one will come along.
In settings where the preacher stays indefinitely, as at Trinity, the decision to join a church is typically more thoughtful and intentional, particularly where the preacher has a style that's noteworthy in content and delivery. That clearly fits the description of Pastor Wright. Obama has no choice but to associate himself with the content of Pastor Wright's sermons. They were the defining characteristic of that church. The Obama family picked it, and they've stayed for 20 years. It's their church, and any denial of that association is incredible.
"Guilt by Association" is not the relevant concept. It's "Agreement by Association" that is.
I was sitting in my church office one day when two men from my church asked to speak with me. They represented two of the five most active families in the congregation. Sitting across from me, they quickly came to the point asking, "Do you think homosexuality is a sin?"
I'd never addressed the topic from the pulpit, but the denomination was struggling with the issue, as most were, and still are. I said I didn't know the answer, but believed that some people were born with a genetic proclivity toward being homosexual. I added that if a sin was involved it might be in yielding to the urge to practice that proclivity. But on balance, I didn't look at it as a theological issue.
They asked, "So you won't say that homosexuality is a sin?" "No, I won't.," was my answer. My response didn't please them, and they and their families soon left the church and went where they got the answer they wanted. Here's my point:
When intelligent people are serious about their faith, they pick their church home very intentionally and with considerable forethought. When they stay, they do so intentionally, and with commitment. If they don't approve of what they hear from the pulpit, or what they don't hear from the pulpit, they leave, as well they should. There are exceptions, but those are relatively few.
Barack Obama either agreed with what was preached from the Trinity pulpit, or he tuned it out and stayed around pretending to for political reasons. To say he stayed for 20 years but doesn't agree with Wright's preaching is incredible denial. It'd be like a man buying White Sox season tickets for 20 years, attending the games, and saying he's not a fan.
(The writer's name has been withheld at his request -- editor)
Whatever the reason that Obama continually chose to go there for 20 years, have this guy as his mentor, and continually expose his children to this pastor and the racist people in the congregation who agree with the pastor, tells us that Obama does NOT have high ethical standards, and does not take a serious view of authentic Christianity. I am probably more selective about choosing a church than most people, but I can't imagine ANY of friends choosing a church comparable to to this racist, anti-American place.
lets see he gave 22,500 to the racist church in 2006.
“It’d be like a man buying White Sox season tickets for 20 years, attending the games, and saying he’s not a fan.”
No doubt written by a Cubs fan.
Obama has known who this guy (Wright) was and what he represented for many years.
It is not credible to think that he could go there for 20 years, donate so much money there, be married by the guy, have him baptize his children, make him a religious counseler on his campaign, claim that he his his mentore fr Heaven’s sake...and yet know so little about the guy.
These statements by Wright, this hateful rhetoric are this guy’s MO. I believe Obama has shot his foot clean off over this.
If he did know (and he surely did) then he is a liar and complicit with the hate. If he did not know, then his judgement and powers of perception are so pathetically inadequate as to compromise and disqualify him in any case.
Obama is saying that he DID NOT hear the racist comments coming from his Pastor. He “wasn’t there” when this type of sermon was preached. Hence, he did not know of this...........like anyone is going to believe him??? Does he think the whole of America is stupid??
Every Republican campaign surrogate should make sure to credit the Clinton Campaign with this information coming out now. That way in the Fall, we can say “As Hillary Clinton pointed out last March...”, which will make our attacks far more effective.
Shame on you Barack Obama.
You are correct in your assessment of this pastor. And the pastor’s salient points about Obama’s Agreement-by-Association with that anti-American racist “Reverend” is all too damning indeed.
“Barack either agreed with the pastor’s teachings or he faithfully attended and supported this racist preacher for purely political reasons.”
Right. He needed street creds, something to make him “black” and stop the anticipated initial grumblings from the Sharpton and Jackson camps who tried to spin him as an Uncle Tom, and secondly, he needed to “demonstrate” his Christianity. This store front church filled the bill, killing two birds with one stone.
He has little experience, but assures us that he has phenomenal "judgement" and therefore we should take him seriously and make him President of the US.
Everybody in Chicago knows who Wright is. .....Except Obambi, aka Senator Oblivious..
As a former preacher, his cowardice is sickening. I wasn't aware the the UCC employed liars. Good to know.
Obama is handling this thing really badly. He's underestimating how radioactive this Pastor is. I've been expecting the Obama campaign to flame out over a stupid mistake, like Dukakis did in the tank. He's too naive and inexperienced at the game. It's pretty much inevitable, but frankly I didn't expect it so soon.
This one may not take him out of the fight, but it's a hard punch that's hurt him more than he realizes. He won't survive the next one. He's going down.
had NO IDEA!!!!
Yarite.
"Vice President Al Gore changed his answers during FBI interviews when confronted with documents in a fund-raising investigation and suggested he may have missed part of a meeting in which campaign-finance issues may have been discussed because he drank too much iced tea, FBI documents show."
Also what scares me is that I saw Obama’s denial on Fox, and he seemed so convincing and comfortable in what he was saying. BJ Clinton was “ab unusually good liar” (in the words of former Nebraska Democrat Senator Bob Kerrey). Now it looks like Obama is in the same mold. He is very adept at speaking falsehoods; a much better and smoother liar than Hillary.
Does he think the whole of America is stupid??
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Uh, yes.
He said NOTHING and people fainted. How would this make him think anything else?
“By their fruits you shall know them”...
The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
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