Martin Marty writes about the Barack Obama / Jeremiah Wright ruckus in the most recent issue of Christian Century magazine. Marty begins by saying: “This spring a certain Christian layperson has been criticized for not exiting his local church when he disagreed with something his pastor preached.” Just framing the Obama/Wright ruckus in this way shows how silly the whole thing is. Good grief, if everyone who disagreed with something I’ve preached left First Unitarian in New Bedford, the pews would be empty.
Perhaps Obama is just showing what is probably true of every American politician — that he values his political ambitions more than he values a religious community that has nurtured him and his family. Maybe that’s just the price you have to pay to become president of the United States, and maybe if you’re a black man playing politics in the United States the price is a lot higher — after all, we have heard nothing about McCain’s minister, or Clinton’s minister, yet surely they have each said things that would be politically embarrassing. And none of this reflects well on the American political process.
Well, you should go read Marty’s column (Link) — it’s funny and made me laugh. Given the sorry state of this presidential election, I needed a good laugh.
Farrahkan, Wright’s friend and the fellow Wright honored, said the streets of Jerusalem would be washed in blood becasue Israel allowed a Gay Pride parade to take place there.
These are rough preachers with rough preaching, and they mean it. Obama is awfully close to them. For some reason the press gives them all a free pass for the anti Gay stuff. Odd that we UUs seem to do that too.
Ya’ gotta love it how if you write about Obama, Bill Baar is there to reopen the echo chamber. Uh, thanks.
Bill, what does that have to do with Obama? That doesn’t even jive with Obama’s proposed policies on gay issues.
Call me clueless, but I don’t get the first two comments at all.
Well, at the risk of stirring up the restless natives, I’ll say that as far as I know Trinity UCC and Jeremiah Wright have both supported GLBTQ rights. They don’t make a big deal out of it, but check out this page on the Trinity site: http://www.tucc.org/rustin_bayard.htm .
Wright’s Church gave Farrahkan a Life Time Achievement Award not so long ago. Google around on Farrahkan and Wright… they go way back together. State Sen Jame Meek (also a mega Church Pastor here) is part of this crowd too. He also goes on these rants on Gays. Then Obama had Donnie McClurkin too. See http://www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=27524 .
There is the Obama you hear, the Obama you read, and the Obama who votes, and they’re all very different fellows. If McCain had a singing group campaigning with him, offering to cure Gays of their Homosexuality, UUs would be in an uproar over it.
Re Obama and Gay rights: write and ask Obama if he will support the removal of Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad’s as chair of Illinois’s Hate Crimes Commission.
Per the AP found here: http://sweetness-light.com/archive/noi-member-defends-rights-commission-job
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s appointment of Muhammad to the commission in August drew no public attention until she invited commissioners to attend a speech given by Farrakhan, who is known for his disparaging remarks about Jews, whites and gays.
Some commissioners began criticizing her presence on the panel after Farrakhan’s speech Feb. 26 in Chicago that included references to “Hollywood Jews” promoting homosexuality and “other filth.”
Obama says one thing, but he sure hid when this blew up in Illinois. No way Obama was going to condem Farrakhan…at least then.
The “guilt by association” assault on Obama will, no doubt, continue at least until november. The problem for the anti-Obama crowd is that none of it is sticking, nor should it, as they are completely unable to produce any evidence whatsoever that Obama subscribes to the cherry-picked comments of Wright and Farrakhan. …and i think in his speech last night Obama did a very good job of illustrating how desperate and baseless these attacks against him are.
P.S. Here’s a link to the transcript of Obama’s speech last night in NC:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/05/06/obamas-north-carolina-victory-speech/?mod=WSJBlog
….and here’s the relevant part i was thinking of:
“Yes, we know what’s coming. We’ve seen it already. The same names and labels they always pin on everyone who doesn’t agree with all their ideas. The same efforts to distract us from the issues that affect our lives by pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy in the hope that the media will play along. The attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences to turn us against each other for pure political gain – to slice and dice this country into Red States and Blue States; blue-collar and white-collar; white and black, and brown.
“This is what they will do – no matter which one of us is the nominee. The question, then, is not what kind of campaign they’ll run, it’s what kind of campaign we will run. It’s what we will do to make this year different. I didn’t get into race thinking that I could avoid this kind of politics, but I am running for President because this is the time to end it.
“We will end it this time not because I’m perfect – I think by now this campaign has reminded all of us of that. We will end it not by duplicating the same tactics and the same strategies as the other side, because that will just lead us down the same path of polarization and gridlock.
“We will end it by telling the truth – forcefully, repeatedly, confidently – and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change.”
It’s an association Dwight. A long standing one with Wright… until Obama dumped him.
Obama’s got a lot of history with some seedy stuff in Chicago… it’s all slowly rolling out… and he doesn’t handle the questions well in debates. He chokes and it’s a sight to behold.
I wanted to talk about the role of religious community in the lives of politicians. I hate having political discussions that have nothing to do with religion erupt on my blog.
So I’m going to close these comments. There are plenty of political blogs where everyone can go argue politics.
Love you all!!