To be fair, I've been doing a lot of reading about Barack Obama and I find his story quite compelling. In fact, I am very impressed with his intellectual depth and his steady temperament, and I think he'd make an excellent president.
However, last night on "The Daily Show," I saw a brief clip of Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright preaching from the pulpit. He was talking about America's racial intolerance and he said something like, "It's not God bless America, it's God damn America..."
Oh, fuck. He said God damn from the pulpit.
With McCain already having cinched the GOP nomination, you have to know the Republican slime machine is focusing full-time on decimating Sen. Obama in as many ways as possible.
This fiery preacher man is not going to be ignored by them, hear me now and believe me later. He's going to be the biggest chink in Obama's armor, and it scares me.
I once had the privilege of living next door to a Black Baptist church in Venice, California. How I loved opening my upstairs balcony doors on Sunday mornings and hearing the angelic choir and the deep, resonant cadence of the preacher's sermon.
As a lapsed Catholic, I was impressed with the depth of emotion I heard wafting from that little church through the ocean breezes. I envied the all-Black congregation, but I didn't attend any services because I didn't want my ruddy white face to stick out and cause me or them any discomfort.
While I am pretty tolerant of most religions, I do not like churches like San Antonio's mega Cornerstone Church, where their porcine preacher John Hagee laces his messages from the pulpit with neo-con hatred and intolerance.
The Republicans seem to love these kind of white supremacist fanatics, but they do not tolerate fanaticism in religions that aren't centered around pews filled with shiny Caucasians who find justification for their own proclivities and biases within the Bible.
The dashiki wearing Rev. Wright is the kind of Black firebrand preacher who can and will be unflatteringly compared to Malcolm X, H. Rap Brown and Louis Farrakhan and the Black Panthers by the GOP. Wright's clearly not crazy about Jews, either.
Obama has either attended or been associated with Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for the last 20 years.
This association is going to hurt Obama.
In fact, I think this association will prove to be his Achilles heel.
I just hope he's assembling the country's best PR team to help him diffuse the shit-storm his association with Wright will surely cause.
A preacher just can't say "God damn America" from the pulpit. If it shocked me, well, you get the picture.
17 comments:
The only part of this story that I'm interested in is this: This preacher is clearly something of a bigot, anti-semite jerk. If I heard him preach some of that shite, I'd have gotten up and left--and never gone back. Yet Obama has been there for 20 years. Why would he, who is supposedly Mr. Inclusive Rainbow Happy Man, tolerate such hatespeech from his own pastor?
I don't know why he tolerated it, but he better be working on some plausible explanations right quick.
For his camp to excoriate eternal liberal Geri Ferraro for uttering an innocuous observation about race influencing his ability to run for president while he's still attending an extremist, bigoted church is the epitome of a double standard.
The preacher that you speak about stepped down from his post on 2/10/08. Barack continues to denounce and reject this preachers beliefs. My concern is that the Democrats are cannabalizing themselves and this will be the downfall that will keep the Repugs in office in November.
I haven't heard that Wright left the pulpit, nor Obama's denunciation of him, but I'll take your anonymous word for it.
Still, a picture's worth a thousand words, even if it was taken before last month.
The Democrats always do this in primaries, are you kidding?
It just seems more obvious now because neither candidate is a white man.
Still, most true Democrats will support whoever wins. I know my fellow Hillary supporters will, at least.
Update: As of yesterday, Wright still is a member of Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee.
Obama needs to dump this wingnut faster than you can say "public denunciation."
Scarymonstersupercreep.
Mythoughtsexactly.
Karen...I suggest go to the Huffington Post and Barack Obama's post. He clearly denounces himself from Wright's statements. Cris (Anonymous)
I don't know anything about the preacher, but maybe years of biting his tongue while being treated like a second class citizen finally caught up with him. Freedom of speech shouldn't require denouncing and renouncing and condemning. We should be able to say any crazy ass thing we want, its still America.
The bigger question for me is, why the hell isn't everyone angry?
The only time white men have shared their beloved power is when an oppressed group rises up, or threatens to rise up, against them. Look at Los Angeles for example. When Beverly Hills saw flames coming toward them from Watts, suddenly new playgrounds and better schools went up in Central LA.
I'm not advocating for hate, but maybe its time to get out in the streets and raise some hell about the rape of our country by our own government.
As Thurgood Marshall once said "I'm a peaceful man, but I love a good riot."
After 20 years of snuggling up to Wright as a parishioner and still having Wright on his "leadership committee," that's like a 30-year smoker denouncing cigarettes after he gets cancer.
Obama's spiritual advisor turns out to be a wingnut. Suddenly Obama denounces him.
Horseshit.
As for the HuffPo's Obama versus Hillary coverage, sorry Cris, but it's pro Obama bias casts aspersions on all of its cherry picking reportage.
BigSis, I'm as angry as any American, but you won't catch me saying "God damn America" in any church.
I like America. It's that God damned Bush I can't stomach.
Cris, I broke down and read on HuffPo Obama's denunciation of "some of Wright's statements."
It was brilliantly worded and seemed heartfelt, but it smelled too much of political expediency.
I hope it doesn't hurt his chances, but we all know that millions of middle and right wing Americans will cement this issue into their minds and vote accordingly.
Obama better not have any more liabilities of this intensity or it'll be curtains for the Golden Boy.
***UPDATE***
First, the good news:
Today it was announced that Rev. Wright has stepped down as "spiritual advisor" to the Obama campaign.
Now the bad news:
Turns out Obama has admitted that his crooked buddy Antoin Rezko had actually donated a hell of a lot more to Obama's previous political campaigns than was previously admitted.
These little scandals keep piling up for Obama. I just hope they peak BEFORE the convention so we Democrats can select a candidate who can survive the GOP's relentless search for mud to sling.
Oh, Zippie, you wouldn't stand up in a church n' say anything because you wouldn't be in a church in the first place.
(This is not an attack. I love Jesus but pretty much can't stand church.)
what i dont get tho is why the MSM et al is NOT all over McCain for his association (and acceptance) of Hagee's suppport.....
isnt that as bad as Obama/Wright
kz, this is going really hurt Obama in the end.....
The MSM is owned by too many right-wingers who would consider Hagee a spiritual visionary.
That lard-ass bastard Hagee is one of San Antonio's most deep-pocketed contributors to right-wing local and state politicians.
He also makes fat lady jokes from the pulpit, neglecting to notice that his own mega-gut hides his beige patent leather loafers from his line of vision.
Lulu, Sometimes I do attend church services. I have two dear friends who are preachers, one Methodist and one Presbyterian.
And though I use variations of the word 'fuck' on a near-hourly basis, I try not to use 'God damn' unless I am extremely angry about something.
And I sure as hell wouldn't say it around a church full of Christians.
Obama's speech on his minister, his church, and his inability to repudiate his pastor (while rejecting some of his views) was excellent.
Only the simplest mind gulps down everything his minister says.
I grew up in a church, and nobody concurred with the minister 100 per cent.
I've been impressed with Obama's sense of history as he sorts out where the Rev. Wright is coming from.
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