Monday Morning Insights

Photo of Todd
    .

    Barack Obama, His Pastor, and What it All Means…

    Bookmark and Share

    An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright’s sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

    “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

    In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.

    “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

    “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.

    Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright’s 9/11 sermon. “The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification,” Obama said in a recent interview. “It sounds like he was trying to be provocative,” Obama told the paper.

    Rev. Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.

    “I wouldn’t call it radical. I call it being black in America,” said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.

    “He has impacted the life of Barack Obama so much so that he wants to portray that feeling he got from Rev. Wright onto the country because we all need something positive,” said another member of the congregation.

    MORE HERE...

    Here is just one of the videos circulating on YouTube.com with over 172k hits so far:

    My question to you… what do you think of this whole story?  Will it hurt Obama?  And has it changed your opinion on his candidacy?

    How big of an issue will this be?  Will it be huge, or will it just go away?

    I’d love your input.

    I'm sure by now, many of you have seen the much aired videos of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's pastor from Chicago. According to an ABCNews story, The Rev. Wright has a long history of what even Obama’s campaign aides concede is “inflammatory rhetoric,” including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own “terrorism.” In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, “I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial.” He said Rev. Wright “is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with,” telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

    Comments

    if you want a Globally Recognized Avatar (the images next to your profile) get them here. Once you sign up, they will displayed on any website that supports them.

    1. CS on Sun, March 16, 2008

      I heard a funny joke on the radio about this.  Kind of an aural pun, so you’ll have to say it out loud:


      What do you get if Barack wins the presidency?


      You get an Obama Nation.


      What do you get if Clinton wins the presidency?


      You get an abomination.


      Get it?



      CS

    2. Joe Louthan on Sun, March 16, 2008

      Obama’s response:


      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7piGy0u43c

    3. Peter Hamm on Mon, March 17, 2008

      I think he totally adequately distances himself from Wright’s comments.

    4. Todd Rhoades on Mon, March 17, 2008

      Really?  I’m just wondering how he could attend and be a member for 20 years, and have him as a personal mentor for that long without knowing these extreme views.  I think it will hurt him in the long term; but am surprised it came out now, rather then during the general election.


      You’ll notice that the Clinton camp isn’t touching this one with a ten foot pole.  http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/smile.gif


      Todd

    5. kent on Mon, March 17, 2008

      This issue has driven me nuts. The words are the pastors, not Obama’s. Obama distances himself from things he has not said! I am not supporting Obama but this is just ridiculous. The networks have too much time and not enough substance so they go off and gather material like this. Argghhhh.

    6. Jerry on Mon, March 17, 2008

      Obama, the consummate politician, quite un-offensively distances himself from J. Wright. IMHO he should not try to be so polite and kind to Mr Wright. He should stand up straight and loudly denounce those totally racist comments. Racism is racism, no matter from where in the color spectrum it originates. 


      And stop with the “social gospel” Mr. Obama. I know of only one Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If Mr. Wright had been preaching the Gospel of Jesus, then he wouldn’t be preaching hate and using the rhetoric of white vs. black.  Jesus loves people of ALL colors and backgrounds, you know, the “whosoevers” of John 3:16. When you set up strife between believers of different racial backgrounds, you divide the kingdom.  Our goal as Christians should be to untie as many people under the banner of Christ as we can.


      Mr. Obama, tell us where you really stand.

    7. bishopdave on Mon, March 17, 2008

      Todd: “Really?  I’m just wondering how he could attend and be a member for 20 years, and have him as a personal mentor for that long without knowing these extreme views.”


      If your mentors heartfelt convictions are so far from your own, why has he been your mentor? Isn’t part of mentoring modeling? It’s one thing to be endorsed by Farrakahn or Hagee or whatever; it’s a whole other issue to have a MENTORING relationship. In south Texas, the older ones have a proverb: tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are.


      I think it’s a very valid issue. Being his mentor, as a voter I feel anyone’s mentor—McCain’s, Clinton’s, Todd’s—would be in their circle of influence, the people whose voices are listened to.

    8. Peter Hamm on Mon, March 17, 2008

      I have served relatively long-term (on a volunteer basis) in churches where I had some real disagreements with the pastor in areas of politics and/or theology. I didn’t leave and try and find some place where I agree with my pastor on everything.


      It’s not so unusual.

    9. Dean on Mon, March 17, 2008

      I understand the feelings that give rise to such comments and am not so quick to jump all over either the pastor for saying them, the church for applauding them or Obama for continuing to be a part of that faith community.  I hear things from my pastor from time to time that I don’t concur with but I belong to that congregation and most of the time the pastor speaks in ways that build my faith and commitment to Christ.  This is just another failure of one segment of Americans to understand the experiences and feelings of another segment.   The polarization is fed by a determination to discredit rather than to listen and empathize with one another.  I hope the posts on this blog don’t drive the wedge deeper.

    10. jhenrywaugh on Mon, March 17, 2008

      I don’t know, Pastor Wright’s excerpts are not much different than Luke 6:24 IMV:


        Damn you rich!  You already have your compensation.


        Damn you who are well-fed!  You will know hunger.


        Damn you who laugh now!  You will weep and grieve.


        Damn you when everybody speaks well of you!


      Oh, OK, it’s “Woe to you” in modern translations… …I think this “controversy” is another vivid illustration of how much American Exceptionalism has seeped into American Christians, and how they hold up an idol of nationalism.


      Nothing was untrue in Wright’s comments - while I don’t agree with him on all the things said, he’s not incorrect in pointing out America moral failings on slavery, genocide of native American, imperial follies, segregation, the 100+ year campaign of terrorism waged against non-white individuals after those Americans were supposedly granted Constitutional freedoms, etc.…


      Unfortunately, most Americans breadth of history is limited to jingoistic bromides.


      No doubt, my post will be tagged as “America hater” but I love my country, I just recognize that its far from perfect, and while not barbaric as the Roman empire of Jesus time, it’s a far cry from the model Jesus gave his followers.

    11. Jerry on Mon, March 17, 2008

      I apologize if anything I said in my earlier post was seen as driving the wedge deeper. May it never be! I am step-dad to racially mixed children and know full well the pain of being rejected because of skin color.


      I was trying to say that the focus of church pastors and teachers should be on Jesus and let the Lord develop His love within each of us.


      You can have your social opinions about who is at fault for what, but keep it out of the church other than to say, we’re all sinners in need of grace. If we need grace and expect to get it, we should be quick to give it.

    12. Wendi on Mon, March 17, 2008

      My pastor during my youth and most of adult life was a wonderful, benevolent tyrant (now in heaven).  Though he was always prone to being “on-the-edge,” as he got older, he would say and do things that often had us scratching our heads, sometimes hiding our faces.  Because ours was a large and influential church in the community, the media would seek him out and sometimes his inappropriate comments found their way into the public forum.  If I had been running for office, I’d have had to distance myself too.  People link you to someone, and although we know better, we juxtapose all that person’s views on us.  Distancing myself wouldn’t change the influence my pastor had on my in my formative years.  Someone can mentor us in some areas, while we still disagree strongly about others.


      I agree that Obama appropriately distanced himself, though the association might hurt him.  We should remember that after 9/11 there were some comments from well known evangelicals that we would be distancing ourselves from if we were running for office.  A candidate who is a member of Thomas Road would be facing the same problem, right?


      And I so agree with Dean.  Let’s not jump to discrediting, but try to listen to people whose shoes we’ve not walked in.  Assuming that these kind of comments come from actual experiences I cannot possible identify with doesn’t make me agree with them, it is just extending grace to that side and prevents polarization.  Isn’t that a better posture?


      Wendi

    13. CS on Mon, March 17, 2008

      Switching to a more serious gear here from my last post. 


      In all honesty, when Obama uses the Sermon on The Mount as a means of granting liberty to homosexual marriage, and refers to Romans 1 as, “An obscure passage in Romans,” when speaking about the same topic, I wonder where else his pastor’s theological and hermeneutics styling may have influenced Obama’s mind.  Just like Todd said, “I’m just wondering how he could attend and be a member for 20 years, and have him as a personal mentor for that long without knowing these extreme views. “



      CS

    14. Matt on Mon, March 17, 2008

      My question is: Would if it would have been John Mccain, associated with Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church? He wouldn’t even be in the presidential race any more. If you don’t know this church, their website is http://www.godhatesfags.com.

    15. PT on Mon, March 17, 2008

      Looking at this from another angle, my question is:


      How is it that Rev. Wright, from the pulpit during a public worship service, and in the midst of a presidential election campaign, can so directly and unabashedly endorse one candidate by name (Obama) while villifying two others by name (Hillary) and unmistakable inference (Bush) and yet in all this controversy and dialogue that has resulted all over the media, no one is questioning Rev. Wright’s clear endorsement of a specific political candidate from the pulpit as the church’s pastor or the effect this could or arguably should have on that church’s tax-exempt status?


      Yet, if a conservative evangelical dares to say something as innocuous and legal as “go to the polls and vote according to Biblical values”, the media, ACLU and gov’t are ‘all over it’!  Hmmmm.

    16. Page 1 of 5 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »

      Post a Comment

    17. (will not be published)

      Remember my personal information

      Notify me of follow-up comments?

    Sponsors