Obama and His Minister
posted by Matt Friedeman at
10:46 AM
Friday, March 14, 2008
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- Obama and "We are building a religion"
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4 Comments:
Yeah, this is a problem. I don’t blame a politician for every nut who supports them or hold them accountable for every absurd or ignorant statement some supporter makes, but in the case of something like this where Obama actively praises the man and appoints him to important committees in his campaign or on the other side, when McCain actively seeks the support of a hateful eschatology-obsessed , warmongering, theocrat like John Hagee, it is most assuredly a problem.
Obama and McCain both need to disavow these ignorant people.
This is a slippery slope here because a lot of Minister including Matt have said some things or agreed with some positions that I find dispicable. You know where some of this hate and anger comes from? The truth. I was reading that article and alot of the stuff the Pastor said was conspiracy theory type stuff. God will have to tell us where AIDS came from, it is a unique pathogen. However, some of the things he said have some factual backing. I do not think people should get upset about things that are true. We should take issue with false statements. The Dept. of Justice has records to the effect that during Reagan's Administration, some guys under the direction of Oliver North were selling drugs in black communities to fund the Contras. That sounds pretty wild, but it is a documented truth. When people say America has supported terrorism, we have. Instead of being mad about the statement, we should expect better out of our leaders. Folks forget that when Saddam was gassing the Kurds, we supported him, he was an ally. Not to mention all the money we give to suspect groups around the world that do horrible things. All the talk of white folks being devils and talking bad about jews is unacceptable. But if I say the US government did experiments on black men where they denied treatment for syphillis, you might think I was crazy. Except that it happenned. Consequently wives and children became infected and in essence, the government contributed to the spread. I could say that sounds like NAZI tactics. Some people remain mad about things like that because America holds other countries to standards it does not maintain. The truth is what we should look for and it is not always pretty.
I'm afraid this is minor compared to most of the concerns about Obama. I don't particularly like all the actions, words, or beliefs of Rev. Wright. I do agree that the award to Farrakhan is pretty troubling, and certainly should have upset Obama (and the rest of the congregation). Unfortunately I don't think most people in a church congregation usually take the pastor's words very seriously anyway. I'm afraid it's also a bit unfair of Mr. Kessler to assume that all of Wright's "sermons" are along the lines of what he said at Howard. And if anything, I'm somewhat impressed that Obama does seem to have a more than trivial relationship with his pastor. Actually most of what Wright is on the record as saying is not any more radical than "mainstream" Democratic ideas. Some of it I even partially agree with. Yes, we have supported groups overseas that turned out to be oppressive, and possibly even terrorist (although I think our record has been better under Bush 2); we still have (relatively subtle) racism; we did not always take Palestinian concerns seriously or hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions; etc.
My biggest problems with his speech are that (1) some of it is really referring to past failures that are now greatly improved or less relevant; and (2) that he neglected to mention that God just might also have reason to judge our nation for killing babies, glorifying perversion, destroying the traditional family, gambling away our God-given resources, and turning our backs on God. Most foreign policy is (I believe) relatively debatable and ill-defined compared to the often clearcut moral issues that are facing us domestically.
The big picture is that there is an effort to paint Obama as unAmerican and racist. I have yet to see that exhibited in him. Yet, that is the intent of all the stories of him being Muslim, not wearing a flag pin, not saying the pledge of allegance and this stuff about his pastor. Let's make the argument substanative. I just do not like hypocrits like Hannity that did not want to explore Mormonism, but now with Obama, they are going over every speech his pastor ever made. Obama represents himself, his positions and statements are what matter in the end. I really do not like the idea of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh going through church services looking for things to pin on people.
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