Barrack Obama, Jeremiah Wright And America’s Crisis of True Faith
Barrack Obama, Jeremiah Wright and America’s Crisis of Faith The last 48 hours has been probably Barrack Obama’s worst nightmare as his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has caused a firestorm that may wind up engulfing Obama’s campaign. Wright’s recent tirade against America behind his Chicago pulpit at the Trinity United Church of Christ underscores a growing identity problem in America as to what is true Christianity and the brand of Christianity this idiot preaches from behind his pulpit.
Let this writer make it clear that anyone with half a brain can listen to 5 seconds to what Wright said on March 9 and realize this man is not a Christian, he does NOT know the Lord and needs to be born again and meet the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, with his evident hatred of America and communion with anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan, it surprises this writer why Mr. Wright even wants to live here.
The reason is simple. Only in America can stupidity and moronic ideas like that poised by Rev. Wright freely be spoken. If he got up in a Saudi pulpit, or an Iranian pulpit, or even a Libyan pulpit, and said these type statements against the religion of Islam as he did against whites and America in general, Mr. Wright’s tongue would not be functioning to say these things simply because Mr. Wright would probably wind up losing his life. However, because he lives in a free nation where freedom of speech is one of our fundamental rights granted to us by the constitution and paid for by the blood of those in the military Mr. Wright blasphemes and rails against, Mr. Wright, and other morons just like him can spew their hatred and stupidity without having to be afraid of these type things happening.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday denounced inflammatory remarks from his pastor, who has railed against the United States and accused the country of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism. Obama called the statements appearing on television and the Internet “completely unacceptable and inexcusable” in a Fox News interview and said they didn’t reflect the kinds of sermons he had heard from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright while attending services at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Those terms are understatements if you ask me, which if your reading this blog I guess in a way you are. Obama, a member of the church since the early 1990s, said he would have quit Trinity had such statements been “the repeated tenor of the church. … I wouldn’t feel comfortable there.”Earlier Friday, Obama responded by posting a blog about his relationship with Wright and Trinity on the Huffington Post. Wright brought Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and inspired the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope.”
Obama wrote that he’s looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he’s been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor’s comments for which he had not been present. “I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies,” Obama said in his blog posting. “I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.” In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks. “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,” Wright said. “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.”
In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States. “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. 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.” He also gave a sermon in December comparing Obama to Jesus, promoting his candidacy and criticizing his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people,” Wright told a cheering congregation. “Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger.”
Obama told MSNBC that he would not repudiate Wright as a man, describing him as “like an uncle” who says something that he disagrees with and must speak out against. He also said he expects his political opponents will use video of the sermons to attack him as the campaign goes on. Questions about Obama’s religious beliefs have dogged him throughout his candidacy. He’s had to fight against false Internet rumors suggesting he’s really a Muslim intent on destroying the United States, and now his pastor’s words uttered nearly seven years ago have become an issue.Obama wrote on the Huffington Post that he never heard Wright say any of the statements, but he acknowledged that they have raised legitimate questions about the nature of his relationship with the pastor and the church.
He wrote that he joined Wright’s church nearly 20 years ago, familiar with the pastor’s background as a former Marine and respected biblical scholar who lectured at seminaries across the country. “Reverend Wright preached the gospel of Jesus, a gospel on which I base my life,” he wrote. “And the sermons I heard him preach always related to our obligation to love God and one another, to work on behalf of the poor and to seek justice at every turn.” I would respond to Mr. Obama’s comments by asking a simple question. Are the comments heard on Sunday the gospel of Jesus? ABSOLUTELY NOT! However, for an American church who gets their gospel from Oprah Winfrey and Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, such a statement would make perfect sense to this writer that Obama would believe that is the gospel.
He said Wright’s controversial statements first came to his attention at the beginning of his presidential campaign last year, and he condemned them. Because of his long and deep ties to the 6,000-member congregation church, Obama said he decided not to leave. “With Reverend Wright’s retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good,” he wrote. And that is the other rub of this issue. A “church that has done so much GOOD,” is the reason he gives for staying at a place where an Anti-Semite and American hater gets up each week and spews his hatred without rebuke from the black community or any black leader who, had this been a white man behind a pulpit saying these things about the black community would have had marches and threats to burn the building down.
Also Friday, the United Church of Christ issued a 1,400-word statement defending Wright and his “flagship” congregation. The statement lauded Wright’s church for its community service and work to nurture youth and the pastor for speaking out against homophobia and sexism in the black community. Mr. Wright, and I am deliberately not calling him a Reverend because he is a disgrace to the ministry, does not just hold racist views against whites but also holds great contempt for the nation of Israel: “The Israelis have illegally occupied Palestinian territories for over 40 years now. Divestment has now hit the table again as a strategy to wake the business community and wake up Americans concerning the injustice and the racism under which the Palestinians have lived because of Zionism.”
Those are the babblings of a fool who needs to be born again and meet Jesus, Israel’s Jewish Messiah and the Savior of the World. I do not seek to link Mr. Wright’s sentiments with those of Barrack Obama who late Friday evening refuted Mr. Wright’s statements and said he was not present in person when these things were said, adding had he heard these things on a persistent basis in person he would have quit the church. That’s a real stretch considering Wright married Obama to his wife Michelle, baptized his children, and gave him the title of Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.” Obama defended Wright however to Fox News Friday night to a degree saying Wright talked a great deal about Jesus, God and helping the poor many times in the past since he and his wife Michelle joined the church in 1991-1992.
That is the rub of the condition of the American Church. If a preacher mentions Jesus once or twice then spews out racist hatred, arrogant anti-America and anti-Semitic rhetoric on a regular basis as Wright has done then he is looked on as a “Christian” minister. Let this writer say this without blinking and with all surety some will take issue with this. No Christian minister who TRULY knows the Lord Jesus Christ would say the things Mr. Wright said about America and Israel and have this history of making these separatist and racist remarks. If this brand of the Christian faith is what most Americans believe is true Christianity then friend we have a serious problem and a severe crisis of faith in this nation. The FOOL has said in his heart, “there is no God.”
The great Apostle Peter further declared that perverse and foolish men who “wrestle” the scriptures like Mr. Wright seems to do on a regular basis do so to their own destruction and the destruction to those who listen to such and embrace them. Wright is not the only black pastor who has shown this type of arrogance and in reality his own stupidity in recent times. The Rev. Joseph Lowery embarrassed himself and the entire black community in 2005 during the funeral of Corretta Scott King accusing President Bush, who was sitting right behind Lowery on the stage with his wife Laura, of lying to the nation about weapons of mass destruction and being a racist because of the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Lowery actually received a standing ovation when he remarked before four U.S. Presidents in attendance: “We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance; poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.” Only in America would such stupid, offensive, classless, tasteless, and moronic remarks get a standing ovation. Only in America would a minister disrespect the President of the United States who took time out of his schedule to attend the funeral of Mrs. King out of respect for Mrs. King and the Civil Rights Movement only to have to sit and listen to Lowery and former President Jimmy Carter slur his name and administration without blushing.
This service that should have been to honor Ms. King and the legacy of her husband, but instead in this writer’s opinion Lowery along with the other black leaders present that day embarrassed the black community and insulted the intelligence of millions who know better. This type of disrespect for government and leaders in America is a sign friend we continue to rapidly descend into the last of the last days and the foretold apostasy of both the church and the world. The Apostle Jude warned that men would become grumblers and speak against dignitaries without respect for authority in the last days: Jude 8: “yet in the same way these men,….defile the flesh, and reject authority.” Jude 16: These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak ARROGANTLY, flattering people for the sake of gaining advantage.”
What Mr. Wright said is not new nor is it anything different than the hard left in this nation that seeks to put the blame of 9-11-2001 not on Islamic terrorism but on America itself. This is the question I’ll end this blog with. Are we to believe Mr. Obama that in twenty years of sitting in this church never saw Mr. Wright’s connection to Louis Farrakhan? He never saw or realized the connection between Wright and the Libyan government; He never one time heard the same type diatribe Americans listened to on Friday in 20 years of sermons?
I’m going to give Obama the benefit of the doubt – for now. If it is determined he knew these things and even was in attendance while such things were being said and still supported Wright and his church then Mr. Obama’s worst nightmare has taken place and friend to be frank this has all the earmarks of destroying a once high-octane campaign that seemed unbeatable 3 weeks ago. Part of this blog contains news information from Yahoo News, copyright, 2008.
Tags: Barrack Obama, Calamities, Elections 2008, February 5 Tornado Outbreak, Hiliary Clinton, Jeremiah Wright, John McCain, Super Tuesday II, Super Tuesday Tornado outbreak, Tornado Outbreak
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March 15, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Muslims Against Sharia call on Senators McCain and Obama to cut all ties with their racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic supporters.
March 17, 2008 at 10:03 pm
RACE AND THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE
By Ken Wibecan
The current racial tornado threatening to overwhelm Barrack Obama’s candidacy can be a good thing. A serious dialogue on race in America has been needed for decades, and if recent incidents calm down we might get to that inclusive United States of America of which Obama speaks. Although he is 10 years younger than me, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, theologian, noted preacher and retiring pastor of Obama’s church, is from my generation. I understand why he speaks as he does.
African American elders still recall with horror newspaper and magazine photos of dead people of color hanging from trees. We were subjects of insults in movies and newspaper cartoons that were only funny to others. The myth of “separate but equal” rings in my ears as if it were yesterday. Then there was that all-Negro Company in which I served during the Korean War, three years after President Harry Truman required the Army to be integrated.
During my early years the only brown-skinned professional basketball players were the Harlem Globetrotters, and it wasn’t until 1947 when major league baseball was integrated, fourteen years before Obama was born. The Senator has never seen a segregated ball game. I have. We old folks were young then and active participants in the fight for equality that took place while Barrack Obama was being conceived.
He grew up in a different world, one more inclusive made possible by the activism of persons including Jeremiah Wright, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis and others of varied hues. Many who participated still bear scars from the battles and continue to vocalize their righteous indignation as does Dr. Wright. But for younger people of color to be forced to repudiate their elders because the elders still harbor resentment at past injustices is clear evidence of domination and oppression. It’s like asking someone to kick grandpa out of the house because they don’t like some things he says.
During the 1980s my best friend Rev Louis Chase, a United Methodist minister, and I were part of a multi-racial discussion group that met regularly in Long Beach, California. Following one of Minister Louis Farrakhan’s incendiary statements Chase and I were asked by several members of the group to publicly repudiate Farrakhan’s statements. We both refused because when one is asked to repudiate another person’s statements there is a tacit assumption that you agree with them unless you say you don’t. We found that concept offensive, and still do. Obama need not apologize for any of Rev Wright’s statements whether or not he was present at the sermons.
Obama is part of the new generation of Americans, more concerned with where we are going than where we have been—and he wants to lead America there. He is not an optimist. The “audacity of hope” isn’t stifled by the knowledge that most of the Founding Fathers of this country were slaveholders. Or that Independence Day for people of color is not July 4th, but January 1, 1863, the day the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Separate realities must of necessity fit into a cohesive whole like pieces into the national jigsaw puzzle.
Obama’s opponents and enemies should not hold his feet to the fire for comments made by others. In fact all the candidates should stop such nonsense. Hillary is not responsible for Geraldine Ferraro’s statements, McCain is not responsible for comments made by his supporters, and neither is Obama.
One of the freedoms we cherish most in this nation is freedom of speech. Those who expect a candidate to agree with everyone who supports him or her need to ask whether or not they would really like to live in a nation of automatons. Race will always be part of the American dialogue. It’s up to the wiser of us to make sure that the discussion is constructive and doesn’t get too unpleasant.
March 19, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Ken, I appreciate your comments even though I disagree with your view on this. This issue about Jeremiah Wright and Barrack Obama is NOT about race, but about an individual who spews anti-American hatred from behind his pulpit, claming AIDS was an effort by the US Government to destroy blacks as well as 9-11 being orchestrated by America herself. In addition, this man is extremely anti-Semitic with views on Israel that do NOT line up with those of God’s Word. I don’t judge Barrack Obama based on Mr. Wright’s WORDS but I DO judge Obama’s judgement for associating himself with such an individual who would say such things. I do not believe Obama’s claim he never heard anything like this in the 20 years he and his wife attended the church but I’ll leave that alone for now. On a more pertinent issue, I think most reasonable thinking Americans feel sorrow for the things the African-American communities have went through over the years and the racisim that has existed even to this day. As you say however, you cannot judge the actions of words of a few extremists and lump all Americans in that group. Mr. Wright’s comments were offensive, arrogant, obnoxious and just plain stupid if you don’t mind me saying so. And furthermore, if his brand of Christianity has produced these sentiments, let me assure you that his brand of Christianity is NOT the Chrsitianity of the Bible, nor is it the Christianity of the TRUE CHRIST, whose motives to come and die on a Cross 2,000 years ago were not political, but SPIRITUAL. Man did not need a politician to save him from his sin - He needed a REDEEMER and that REDEEMER is the Lord Jesus Christ who is not either a Democrat or a Republican. HE IS GOD and as such all mankind will one day bow and declare that HE IS LORD OF ALL. Mr. Wright needs to meet Jesus in a real way. And if the “JESUS” that Mr. Wright introduced Barack Obama to produced this hatred in Mr. Wright’s heart for his own country, then his Jesus is false and not the Jesus of the Bible, nor is this false Jesus able to save either Mr. Wright or Mr. Obama from the eternal destination both men, along with us all, face one day when we stand before the Lord. The way of the CROSS leads home and the way of the true CHRIST is a path of LOVE, not hate; of seeking to deliver men’s souls, not promote political parties; to set at liberty those who are bruised and broken; not rail against the apple of God’s eye - ISRAEL - and liken her to an apartheid state as Wright did. Take these comments as you may but the crisis of Mr. Wright’s comments are more a crisis of faith than they are a crisis of race!
March 19, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Comment on Reform Islam’s Post:
“Muslims Against Sharia call on Senators McCain and Obama to cut all ties with their racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic supporters”
And we call on the Muslim world to denounce ALL VIOLENCE stated in the Koran against Christians and Jews as well as recognize the fact Israel has a Biblical and spiritual right to the land Islam seeks to subvert and conquer in the Middle East. Call those who tell the truth about Islam as “racist,” if you like, but when a religion calls for the exterminiation of all Jews and Christians, as ISLAM DOES through the pages of its so-called “holy book,” then one has more than just a problem or “islamophobia,” as you put it but friend, but one has a legitimate problem with a religion is NOT a peaceful religion, but a bloody one. Islam has lived by the sword since the days of Esau and Jacob and it will continue to live by the sword as we move closer into the last of the last days. Ezekiel, the Jewish prophet, declared in Ezekiel 35:1-5 that because the lineage of Edom (the Arab world) has had an “ancient hatred,” against the children of Israel, that hatred would be the source of God’s chastisement on the Arab world and if they refuse to repent, their destruction. Israel is the apple of God’s Eye - Zech. 2:8 and as such, even though she is not perfect and away from God on a national level at the present time, she WILL one day be restored and placed again as the HEAD of all nations! Whether the Islamic world wants to accept that or not matters little in the scope of things to come. God will be glorified in Israel and Israel will one day return to God!