Obama Tries To Distance Yet Stay Close

Hey folks,

The big news for the last two days is the fact that the Obamas, Mr., Mrs., and the kids, have attended this particular church for the Past 20 years. Problem is, the Pastor of that church preaches hate. Hate for White people. Hate for America. Hate for Jews. He promotes and awards the Hate Monger Louis Farrakhan.

People have been calling for Obama to denounce this Pastor and move on. Well, he did. Kind of. But he STILL has a major problem. According to the AP- Obama denounces pastor's 9/11 comments By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press WriterSat Mar 15, 8:53 AM ET

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.

Wait a sec. Seriously? You really want us to buy that? You, Senator Obama, YOU went to this church for 20 years? Your Wife says things that are VERY SIMILAR to what your Pastor preaches. He is YOUR Spiritual Adviser? You never heard him talk like this?

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.”

{Sigh}

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.”

The Huffy Post. Go figure. {Laughing} The same that have removed posts that declared that Gov Spitzer was not involved in Prostitution Rings.

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. Obama told MSNBC that Wright had stepped down from his campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee.

Was he there for the Christmas Sermon? Was he there after 911? It would be interesting to find out. I guess the Pastor only preached hate during the Sundays Obama wasn’t there.

“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.”

Then fire him from your campaign and find a new Spiritual Adviser.

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.”

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.

{Sigh} You just said if you knew that this was being taught you would quit. Now you are staying? Man of your word? OK. Maybe this new Pastor is not racist. I bet people will be watching him.

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.

“It's time for all of us to say no to these attacks and to declare that we will not allow anyone to undermine or destroy the ministries of any of our congregations in order to serve their own narrow political or ideological ends,” John H. Thomas, United Church of Christ's president, said in the statement.

Idiot. So the Church will not condemn him for his racist statements. Obama SAYS he condemns his statements, yet keeps him on board his campaign and as his Spiritual Adviser. How much Spiritual advice can a racist give you? Sorry, you did NOT do enough Senator. Not NEARLY enough.
Peter

Sources:
AP- Obama denounces pastor's 9/11 comments