Posts with the tag 'reverend wright'
With more over-the-top preaching coming out of Trinity Church this weekend, some question the relevance of these different preachers’ comments to Senator Obama’s campaign. Understandably, many become frustrated that important issues receive less attention than the politics. However, as someone who would love to see more issues debated and less political pontification, I see Senator Obama’s connection to Trinity Church as both relevant and important. His twenty year connection to Trinity Church and Reverend Wright speaks directly to who Senator Obama is as a person. Senator Obama’s explanation that he just didn’t realize the controversial nature of some of Reverend Wright’s sermons is absurd. Whether it is the church newsletter ‘The Trumpet’ featuring Senator Obama on the same cover with Louis Farrakan, whether it is Reverend Wright stating that he doesn’t appologize for his ‘GD America’ speech, or whether it is Pastor Pfleger mocking Senator Clinton and basically calling her a white supremist (a criticism that I have not heard out of even the most ardent Clinton-haters); there is no way Senator Obama could not have known that the church, at which he is still a member, is radical and at best, dabbles in hate. His membership in this church is a direct contradiction to his campaign message of hope and unity. The two possibilties voters are left with is that he believes the teachings of his church, as church goers often do, or he joined for political reason. He has said nothing to that explains how a man that talks unity can attend a church that regularly preaches division. This matter speaks to Senator Obama’s beliefs and honesty, and if he wants this issue to go away than he needs to answer for these glaring contradictions.
Tags: chicago politics, contradictions, division, fleger, honesty, Obama, pfleger, political contradictions, questions, reverend wright, trinity chuch, unity, wright
May 30th, 2008
Many Dems welcomed the news of Reverend Hagee’s vile remarks and Senator McCain’s rejection of his endorsement as way a to offset the damage done to Senator Obama by Reverend Wright. However, this is a comparison that benefits the McCain campaign. The reason being that there is no tie between Senator McCain’s views and Reverend Hagee’s views. The questions for Senator McCain are about how his campaign seeks endorsements, and if proper vetting occurred. Senator McCain never attended Hagee’s church, and never condoned his remarks, so while the association may be a little unsettling for the campaign it does not speak to who Senator McCain is as a person.
Reverend Wright is a different story. Senator Obama attended his church for 20 years, and after seeing Reverend Wright’s recent press conference it is virtually impossible to believe that Senator Obama did not know the types of sermon’s he was giving. Attending Reverend Wright’s church for such an extended period of time shows a willingness for Senator Obama to either condone or accept the views of Reverend Wright. Senator Obama even graced the cover of the ‘Trumpet’ the church newsletter, the content of which provides more evidence that Reverend Wright’s extremist views were not isolated speeches, but were part of the doctrine of his church. The questions for Senator Obama center around who he is as a person, what he believes, and the manner in which he conducts himself. The primary question being whether he joined the Trinity Church for political gain, or if he actually subscribes to the ‘Black Liberation’ theology that the church openly preaches.
While the two candidates may both now have ties to an embarrassing pastor, the similarities stop there. There is a real reason why Senator Obama has not been able to shake the Reverend Wright issue because it leaves open questions about Senator Obama as a person. The reason Reverend Hagee has caused significantly less trouble for Senator McCain is because the questions aren’t about him as a person, they are about whether his staff did enough research.
Picture from Bizzy Blog
Article First Posted at NH 4 McCain
Tags: controversy, hagee wright, mccain, nh, oabama trumpet picture, Obama, obama picture, obama trumpet, Pastor Wright, reverend hagee, reverend wright, trumpet
May 23rd, 2008
Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet’ by Stanley Kurtz of the Weekly Standard informs readers that Trinity Church’s church newsletter (created by Wright) entitled ‘Trumpet’ shows that Reverend Wright based the church’s doctrine around his extreme leftist and Anti-American beliefs. Thus questioning how it’s possible that Senator Obama or any attendee could claim ignorance of the radical teachings of the church.
To the question of the moment–What did Barack Obama know and when did he know it?–I answer, Obama knew everything, and he’s known it for ages. Far from succumbing to surprise and shock after Jeremiah Wright’s disastrous performance at the National Press Club, Barack Obama must have long been aware of his pastor’s political radicalism. A careful reading of nearly a year’s worth of Trumpet Newsmagazine, Wright’s glossy national “lifestyle magazine for the socially conscious,” makes it next to impossible to conclude otherwise.
Wright founded Trumpet Newsmagazine in 1982 as a “church newspaper”–primarily for his own congregation, one gathers–to “preach a message of social justice to those who might not hear it in worship service.” So Obama’s presence at sermons is not the only measure of his knowledge of Wright’s views. Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright’s radical politics are everywhere–in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations, and above all in the articles themselves. It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet. In fact, Obama himself graced the cover at least once.
Even some of Wright’s famed “good works,” and his moving “Audacity to Hope” sermon, are placed in a disturbing new light by a reading of Trumpet.
Reverend Wright further muddies the water by stating that he sees no line between religion and politics…
[T]here was no separation Biblically and historically and there is no separation contemporaneously between ‘religion and politics.’ . . . The Word of God has everything to do with racism, sexism, militarism, social justice and the world in which we live daily.
Wright views the United States as a criminal nation. Here is a typical passage: “Do you see God as a God who approves of Americans taking other people’s countries? Taking other people’s women? Raping teenage girls and calling it love (as in Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings)?” Anyone who does think this way, Wright suggests, should revise his notion of God. Implicitly drawing on Marxist “dependency theory,” Wright blames Africa’s troubles on capitalist exploitation by the West, and also on inadequate American aid: “Some analysts would go so far as to even call what [the United States, the G-8, and multinational corporations] are doing [in Africa] genocide!”
Full Article Jeremiah Wright’s ‘Trumpet’
Tags: audacity of hope, Barack Obama, black liberation theology, church newspaper, Jeremiah Wright, leftist, marxist, Obama, radical, religion politics, reverend wright, team hope, trumpet, trumpet magazine
May 12th, 2008
