The Audacity of Hate

[RobinsontoDuncan]

I won't speak for Obama or assume to know his reasons for attending Wright's church, but as a churchgoer, I'd find a new church if my pastor was saying things like this.

I bet many of the politicans on the right attend churches where gay bashing and other abhorrent things are commonplace from the pulpit, yet they get passes?

I've been to several southern churches where quoting rush Limbaugh is seen as perfectly fine, or at the least, acceptable.

[FromWayDowntown]

I agree that there should be no assumption that Obama agrees with Wright's opinions, but since he's been his Pastor for 20 years, and given the vitriolic nature of his comments in condemning the very Country that Obama want's to lead, it is in bent upon those in a position to question Obama about these matters, to do so.


If I apply for a job with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, and it were a known fact that my daddy was a anti-semitic, card carrying member of the KKK, I can't imagine them not questioning me about whether or not I shared his views. That would be unfathomable, and a gross neglect of duty by the OCRC.

Hardly a non-issue.

Perhaps, but there is a definite guilt by association implication to this particular story -- one that the plaigarized blog tries to deflect by categorically exalting the relationship between any person and his priest or pastor -- and I find that to be galling.

[clambake]

Perhaps, but there is a definite guilt by association implication to this particular story -- one that the plaigarized blog tries to deflect by categorically exalting the relationship between any person and his priest or pastor -- and I find that to be galling.

it's not intended for you. yoni's praying on the gullible. trying to swing any leftover hick votes.

[Spurminator]

I bet many of the politicans on the right attend churches where gay bashing and other abhorrent things are commonplace from the pulpit, yet they get passes?

I've been to several southern churches where quoting rush Limbaugh is seen as perfectly fine, or at the least, acceptable.

I didn't say anything about giving anyone passes, I'd leave any church where the minister uses the pulpit to preach political ideology instead of Scripture. If I had a pastor who used his pulpit to campaign against the civil rights of gays, I'd leave that church too. Especially if they're quoting Rush Limbaugh, though I can't say I'd ever expect to come upon that.

But that's me. I go to Church for worship, thanks, Communion and and Bible study. Not for a political rally. I'm not sure what Obama goes to church for, and I don't really care. If he doesn't agree with his minister that's fine. That just means, to me, we don't go to church for the same reasons. And I wouldn't hold that against him in the voting booth unless I felt he was being dishonest about his faith in order to court votes.

But as a Christian, I do have a problem with a Minister basically calling on God to curse this country. If you believe Scripture, you know what happens when God turns his back on a nation, and that's not something I'd particularly like to see. I'd prefer he ask God to forgive America and help us to be a better nation. But that's not as provocative.

The ministers at the churches I have gone to have always been very good at separating topics of Scripture from state affairs. Occasionally someone will lead a prayer and slip in a little mini-sermon about patriotism (or something to that effect), and that makes me very angry.

[Yonivore]

I bet many of the politicans on the right attend churches where gay bashing and other abhorrent things are commonplace from the pulpit, yet they get passes?

I guess you'd have to give a specific example...like was done with Obama. Just saying you bet something happens doesn't mean you're right.

I've never heard gay-bashing or any other abhorrent thing said from any of the pulpits of the churches I've attended and, if I did, I'd quit the church.

I've been to several southern churches where quoting rush Limbaugh is seen as perfectly fine, or at the least, acceptable.

For that matter, I've never heard Rush gay-bash or say abhorrent things. Care to give an example of a gay-bashing or other abhorrent Rush quote you heard from the pulpit?

[smeagol]

What that minister said is pretty disturbing. The fact Obama keeps going to that Church is not particularly comforting either.

[jcrod]

Here's another of his speaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPjVp3PLnVs

Now way either Clinton or Obama wins the Presidency against McCain they way this is going.

[smeagol]

Now way either Clinton or Obama wins the Presidency against McCain they way this is going.

That would be pathetic in so many levels . . .

[Wild Cobra]

That would be pathetic in so many levels . . .

Agreed since McCain is just a better speaking version of president Bush. He's too damn liberal for me. Like I said before, no matter which one we get, they will screw America. Therefore, I prefer America be screwed under a democrat, to insure a future conservative win.

[Jelly]

I've been an active supporter of Obama for a while now, but I find this very disturbing. It appears that Obama's pastor and spiritual advisor is an anti-American, racist, hate monger. Those of you pretending this is a non-issue are fooling yourselves. This isn't good.

[Wild Cobra]

I've been an active supporter of Obama for a while now, but I find this very disturbing. It appears that Obama's pastor and spiritual advisor is an anti-American, racist, hate monger. Those of you pretending this is a non-issue are fooling yourselves. This isn't good.

You're right. It isn't good at all.

Like I say, none of them are presidential material.

[Nbadan]

Smearing Obama

He's a Muslim. He was sworn into office on the Koran. He doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance. His pastor is an anti-Semite. He's a tool of Louis Farrakhan. He's anti-Israel. His advisers are anti-Israel. He's friends with terrorists. The terrorists want him to win. He's the Antichrist.

By now you've probably seen at least some of these e-mails and articles about Barack Obama bouncing around the Internet. They distort Obama's religious faith, question his support for Israel, warp the iden y and positions of his campaign advisers and defame his friends and allies from Chicago. The purpose of the smear is to paint him as an Arab-loving, Israel-hating, terrorist-coddling, radical black nationalist. That picture couldn't be further from the truth, but you'd be surprised how many people have fallen for it. The American Jewish community, one of the most important pillars of the Democratic Party and US politics, has been specifically targeted . What started as a largely overlooked fringe attack has been thrust into the mainstream--used as GOP talking points, pushed by the Clinton campaign, echoed by the likes of Meet the Press host Tim Russert. Falsehoods are repeated as fact, and bits of evidence become "elaborate constructions of malicious fantasy," as the Jewish Week, America's largest Jewish newspaper, editorialized.
--
Even if the false claims about Obama originally emanated from the neoconservative right, the Clinton campaign has eagerly pushed them. Clinton operative Sidney Blumenthal has e-mailed damaging stories about Obama to reporters, including a recent article by Batchelor. Clinton fundraiser Annie Totah circulated a column by Ed Lasky before Super Tuesday, with the inscription "Please vote wisely in the Primaries." Clinton adviser Ann Lewis falsely referred to Zbigniew Brzezinski, a critic of AIPAC, as a chief adviser to Obama on a conference call with Jewish reporters. "I can tell you for a fact people from the Clinton campaign are calling reporters and asking them to pay attention to things involving Obama and Israel," says Shmuel Rosner, Washington correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz. The volume of e-mails about Obama in a given state tends to track the election calendar--hardly a coincidence.

Large American Jewish organizations, like AIPAC and the Orthodox Union, have repeatedly defended Obama. Yet they've had little sway over reactionary elements in both the United States and Israel--including Jewish hate groups--who are eager to keep the smear campaign alive. The website Jews Against Obama, for instance, is run by the Jewish Task Force, which funnels money to the radical settler movement in Israel. (Curiously, John McCain's alliance with Pastor John Hagee of Christians United for Israel, a leading proponent of "end times" theology, and his recent endorsement by former Secretary of State James Baker have received far less scrutiny from pro-Israel pundits. It was Baker, after all, who reportedly told George H.W. Bush, " the Jews. They didn't vote for us anyway.")

The Nation

[Nbadan]

Don't let the wing-nut hypocrisy slap you in the face...

Are we going to attack them as well for being members of the same church Barack is associated with?

This section lists notable people known to have been raised in or current members of the United Church of Christ or its predecessor denominations.

* Daniel Akaka — U.S. Senator from Hawaii (Democrat)
* Max Baucus — U.S. Senator from Montana (Democrat)
* Julian Bond — Chair NAACP (2004–present)
* Walter Brueggemann — contemporary theologian, poet, and UCC minister, retired professor at Columbia Theological Seminary
* William Sloane Coffin — Late Presbyterian/UCC minister and activist; 'pastor, prophet, poet'; former Chaplain at Yale University and Senior Pastor of Riverside Church, New York City
* Common — Rapper, recording artist, member of Trinity UCC in Chicago
* Jon Corzine — Governor of New Jersey (Democrat)
* Howard Dean — Former Governor of Vermont (Democrat)
* Mark Fernald — Former New Hampshire State senator pg 10
* Donald Hall — United States US Poet Laureate <42>
* Mills Godwin — Former Governor of Virginia
* Bob Graham — Former U.S. Senator from Florida (Democrat)
* Judd Gregg — U.S. Senator from New Hampshire (Republican)
* Jim Jeffords — Former U.S. Senator from Vermont (Independent)
* Dean Koontz — American writer and author. Raised UCC, now is Catholic. <43>
* John Williamson Nevin — notable 19th-century theologian <44>
* Barack Obama — U.S. Senator, 2008 presidential candidate
* Robert Orr — Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations <45>
* H. Richard Niebuhr — notable 20th-century theologian
* Reinhold Niebuhr — notable 20th-century theologian
* Sally Pederson — former Lieutenant Governor of Iowa (Democrat)
* Leonard Pitts — Nationally syndicated Pulitzer prize–winning (2004) columnist
* Marilynne Robinson — Pulitzer prize-winning (2005) author of the novel Gilead
* Philip Schaff — notable 19th-century theologian <46>
* George Smathers — Democratic Senator from Florida <47>
* Max L. Stackhouse — public theologian and professor at Princeton Theological Seminary
* William "Bill" McKinney — President of Pacific School of Religion, since 1996
* Paul Tillich — notable 20th-century theologian
* Andrew Young — Civil rights leader, ordained UCC pastor, and former member of Congress, UN ambassador, and mayor of Atlanta, Georgia

<48>

* Jeri Kehn Thompson - wife of Law & Order star and former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson

UCC people notable within the denomination

This section lists theologians and other UCC clergy and laypeople that are notable within the denomination but that may have little name recognition outside the denomination.<54>

Presidents (year order)

* James E. Wagner & Fred Hoskins — UCC co-presidents (1957–1961)<55>
* Ben M. Herbster — UCC president (1961–1969)
* Robert Moss, Jr. — UCC president (1969–1976) and author of the Moss Adaptation of the UCC statement of Faith.<56>
* Joseph H. Evans — UCC president (1976–1977)
* Avery Post — UCC President (1977–1989)
* Paul Sherry — UCC President (1989–1999)
* John H. Thomas — UCC president (1999–present)

Others (alphabetical order)

* Ron Buford — coordinator of The Stillspeaking Initiative and former advertising manager for United Church News.<57>
* Gabriel Fackre — Theologian; president, Confessing Christ; Abbot Professor of Christian Theology Emeritus, Andover Newton Theological School
* J. Bennett Guess — Editor of United Church News, the denominational newspaper
* Edith Guffey — Associate General Minister
* Louis Gunnemann — UCC polity theologian and former dean of United Theological Seminary (Twin Cities)
* Douglas Horton — E enist, Minister and General Secretary of the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches, translator of Karl Barth into English, and early force in the formation of the UCC.<58>
* Rev. William Hulteen — 25-year veteran of the former national "Office for Church Life and Leadership" (OCLL) and spokesman for issues of "ordained and lay leadership, theological reflection and education, clergy placement, worship and spirituality, and congregational life".<59>
* M. Linda Jaramillo — Executive Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM)
* José Malayang — Executive Minister for Local Church Ministries (LCM)
* Rev. Otis Moss III — Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago
* Elizabeth Nordbeck — Professor of Ecclesiastical History and 11-year dean at Andover Newton Theological School. co-editor of Prism, a UCC denominational journal.<60><61>
* Charles Shelby Rooks — influential UCC pastor and scholar who, as president of Chicago Theological Seminary from 1974 to 1984, was the first African American to lead a predominantly Euro-American theological school.<62>
* David Runnion-Bareford — Executive Director of Biblical Witness Fellowship since 1994; pastor, Congregational Church, Candia, New Hampshire
* Reuben Sheares, pastor and former executive director of the national Office for Church Life and Leadership for the UCC.<63>
* Nancy S. Taylor — frequent denominational commentator, former Massachusetts Conference minister, and presently pastor of the historic Old South Church in Boston<64><65>
* Susan Thistlethwaite — President and Professor of Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary<66>
* Rev. Bob Thompson, president of Faithful and Welcoming Churches;<67> pastor, Corinth Reformed Church, Hickory, North Carolina
* Frederick R. Trost — founding convenor of Confessing Christ; former Conference Minister, Wisconsin Conference<68>
* Cally Rogers-Witte — Executive Minister for Wider Church Ministries (WCM)
* Rev. Jeremiah Wright — Senior Pastor of the 10000-plus-member Trinity United Church of Christ, a predominantly African American Chicago congregation.
* Barbara Brown Zikmund — church historian (Hidden Histories) and President of Hartford Seminary; unsuccessful candidate for General Minister position in 1999.

Wikipedia

[Spurminator]

Are we going to attack them as well for being members of the same church Barack is associated with?

I believe this topic is about this specific reverend. Not the denomination.

I don't care where Common goes to church.

[Spawn]

That's nothing!!! You should hear me go off.

Nothing like an Angry Black Man speaking the truth that makes people tremble in their shoes. I love it!!!

[possessed]

That's nothing!!! You should hear me go off.

Nothing like an Angry Black Man speaking the truth that makes people tremble in their shoes. I love it!!!

*trembles*

[Nbadan]

Scary...

[Viva Las Espuelas]

Here's another of his speaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPjVp3PLnVs

Now way either Clinton or Obama wins the Presidency against McCain they way this is going.

the chicken or the egg concept can kinda be applied here. the 60's are going to happen alllllllllllllllllll over again. i just feel it. changes are a comin'

[Insomniac]

Racism never sleeps.

[Yonivore]

That's nothing!!! You should hear me go off.

Nothing like an Angry Black Man speaking the truth that makes people tremble in their shoes. I love it!!!

I think you're mistaking incredulity for fear.

[Yonivore]

Don't let the wing-nut hypocrisy slap you in the face...

Are we going to attack them as well for being members of the same church Barack is associated with?

This section lists notable people known to have been raised in or current members of the United Church of Christ or its predecessor denominations.



Wikipedia

This guy isn't your average Church of Christ preacher. Admittedly, the Church of Christ has some whacked out views, as a denomination, but I don't think they -- on the whole -- can hold a candle to this guy's position.

[Spurminator]

United Church of Christ <> Church of Christ

[Yonivore]

United Church of Christ <> Church of Christ

Are you implying all UCC pastors hold this guy's views?

[JoeChalupa]

I think this is going to hurt Obama and just may turn enough voters off and Hillary will get the nomination.
I admire Senator John McCain for not wanting to go down this road though. He himself said that Barack cannot be held responsible for his Pastor's words and that Barack has renounced the hatred statements.
Both Obama and McCain are above these kinds of attacks and I commend them both.

[Yonivore]

I think this is going to hurt Obama and just may turn enough voters off and Hillary will get the nomination.
I admire Senator John McCain for not wanting to go down this road though. He himself said that Barack cannot be held responsible for his Pastor's words and that Barack has renounced the hatred statements.
Both Obama and McCain are above these kinds of attacks and I commend them both.

That all adds up to McCain in '08.