Barack Obama’s bus would have to be quite large to absorb all of the people Barack has thrown under it. The current endangered organism is his former church, Trinity United Church of Christ. It would almost be amusing to watch Barack Obama disown people who he intimately or barely knows, except that we do expect better judgment or discernment from a guy who wants to be our next president. This stuff is no-win for Senator Obama. If he says that he attended Trinity for 20 years, and had no clue that Jeremiah Wright was someone who would be damaging to his political career in the long run, then I’m not sure he’s got the great judgment that he is alleged to have. If he is acquainted with other Trinity pastors/ministers like Father Pfleger and yet he still lacks the ability to take their true measure, this is very troubling to me. Either Barack used these Chicago-area ministers to build his street cred and didn’t really care much about (or intentionally ignored) their political views, or he completely bought what they were selling in addition to using them to further his local political career. Either way, it doesn’t reflect favorably on the man.
I was ready to believe that this Jeremiah Wright stuff would be old news by November. After all, he’s gotten this far with a very compliant and willing press supporting him no matter what he does. If these quotes from Father Pfleger hadn’t come out, Trinity and Jeremiah Wright would have become less of a compelling story than they were when this controversy first started. In addition to that, Obama is not even making a clean break from Trinity. Here’s part of what he said:
I am not denouncing the church. I am not interested in people who want me to denounce the church because it’s not a church worthy of denouncing. And so if they’ve seen caricatures of the church and accept those caricatures despite my insistence that’s not what the church is about, then there’s not much I can do about it.
This is absolute nonsense. What we are seeing with Trinity United Church of Christ is not a caricature. It’s a troubling pattern of behavior and attitudes, starting first with Jeremiah Wright and continuing with the new pastor as well as Father Pfleger. But of course none of the people I’ve mentioned represent what the church believes or what its parishioners believe. It’s only our misconceptions of what the church is based on the views of a few of their pastors. How stupid does Barack Obama think we are? Even when he makes the right decision, there is still this level of “pass the buck” in it. Like we aren’t sophisticated enough to understand the true nature of people like Jeremiah Wright or his fellow travelers at Trinity. We get it. He doesn’t seem to get it. Even now.
Very true. There really is no defending this. The only thing I’ll add is that I don’t think being a member of Trinity automatically absolves someone from being president.
At one point in time being Catholic was enough to tarnish ones chance at being president. Hopefully we’re past that point now in America.
“At one point in time being Catholic was enough to tarnish ones chance at being president. Hopefully were past that point now in America.”
As has been discussed multiple times, it is not Obama’s faith that people have a problem with. It’s what is said and what goes on at this particular Christian church that he used to be a member of that people find so disturbing.
The fact that he is a Christian or that he is religious is not the problem.
So please stop conflating general religious intolerance with people’s objections to the anti-American and racist rhetoric that is preached at this particular church.
It’s just a cheesy defense to imply that Obama had to leave his church due to everyone else’s religious intolerance rather than conceding that it was probably a mistake for Obama to have ever associated with Trinity United Church and then go on to seek national office.
Jaz, what is being conflated are words Obama never said. Obama is being held to someone elses words. Words that he has rejected, denounced, spoke out against, thrown under the bus, and whatever else to demonstrate that he disagrees with such rhetoric. To conflate that Obama is held by words he never said, words he has rejected numerous times, because he is/was a member of a certain church is a little cheesy to me.
People should object to what was has been said at Trinity. Read my blog to see my reaction to the latest round. Trying to tie Obama down to those sermons, especially since hes rejected them is, to me, not fair. I would hate to see what Romney supporters would say if people used Mormon sermons against him. Talk about racist anti-Americanism.
Im just glad that you now agree that something as transcendent as spiritual guidance can be separated. To me that also includes words and sermons that have been rejected numerous times by Obama.