Ironic, isn't it? Some conservatives have been calling for an inquiry into Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim connection--didn't he attend a madrassa in Indonesia?--when the real problem turns out to be Obama's Christian mentor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Wright is a kind of Ward Churchill in vestments. Remember Ward Churchill? He's the leftist white guy who was posing as an American Indian as he gave speeches saying America deserved to be attacked and that 9/11 was a case where the "chickens came home to roost." Eventually the University of Colorado gave Churchill the boot.
Oddly enough Wright used exactly the same language as Churchill in saying that on 9/11 America got its comeuppance. Actually, Wright's statements taken collectively are worse than those of Churchill. Wright also said the U.S. government deliberately introduced AIDS into the black community. And he insisted that instead of saying "God bless America" we would be better to say "God damn America."
This is the man that Obama calls "like family." This is the man that Obama credits with "introducing me to my Christian faith." This is the mean that Obama choose to marry him and his wife, and to baptize his children. This is the man who inspired the title of Obama's book. This is the man whom Obama credits with being a mentor over more than two decades.
I found it very interesting to hear Wright explicitly endorse Obama over Hillary in church. Normally when evangelical preachers cross the political line they get hammered for violating the separation of church and state. One pastor I know invited a local Republican official to give his personal testimony in church and had to answer to the IRS for it. How come black churches engage in blatant electioneering, even to the point of busing members to the voting booth, and nobody from the ACLU or the media raises an eyebrow?
Equally fascinating is Wright's comment in church that unlike Hillary, Obama will be a race man. Wright's argument is that Obama will stand up for poor blacks against the rich whites who control the country. In the past Obama has been accused by some of being insufficiently attentive to black concerns. The term sometimes used for this is Oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside. Wright by contrast seems to be claiming that Obama is white--or at least tan--on the outside but black on the inside.
Wright poses a possibly lethal threat to Obama's chance to be president. Obama's great appeal is that he's the political equivalent of Tiger Woods. He's not an America hater or a race man like Charlie Rangel or Jesse Jackson. Wright makes Americans wonder: why is Obama so close to a man whose incendiary views are far worse than that of just about any black radical figure with the possible exception of Louis Farrakhan? Isn't professed ignorance of Wright's political views, combined with a refusal to cut ties with him, proof of Obama's bad judgent?
Pretty soon people are going to ask: Is Wright's influence the reason why Obama doesn't want to wear an American flag pin? Or raise his hand to his chest when the national anthem is played? Is Wright's ideology part of the reason why Obama's wife says she has not been proud of America for her whole adult life? And behind all this, the big question: at a time of war, can America is entrusted to a man who seems tolerant of the kind of vicious anti-Americanism that we are used to hearing from our worst enemies?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 44)
1. As usual Dinesh D'Souza has no idea what he is talking about and is all wrong. Barack Obama is not a racist. No one ever agrees completely with the next person. D'Souza can't criticize Barack Obama directly on what he has said or done so instead he tries to discredit him becuase he attends Jeremiah Wright's church. I go to an African-American church. There are a lot of things my pastor says that I don't agree with. Big deal! African-Americans are not some monolithic group. That notion is racist! Dinesh DiSouza as always is ultra conservative. I'm not surprised he took this ooportunity to take a stab at Barack Obama.
Pamela Calloway at 12:34AM on Mar 19th 2008
2. If Senator Obama gets the nomination, he may or may not defeat Senator McCain.If he defeats Senator McCain,GRIDLOCK will occur.What a choice?'Good-Show' for the Democrats again!
Stephen Chizmar at 12:45AM on Mar 19th 2008
3. I think this revelation may hurt Obama greatly. I, for one, had my
mind made up to vote for Obama. Now I question his very fabric.
When my husband and I were a young couple, and the kids were very
small, we were visiting a church after just moving to a small town.
My husband felt that we should find a church that we could frequent.
After three Sundays of listening to the pastor of this church,
somewhere in his sermon he made derogatory comments about an
underprivileged family that always showed up around Christmas time,
because the church would give out food and gifts to the less
fortunate families in the congregation. He went on to comment that
after the holidays, the family would stop attending church, but would
be back the following Christmas. I was appalled. How could he cast
judgement on this family? Wasn't that what the church was there for,
to help the less fortunate? Wasn't it his job to make sure they felt
welcomed when they were there? Instead, he looked down his nose at
them. During that sermon, I grabbed my children, and to my husbands
dismay, I walked out of that church and we never went back.
I didn't agree with what that man had to say, so what was the point
in listening to him week after week? Why would I want him to
influence my children in any way? That is the part I am having
trouble with,
the fact that Obama has listened to Rev. Wright all these years, but
he doesn't agree with him??? He raised his girls listening to these
racist rants? He must agree, or he wouldn't be there week after week
and
letting this man shape his young daughters ideas of the world.
dani at 12:56AM on Mar 19th 2008
4. I agree with DD on this one.
To be at this mans church for years and not agree with what he says?
But what do you expect? He is just another politician out to get the most powerful job on the market and lying to get there is not uncommon.
It sucks that there is no one truly qualified for the presidency.
Still, voting for Obama is voting for the lesser evil.
goddess1prevail at 1:23AM on Mar 19th 2008
5. It's not "vicious anti-americanism". You right wingers always attack anyone who objects to america's past mistakes as anti-american. I have disagreed with some priests on some issues but still respected them and heard their sermons.
This minister, though extreme at times spoke of america's wrongs openly. People need to realize that america has wronged all kinds of people and that is why there is so much resentment around the world. America is seen by many as an empire that tramples the poor and serves the very richest.
There is plenty of good America has done to offset this, but there are still far too many that are left behind or even hurt by american actions overseas. People need to realize that this MUST be addressed to make any progress defeating terrorism and restoring the shrinking middle class.
patata123 at 1:58AM on Mar 19th 2008
6. ATHEIST
In case you missed it, Dinesh, yesterday you posted a blog that insulted atheists.
I spent a few hours insulting the Christians who posted on your blog. Tore their beliefs apart.
Let me explain why I think Christianity is a Con Game. Open the bible and read it.
The New Testament is a Sales Pitch for a silly cult that believed in
(a) demonic spirits
(b) angels, and
(c) the world ending with a general resurrection of all the dead.
Don't you understand what "resurrection" means?
After a person has been dead for CENTURIES, they'll magically come back to life. In one version, the bones must have been preserved in a box. Or, it just happens magically.
A Christian is someone who is too pathetically stupid and or gullible to understand a very simple thing.
Dishonest, horrible people were trying to sell a belief in a Resurrection at the end of the world.... because their victims had to sell their property and give the proceeds to Peter and the other disciples. If the world was about to end, who cared? But the world didn't end.
If you insult an atheist... for being smart enough to know what a Con Game is... you're a pathetic loser. That means you, Dinesh.
Bad Catholic. Bad, bad Catholic. You HURT children with your Christian nonsense.
William Hays at 2:03AM on Mar 19th 2008
7. ATHEIST
Oh, yeah. Forgot what I was trying to say.
Christian ministers are losers. Is anybody surprised that the most embarrassment to Obama in the entire campaign came from a Christian minister? I'm not.
You have to be pathetically gullible and dim to become a minister. That's the answer.
William Hays at 2:05AM on Mar 19th 2008
8. The time that I walked out of the church in my first post, is the last time I attended church. I only went to appease my husband, because he had been taught that going to church was the right thing to do. That experience only confirmed to me that I did not belong there.
dani at 2:11AM on Mar 19th 2008
9. Obama stands at the moment of truth. He can give credit where credit is due or suffer the same fate that John Edwards suffered by allowing his message to ring hollow. Obama has been given every advantage in life and the message of racism is one of anger. He has no reason to be angry and therefore he has no motivation to take America to a brighter place when it comes to race. In the blunt words of Muhammad Ali, "Nobody called him the N-word." He has borrowed the anger and therefore he cannot share the outrage from his life to be credible. This is a guy that became credible being "Cosby Critical." We asked "Was he Black enough" and now Whites are asking, "Is he White enough?" His words sound phony. It's "Two Americas from a Black perspective." These are not Obama's words or thoughts.
Cecil Jones at 3:07AM on Mar 19th 2008
10. http://evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
FORMER ATHEIST at 6:34AM on Mar 19th 2008
11. Those who claimed see the risen Christ and His ascension would not put their lives on the line if they actually knew it was not true. Those who analyze the vast amount of prophetical fulfillment wrought by Christ, and acknowledge the fact that He violated Hebrew culture and expectations of what their messiah should do by conquering the Roman Empire, will find it difficult to convince even themselves that these JEWISH converts would have just "made up" the story about Jesus when even those who persecuted Christians not only verified Jesus' existence but even confirmed what those early Christians believed about Him and the sufferings they faced for those beliefs.
http://atheistsareimaginary.blogspot.com
FORMER ATHEIST at 6:41AM on Mar 19th 2008
12. "How come black churches engage in blatant electioneering, even to the point of busing members to the voting booth, and nobody from the ACLU or the media raises an eyebrow?" --Dinesh D'Souza
________________
Dinesh...you have the First Amendment backwards. Churches aren't prohibited from endorsing the US government or a specific candidate. Rather, the US government cannot endorse any faith as the "official" faith of the American people. So--with that in mind, and much to the chagrin of Christians all across the land--the United States of America is NOT a Christian nation...and never has been a Christian nation.
In speaking of Wright's tirades, I've been saying this for months...since the first time I read polls that had 60% of the blacks in America voting for Obama: A vote for Obama is a vote for black racism in America.
Obama's current poll numbers show something like 90% of African-Americans voting for him. And that's also something I had predicted quite some time back. (Read my comments on the other AOL blogs to find out exactly how far back I predicted this.)
Undeniably, African-Americans are among the most racist people on the planet. Nearly every public issue for the black community in America boils down to its race and its continued insistence that its getting a raw deal simply because of its ethnic background.
The only time we hear from shills like Al Sharpton is when there is some perceived infraction against the black community in America. My question is this, why isn't Al Sharpton railing as loud as he possibly can against Wright's BLATANT racism? (Y'know, the way Sharpton railed against Don Imus's innocuous use of the phrase "nappy-headed hos" to describe the Rutgers women's basketball team?)
I'll tell you why Sharpton isn't outraged by Wright's very real hate speech. It's because this is just the tip of African-America's hidden iceberg of racism--racism that both Sharpton and Wright share. Meanwhile, Obama just floats along...sitting on top of that iceberg, spinning it with the tide of anti-Bush fervor in America.
Here's how twisted things have become from that spinning. On one hand, we have a white person like Geraldine Ferraro accurately describing how Obama has benefited from being black, and what happens to her? She's forced from the national discussion because of her "racist" point of view.
On the other hand, we have a presidential candidate's personal pastor spewing hate speech about the country we all share, and somehow the candidate simply spins this blatant anti-American hate speech into a chance for white America to confront its racism.
The question is this then, why was it not a chance for America to engage in constructive dialog about race relations whenever Geraldine Ferraro declared her observations about Obama's candidacy?
The answer? Oh, that's easy! A vote for Obama is a vote for black racism in America. Plain and simple.
Paul at 7:44AM on Mar 19th 2008
13. Dinesh, would you like to know what I REALLY fear?
I fear that America will elect Obama as the president of the United States, and some nut-job will emerge from the hills of Backwater, America to shoot Obama dead.
I really fear that happening. Just imagine what the assassination of President Barack Obama will mean for our country.
And sadly, there are way too many nut-jobs out there who are more than capable, willing and motivated enough to carry out such an incredibly damaging murder.
Paul at 7:59AM on Mar 19th 2008
14. ATHEIST
Reply to: 15. Those who claimed see the risen Christ and His ascension would not put their lives on the line if they actually knew it was not true.
________
Nonsense.
Peter ran an End of the World cult. It was a scam. He told people that the End Times had arrived, and gloriously, the world was going to end with the dead coming back to life.
He told his followers they could share in eternal life... but ONLY if they sold their possessions and gave him the money. (Acts 4, 5)
There are crooks like this today. It doesn't cost them anything until they get caught.
_____________
Reply to: Those who analyze the vast amount of prophetical fulfillment wrought by Christ, and acknowledge the fact that He violated Hebrew culture and expectations of what their messiah should do by conquering the Roman Empire, will find it difficult to convince even themselves that these JEWISH converts would have just "made up" the story about Jesus
________________
they didn't make up a story about jesus.
Paul made up a story about RESURRECTION. Jesus was one man who had been resurrection, but his sermon was about the approaching End of the World, not Jesus.
____________________
Jesus was from Galilee. He walked down to Jerusalem for a Passover Festival. Nobody knew who he was, or cared. They arrested him for attacking the Moneychangers. Jesus was a criminal.
I call Jesus a Rowdy Drunk.
________________
From a site: The fate of the Apostles and close disciples followed in succession.
Philip, who served in Upper Asia was scourged in Phrygia, thrown into prison and later crucified (A.D. 54).
James the Less, the brother of the Lord, served the church in Jerusalem and wrote the book of James. He suffered martyrdom at the age of ninety-four by being beaten and stoned by the Jews.
____________
WHY was he beaten and stoned by the Jews?
Because he was a Con Man, and his scam violated the beliefs of other Jews.
___________________
Mark was converted to Christianity by Peter and served as amanuensis (he wrote for Peter). He was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria.
There are ten primitive persecutions mentioned in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. The first mass persecution occurred under Nero in A.D. 67. He was the sixth emperor of Rome and is remembered as the one who set Rome aflame and then blamed the Christians for the deaths and destruction caused by the fire. He had some Christians sewn up in skins of wild beasts and thrown to the dogs. Some Christians were dressed in shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axletrees, and set on fire in his gardens, in order to illuminate them. Rather than diminished the spirit of Christianity, this persecution increased the devotion and commitment of Christianity.
The second persecution happened under Domitian in A.D. 81.
______________
when you have a con man preaching the general resurrection of the dead, what's the proper reply?
You execute him publically, and wait for him to come back to life.
What modern Christians are missing is.... NONE of these apostles were resurrected.
They're still dead. So they were con men, not prophets.
William Hays at 8:00AM on Mar 19th 2008
15. I've been saying all along something's not on the up and up with Obama....that he's an orator.. nothing more...and something is amiss. I see it in him and in his wife... this Obamamania is a twisted scene. We have people voting for him because he sounds good...or looks good...butI compare him with a movie set...great for the moment...only to be vacant when the facade comes down. Others are caught up in thinking how cool and great a country this is...that we have a black man as a possible candidate for the presidency. It makes them proud to be an American...but is he here to protect this America that we love...or desecrate it? Michelle Obama's words weren't misinterpreted...she said what she said....and Barack is way too close with this Wright character who from all appearances is a really bad guy. Then we have almost every black person voting for Obama because he's black.People w Do all of them know the issues...or much else about him? No...he's black and that's all they need to know. If anyone said they were voting for Hillary because she's white...everyone would be up in arms...but anything that has to do with race is glossed over so as not to step on anyone's toes. I believe the point of life here...was to have everyone as treated the same....all about equality. Why then...do we have to be so careful with everyhing that's said? If equality the name of the game...then everyone has to take their share of criticism...and falling out of favor ...no special treatment...no playing any race cards....no walking on eggshells. When this actually happens in this country...then we will have arrived. Take a look around and tell me this whole revelation as to the church Obama calls home...isn't screaming for much more disclosure...we need the facts...not the MLK type speech. In fact...we do not need to accept any comparison of these two men...there's too much of a shady area with Obama....whereas we knew MLK. Start paying attention, America...we deserve a president who would walk out when such words come out of a vile mouth on the pulpit of a church.We deserve a president who would not allow his children to be raised on such words. Twenty years...and no footprints facing outward on the church steps. We need to lead the way to our future...not leave it in the hands of someone who stands by and watches our very soul as a nation being debased...despised and threatened with a hateful message that our children can take as an example. Our future depends on your taking a stand to know the truth...we cannot accept less.
ellie at 8:04AM on Mar 19th 2008