Throughout his campaign Barack Obama has mocked his critics, noting that they just don't get what a novel figure and consistent unifier he has been for his whole life. "They say: We don't know enough about him. His pastor once said something. He's got a funny name, sounds Muslim."
But of late Obama's pastor has been saying a lot, and finally Obama has been forced to denounce him. For the first time Obama has called the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's views "ridiculous" and even accused him of being a purveyor of "hate."
To which one might say: better late than never. Maybe Obama never really knew how radical this guy is. But how likely is this? Let's remember that Reverend Wright is the one who has been consistent over the years. He used to believe that the U.S. government manufactured the AIDS virus and deliberately spread it in the black community, and he still believes it. He thinks America may have conspired to bomb itself on 9/11, and he's never wavered in that conviction. Now, and before, he thinks that "God Bless America" is better expressed as "God Damn America!"
Obama has been hearing such messages for more than two decades, packaged in an incendiary racial ideology which surpasses anything that Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton have ever said. And yet Obama selected this man for his mentor and even called him "family." By contrast with this white grandmother, Obama actually chose to make Wright part of his intimate circle.
Even six weeks ago, having heard all the controversial comments by Wright, Obama was standing by his man. He distanced himself from some of Wright's views while refusing to repudiate Wright. He said he could no more repudiate Wright than he could repudiate his own family. This by the way is the speech that many pundits hailed for its originality and brilliance. I think it will go down as one of the biggest blunders in American political history.
What Obama should have said in that speech: "Once upon a time this man rescued my spiritual life. A long time ago when I was spiritually and emotionally at a low point, he was there for me and he helped me get over the hill. So I owe him big time. I know that he's said some crazy things, but I've overlooked them, because of what he did for me." Instead Obama tried to sound like W.E.B. Du Bois. He impressed the liberal intelligentsia, while shooting himself politically in the foot.
Now Obama would have us believe that, as far as Wright is concerned, he's had just about enough. But why? What has Wright said that has finally caused his disciple to end their relationship? While Wright has been pontificating a lot lately, he has not given us any new bombshells. But he did suggest that, in his beliefs like the one about the U.S. government and AIDS, Obama agrees with him.
Wright noted that of course Obama is now saying something different; that's because Obama is now running for president. So he has to say something different! Translation: what we see with Obama is not what we get. And Wright is in a position to know. He's nursed Obama intellectually and spiritually over the years. It is Obama himself who has given us this man, and assured us of his integrity and reliability.
The more I examine the two, the more I think that it is Wright who is being consistent and calling it the way he sees it, and Obama who is hiding the part of himself that once embraced this man and maybe still agrees with many of his beliefs but now finds him a political liability. While Obama continues to portray himself as Mr. Straight Talk, at this point he is a candidate enveloped in shadows.
Reader Comments ( Page 57 of 58)
841. Let's tally God's limitations and attributes...
Well, he can't do iron. It's apparently too ungodly for him to handle.
He regretted something about destroying the earth in a flood, and you can't regret something that wasn't a mistake, so there's a mistake made by god.
He's lied on purpose.
He got TIRED on the seventh day of creation. Needed to REST. All-powerful means you can't get tired.
He tells us to be moral and to love each other, but he's completely immoral and acts like a jealous and wrathful child.
He's all-powerful and all-knowing, but he never saw the snake in his garden thing coming, he never saw Satan's revolt in heaven coming, he needed to test lot's faith and the faith of others, when he should KNOW their faith due to being all-knowing. He's all-powerful but he needed to send his son to earth and cause him to die, in order to achieve redemption for the sinners. He couldn't do it without his son dying in agony. And that's not all-powerful. All-powerful is just willing it, and it happens, no matter what.
Godless Heathen Brian at 2:25PM on May 2nd 2008
842. so what you are saying then is some people follow God and that their God hate certain types of people....
Which God does he follow?
Ghee Great God.....
Well...I'll be back I'm going out with a leggless guy for lunch and we are going to talk about the research he's been doing on health care.....maybe he'll give me some good advice....
Pati at 2:30PM on May 2nd 2008
843. MIW,
I'm pretty sure the skirt quote was from tay, or me responding to her.
Mokele Mbembe at 2:33PM on May 2nd 2008
844. And christians all say that Jesus wasn't just born on earth, he existed in heaven along with god all the time... and yet, was never mentioned.
The snake in the garden only becomes satan in the new testament. It was just a snake before that, never to be understood as satan. After all, why punish all snakes forever, for the sin of the one, if the one is not really a snake in the first place? But the N.T. lies were so effective that christians will argue till their death that the snake was satan.
Jesus fulfilled the O.T. prophecies, according to christians, so we can now ignore the OT god's laws WHEN THEY ARE TOO HEINOUS TO GET AWAY WITH NOWADAYS. So we don't stone our children to death anymore for being disobedient, but we still believe in the silliness of the genesis and noah stories. The flood thing especially, is so easily proven impossible, even done the way that God supposedly did it, that to still believve in it is as silly as still believing in the tooth fairy. Do you people have ANY IDEA how HUGE a boat would have to be to even just hold the sheer biomass of at least two and sometimes more of EVERY SPECIES ON THE PLANET? The boat would have to be the size of Manhattan, at the very least! NOw add in all the food for them... many of them only will eat other, live animals or their meat... so more animals needed for food... And how did the marsupials in australia all get to the ark, and then after the flood, get back to australia? Did God provide airlifts for the koalas? How did all the native species all over the world, which are supported in their locations by the local fossil record, all send a pair to mesopotamia to hitch a ride on the ark, and then get back to where they all belonged? To where they all are now? I mean, how did the species of arrow-poison frogs all get from the amazon to the ark, and then back to the amazon again? Oh, and what about ALL the world's freshwater fishes? If the seas rose and covered their lakes, they'd ALL DIE since they can't live for even a minute in salt water.
Still believe in the ark? Then, you're not that bright. Sorry.
Godless Heathen Brian at 2:43PM on May 2nd 2008
845. K,
I read brian’s comment and it was in poor taste. I think he clarified it by stating that he was not calling her a name, but basically saying that Botts could marry anyone he wanted even a Gorilla. It was still very un-Christian. I’ll let him and Botts work on forgiveness.
I do read Christian blogs; in addition to doing independent research on literature, theology, history, science, etc. I still read Dinesh. I just stopped posting because it became a waste of energy. I think this discussion is interesting. I don’t hate Obama. I don’t hate anyone. I may hate actions or views, but never the person. Obama has never been a person that I felt was a strong leader. I have always been suspicious of his motivation for the presidency. I feel that he suffers from an identity crisis and is very angry. I learned about Reverend Wright in 2007, after watching him on Hannity and Colmes. I dislike his views and theological perspective. I believe that Obama subscribes to those views and denounced them for political expediency. Obama is not pro-life and that is another stance I find objectionable. He is simply not who want to see as President.
janesophie1 at 2:45PM on May 2nd 2008
846. MIW,
1- Moke is correct. Tay made the comment about changing out of a skirt.
2- I am white. In fact, I am a rather bland, pasty shade of white. Sort of like lead-based paint. You seem to have a problem believing that a white person supports affirmative action. I support it because I have daughters and would like to believe that at SOME POINT in the future, the playing field will be level. Right now, no matter what color or sex you are, you can succeed if you are exceptional. I would like to see a future in which you can succeed even if you are just an average Joe or Josephine.
kodiak at 2:48PM on May 2nd 2008
847. Anyone know about the Ararat anomaly and excavations?
Mokele Mbembe at 2:48PM on May 2nd 2008
848. Hi Mokele... I read about some research and imaging certain group(s?) were doing in that area... what have you heard?
Shannie at 2:50PM on May 2nd 2008
849. Mokele Mbembe
This is for Holocaust Remembrance Day
"Hear, Oh, Israel; the Lord Our God, the Lord is One"!
janesophie1 at 2:54PM on May 2nd 2008
850. Also, being under salt water for 40 days and nights would KILL the plant and insect life all over the planet. It wouldn't have come back in time to provide any food for the released survivors from the ark after the flood, not for many decades. What would the released cows eat? No grass, all saline mud everywhere. Very little will grow in saline mud. What would the released tigets eat? The released cows? Then no more cows. Maybe the released tigers ate the released unicorns? Plus, where is the geologic record of the entire world being at once covered by water for 40 days? We'd find it, if it was there. It isn't. It never happened.
See how SILLY this gets?
Godless Heathen Brian at 2:57PM on May 2nd 2008
851. 841.
"He got TIRED on the seventh day of creation. Needed to REST. All-powerful means you can't get tired."
Sounds suspiciously like an IRON deficiency to me. Geritol might help.
kodiak at 2:59PM on May 2nd 2008
852. janesophie1,
"Shema Yisroel, '' elohaynu, '' echad. Boruch sheim k'vod malchuso l'aolam vaed. V'ahavta es '' b'chol levavecha, uv'chol nafshecha, uvchol meodecha. V'hayu hadvariyim" - That's all I remember.
Shannie,
The Ararat and Durupinar expeditions are as inconclusive and strange as the Mokele Mbembe expeditions. I don't know what's hanging them up.
Mokele Mbembe at 3:00PM on May 2nd 2008
853. kodiak,
Does being eternal make you geriatric?
Mokele Mbembe at 3:01PM on May 2nd 2008
854. You know, I don't understand why it is so difficult to determine if it is there/exists or not... with the technology, etc... hmmmm... it makes this inquiring mind curious...
Shannie at 3:07PM on May 2nd 2008
855. If there are two tigers released into a sterilized world, and let's say seven cows, and a similar small number of other creatures that the tigers can eat (and other predators around that were released from the ark, like the lions, the leopards, the jaguars, the bears, etc, to compete for the tiger's food) the released predators would, in short order decimate the released herbivores, and have nothing left to eat. In the time it takes for such small populations to replenish themselves through breeding, they'd all get eated by the starving predators. And not to mention that the herbivores have no food at all whatsoever! Because there's no grass or plant life left after 40 days submersion in saline water.
If a released tiger eats just one of the two released herbivores of a given species before they reproduced, and they surely would, that herbivore species would then be extinct, and we wouldn't see any around today.
Really, there's almost an INFINITE number of things that prove the ark story impossible. It's actually very, very silly.
Godless Heathen Brian at 3:09PM on May 2nd 2008