AmericanPapist Comments
My favorite part of the speech is when he threw his grandma under the bus!
Does anybody remember when Jesse Jackson said he was afraid of young black men when he was walking down the street at night? I think it was in the mid 90's.
You know, I agree with MM on things like terrorism, but after reading the text of this speech, I can't help but think that her and the rest of the "bloviators" simply have it wrong. It saddens me that people could be so myopic and happy to pigeonhole people with out any due consideration at all. Perhaps it comes from injury, I suspect it comes more from entitlement.
Very politically savvy -- he uses a rather bad media story to get an uninterrupted 30 min campaign speech. Quite the politician, this one.
Oh -- and you might be interested in this YouTube clip.
God Bless
What disturbs me is that Obama sat and listened to this anti-American, anti-White vitriol, Sunday after Sunday, year after year. What's worse he exposed his young daugther's to this nut's diatribes. I think a reasonable person could conclude that Obama's continuing return to this ecclesiastical cesspool, constitutes assent. How then, could he be "the Change" or "the Hope?" My dear mother, a Democrat, said after this, Obama's out for her and McCain is her man (she despises the Hillster). I think my Mom may be typical of many older, more moderate Democrats. If that's the case, Obama, no matter how many speeches he gives, is doomed. I know my Mom and she won't be moved to change her mind now.Tom
I'm trying to thin of an occasion in which a Republican candidate was so closely linked to a rascist, anti-semite preacher and got off so easily. So far no one is asking Obama how he sat through twenty years of this nonsense and never once thought of changing churches. No one is asking why Obama never addressed Rev. Wright, or how he explained Rev. Wright's sermons of vitriol to his children.
I hope this forces the media and Obama supporters to take a much more realistic view of the candidate they think can 'save the country'. They can't simply pretend that Obama, for two decades, didn't absorb any of Rev. Wright's nonsense, but I have a feeling they will.
The questions that haven't been asked of him are: "What did you know and when did you know it?"
Ubi caritas est? I can't recall all the offensive comments I've heard from family members and neighbors, I mean white family members and neighbors, in the course of my lifetime. I know it does not make Rev. Wright's comments any less offensive, but let's not pretend that they are that unusual. And is it our practice to "disown" a priest because they have sinned or caused some other offense?
Perhaps it might be of some education for Catholics to read the Prophets of the Old Testament. Jeremiah, Isaiah, et al spoke harsh words to the People and the Kings of Israel. And in our day, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, et. al, spoke equally harsh words to Power. Not to mention Dr. King.
I hear the Pope said on Palm Sunday, "Enough of the killing in Iraq. Enough of the war in Iraq!'
Do they teach Prophecy in our Catholic schools of Theology any more?
And, what exactly was it that Jesus did in the Temple?
I find the hysteria about Rev. Wright to be totally hypocritical.
Read Abraham Heshel, "The Prophets."
Yeah! How anybody dare criticize that America-hating racist?
crazylikeknoxes, the key distinction is that "Reverend" Wright is a public figure, leader, and allegedly a preacher and a man of God. Unless your relatives fit into those categories I see NO moral equivalence whatsoever. But the media will continue to slobber all over Obama and then have a group, collective crying session when this "healer of racial divisions" loses in November. Tom
Tom: To me, the fact that Wright is a "public figure" or "leader" is not that important. When it is my turn to stand before the throne of judgment, I would not expect my actions to be judged according to who I was in life. I, like everyone else, have been called to be holy and expect to judged according to that standard.
What does matter is that Wright professes to be a "Christian." That fact conditions my expectations of a person. And on that score, many of my friends and relatives make the same profession. Since they both claim to bear name/title of Christ, I do see a moral equivalence. William
Not only should folks read the prophets, they should read the long and venerable American tradition of the Jeremiad. What would folks on talk radio make of W. L. Garrison burning a copy of the US Constitution during an anti-slavery rally in 1854? I guess the abolitionists were traitorous American haters. Since when is criticizing the United States--even harshly--considered hating America? When Pro-Life speakers denounce America's complicity in abortion, referring to elected officials as "murderers" and equating our government to Nazi Germany in promoting a holocaust are they anti-American?
That doesn't mean that Jeremiads and the people who issue them shouldn't be criticized. When Revs. Robertson and Falwell saw the 9/11 attack on our country as God's punishment for witches, gays, and abortionists, many rightly criticized them. I don't recall such vitriol towards the many politicians who regularly had an arm around Rev. Falwell (RIP) or Robertson. Why, Pat is still on television!
Jeremiads are a tricky, but established part of American public discourse.
To Bill 912:
Reverend Wright was ordained to preach. Illicit by Catholic canon law, but not by his own tradition.
I understand that this is a post-literate age, but the record is the record.
Geo. Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Charles Carroll of Carrollton were traitors to their lawful liege lord.
Read: In Congress Assembled: A Declaration of Independence.
Those men risked their lives to uphold the Right of Dissent.
Please, anybody, is it a crime in this country for a Doctor of Divinity, an Ordained Minister, a legitimate Pastor of an ecclesiastical community, to Preach?
Pope Benedict XVi has no problem with putting his LIFE ON THE LINE to PROPHSCY.
A challenge: put your life on the line and DO SOMETHING: go to South America, Africa and live the life of the PEOPLE OF GOD.
Then, come back and spout off your nonsense.
Yeah! It's not like the people who are criticizing the America-hating racist have any right to express *their* dissent!
D Fraser,
I hope you are not comparing Wright with Pope Benedict, George Washington, etc.!
I agree with bill912!!
Hmm... links with racist Republicans: Jerry Falwell. Bob Jones University. John Hagee. Hmm.
Fact is, the comments so far have been right. Even a cursory survey of American religious experience will unveil the long tradition of this sort of preaching, especially in established, socially-aware congregations.
People found out they couldn't make the "Muslim" allegations stick, so now they're attacking his Christianity.
Vote for him, or don't vote for him. I care very little. But at least try to make an informed, intelligent decision based on his platform and personhood, not the rhetoric and smear.
So racism+anti-Americanism=socially-aware? (Sigh) I have so much to learn.
Bill, it helps to read what someone actually said.
So, if I misunderstood, enlighten me.
Black churches especially, in the American religious experience, have a history of this sort of "prophetic" preaching.
Try reading this book: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/
528...r=brief_results
...if you're unfamiliar with this particular American religious phenomenon.
Phenomenon Schlemonenon.
Wright basically suggested that HIV/AIDS is a genocidal conspiracy administered by whites targeting non-whites. That kind of evil incendiary nonsense cannot be explained away by references to prophetic preaching and other "speaking truth to power" bromides. Gimme a break.
For the record, I wrote the comment about the need for Catholics to re-familiarize themselves with the Prophetic tradition of the Old Testament.
I DID NOT write the comment beginning with "To Bill 912". I would appreciate people not using my name.
I have attended many African-American church services in which the sermons are long, prophetic, with the use of humor, anger, and the whole range of human emotions.
The out-of-context sound bites of Wright's sermons are disingenuous. Somewhat akin to using someone else's name.
This whole issue is manufactured and politically motivated. It displays an amazing ignorance of homiletics and scripture on the part of some fairly uninformed Catholics and practically all "mainstream" journalists.
Read Jeremiah and Isaiah.
They can be found in the Old Testament.
So what *is* the context for those racist, America-hating comments?
Yea, enlighten us, please:)
AND..thanks for letting this "uninformed Catholic" know that Jeremiah and Isaiah are in the Old Testament. Otherwise I am SURE I would not have known:)
It might be far more enlightening to all to examine "liberation" theology in the light of the current interest in Senator Obama's beliefs. As we Catholics know, liberation theology misses the mark and frequently leads people away from the heart of the Good News....and away from genuine Christian spirituality.
Hasn't this same church also supported abortion? I know Senator Obama supports it and also supports the infanticide of babies who survive abortions. These are NOT Christian positions. They are the positions taken by those who have veered from genuine teaching.
Kathleen,
You are so right about "liberation" theology and about the abortion stand of both Obama and his church.
It is disgraceful. I cannot understand the number of my Catholic family members and friends who support this man.
The Easter Sunday sermon by Obama's NEW pastor compares the criticism of Wright to a modern day lynching. And, even worse, he compares Wright to Jesus!!! Check it out on the Fox News website.
I hope his church keeps it up. Obama has got to be saying to himself: "I wish they would just shut up--atleast until after November 4th."
Usual left-wing claptrap!
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