Friday, March 14, 2008

WILL THE RIGHT-WING ATTACK MACHINE WAKE THE BLACK CHURCH?

By
RANDALL TAYLOR

The Right-Wing attack squad, is desperately searching for a stick to beat Sen. Barack Obama with. They believe
they have found one in the Pastor of the church in which Obama is a member, Rev.Jeremiah Wright. The facts are that Rev. Wright has made strong, and controversial, political statements The Right-Wing strategy is:Does Obama believe those statements? Why does he belong to a church where the leader has made anti-White and Anti-American statements? Why did Obama give 22,000 in donations to the church over the years? Why does he not quit his church? Many prominent Republicans have called their own party the” Stupid Party”, now we know why? These ridiculous attacks should not only enrage the Black Christians of America, you might even see a reaction from White Christians.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is said, by some, to be one of the ten most influential Black pastors in America. He has spoken in countless churches across America. The Trinity United Church Christ started at 87 members when he assumed its leadership, now it boasts a membership of over 8,500 including Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and the visionary Rapper Common. Its motto is“Unashamedly Black, Unapologetically Christian”. Rev. Wright has indeed been unashamedly, and unapologetically, Black. He has espoused Black pride, nationalism, and re-connection to Africa. He also not has spared America for its treatment, past and present, of its Black citizens. Rev, Wright is quoted as saying ”The Government gives them drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strikes than asks us to sing ‘God Bless America’ No, No, No, That’s in the Bible for killing innocent people” he said in a 2003 sermon. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme. He is also quoted on the weekend after 9/11 as saying “We bombed Hiroshima, We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.”Also ”We have supported state sponsored terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost”. These statements, and others, are being used by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other apparatchiks of the right-wing attack machine to attack Barack Obama.

It is grotesquely hypocritical for right-wingers to attempt to hold Obama responsible, or force him to take a position on each and every opinion, action or tenet of his church’s beliefs or leadership. If every Church goer must agree with everything their pastor and/or church believes, our churches would be empty.
The hypocrisy is: What about Mitt Romney and the Mormon Church, with its racist past, no one called him to explain or choose. What about the followers of Jerry Falwell when he said 9/11 was a judgment on America for homosexuality. Pat Robertson said recently Hugo Chavez should be assassinated. Bob Jones, and Bob Jones University, mandated no inter-racial dating. Oral Roberts said give me money or I’ll die. John Hagee and anti-Catholic and Jewish statements. Finally, what about the Holy Roman Church’s views on no female priests, contraception, and its cover-up of child abuse.

We do not hold individual members responsible for the positions of their church. We do not, and should, expect people to leave their church. Most people know that the Pastor, Priest, or Imam is there to lead people on their spiritual, not political, journey.

The vast right-wing conspiracy may be playing with fire by messing with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. They could be running the risk of awaking the sleeping giant in Black Ministers and the Black Church. If these actions by the Right-wing are seen as an attack on the Black Church, Watch Out. Just imagine these churches mobilizing, and raising money, on behalf of Barack Obama, it would be unprecedented. This 2008 Presidential Race continues to amaze.

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